Louis DeJoy continues the grift and State Dept. white nationalist still employed

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DeJoy conflicts continue

USPS Postmaster Louis DeJoy is continuing to engage in questionable deals that enrich himself and his associates, including a deal with his former company.

  • Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that the USPS signed a new $120 million contract with XPO logistics, where DeJoy previously served as supply chain chief executive. The deal “could generate up to $23.7 million in rent payments” for the DeJoys over the next decade.
  • Between October 2020 and April 2021, DeJoy bought up to $305,000 in bonds from Brookfield Asset Management, an investment firm whose managing partner is also on the USPS Board of Governors. As a member – and, now, chair – of the board, Ron Bloom, is responsible for overseeing DeJoy and has the power to potentially remove him from his position.
    • During a recent board meeting, Bloom defended DeJoy’s plan to further slow mail delivery.

A federal judge ruled in favor of a watchdog group and ordered the USPS to release documents related to DeJoy’s financial entanglements.

  • Senior Judge for the District of Columbia John Bates (George W. Bush appointee) found that the USPS incorrectly invoked numerous FOIA exemptions to withhold the documents.”Because of the potential for ‘[u]nscrupulous’ actors to steer government funds in their own personal financial interests, ‘the public has a singularly strong interest in disclosure of’ conflicts of interest,” Bates wrote (PDF).

Rahm Emanuel

President Biden announced his intent on Friday to nominate former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to serve as Ambassador to Japan, spurring criticism from the left.

  • During his tenure as mayor, Emanuel helped cover up the police murder of a black teenager, Laquan McDonald, in order to secure reelection. In 2014, Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times, claiming that the teen was threatening officers with a knife. The city withheld video footage of the evidence for more than a year, until a court forced its release and proved that city’s account of events was a lie. Van Dyke was eventually sentenced to 6.75 years in prison for second-degree murder.
  • Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) tweeted: “Rahm Emanuel covered up the murder of Laquan McDonald. He must be disqualified from ever holding an appointed position in any administration.”
  • NAACP President Derrick Johnson told HuffPost: “His time in public service proved to be burdened with preventable scandal and abandonment of Chicago’s most vulnerable community.”

Judicial nominations

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent President Biden his recommendations for three female attorneys to fill federal district court vacancies in his state. Schumer’s slate includes Nusrat Choudhury of the ACLU, likely to be nominated to the Eastern District of New York. She would be the first Bangladeshi American federal judge and second Muslim American federal judge in the country. Schumer also recommended New York AG civil rights bureau chief Jessica Clarke and Nina Morrison of the Innocence Project for a seat on Southern District and Eastern District courts, respectively.

Within the past two months, Biden has nominated 11 diverse judges to a variety of positions across the country. These include Judge Lucy Koh to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where she could be the first Korean-American woman to serve as a federal appellate judge, and Vermont Supreme Court Justice Beth Robinson to the Second Circuit, where she could be the first openly LGBT woman to serve on any federal appellate court.

Koh was first nominated to the Ninth Circuit in 2016 but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) prevented her from receiving a full Senate vote. Instead, Trump appointed Judge Daniel Collins to the seat, where he would later issue rulings against Covid restrictions and in favor of qualified immunity for police.

ATF Nominee

The White House is withdrawing Biden’s nomination of David Chipman to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives after failing to garner the support of a handful of Democrats. Chipman, who is pro-gun control measures, was unilaterally opposed by Republican senators. In an evenly split Senate, all Democrats and independents who caucus with them must be on the same page. Key figures like Sen. Angus King (I-ME), Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) did not support Chipman’s nomination.

State Dept. Nazi

A group of six dozen State Department officials sent Secretary of State Antony Blinken a letter calling for the removal of Fritz Berggren, “an openly antisemitic department employee who continues to have a home in our midst.” Berggren’s online presence is littered with anti-semitic and anti-LGBTQ statements as he argues for the creation of a Christian nation-state.

“The goal of the Left is to destroy blood and faith so that (Marxist) religion alone becomes master and enslaver of all,” Berggren writes. “Europeans must reclaim their blood and faith, just as Blacks are proud and hispanics have very strong blood identity organizations.”

Two days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, another post signed by Berggren declared: “Notes on the events of January 6. The illusion of a participatory democracy has been burst. You already live in a cult/theocracy — I offer you Christian liberty in a Christian nation.”

The letter sent to Blinken reads:

“Fritz Berggren’s continued employment is an affront to all of us and the values we share. While there may be HR processes underway, they do not appear to be having an impact and are apparently proceeding very slowly as Berggren has been posting this content since at least 2017…Not only is his propagation of antisemitic ideas highly disturbing and offensive to Jewish and non-Jewish employees alike, but as Jewish employees, we feel his presence at the Department is threatening.”

Military boards

The White House started the process of removing 18 Trump appointees from the Board of Visitors to the Air Force Academy, Military Academy, and the Naval Academy. The individuals to be fired include former director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump administration Russell Vought, former White House advisor Kellyanne Conway, and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

All three of the aforementioned Trump appointees have refused to resign (eg), forcing Biden to fire them and promising to sue the administration to keep their jobs. However, all appointees serve at the pleasure of the president; they are unlikely to win a lawsuit.