Criminal referral made to New Jersey AG for intentional postal delay of ballots (updated)

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Above Graphic: h/t Buzzflash.com.

I have posted this several times:

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As I have previously explained, this is a postal crime, a felony, and it is occurring in plain sight. 18 U.S. Code § 1703. Delay or destruction of mail or newspapers:

(a) Whoever, being a Postal Service officer or employee, unlawfully secretes, destroys, detains, delays, or opens any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail entrusted to him or which shall come into his possession, and which was intended to be conveyed by mail, or carried or delivered by any carrier or other employee of the Postal Service, or forwarded through or delivered from any post office or station thereof established by authority of the Postmaster General or the Postal Service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

It’s past time for a U.S. Attorney or state Attorney General to step up and do something about this crime in progress. What are you waiting for? You have an admission against interest, if not a public confession to the crime.

UPDATE: The former attorney general and a former federal prosecutor add:

Someone has now finally stepped up, but under a state law. Criminal Referral in NJ Seeks Grand Jury Investigation of Trump’s ‘Arson’ of U.S. Postal Service:

Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.) on Friday asked his state’s attorney general to empanel a grand jury to investigate President Donald Trump and several top executives at the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Pascrell claimed the Administration’s efforts to dismantle the federal agency constitutes election interference in violation of state law.

(If DeJoy or others were charged in New Jersey for state crimes, Trump could not pardon them as his power only applies to federal crimes.)

In a letter to A.G. Gurbir S. Grewal, Pascrell said the Trump administration is looking to subvert all the work the attorney general’s office has done to prepare for the November election.

“I call upon you to open a wide-ranging investigation of Trump’s actions to interfere in our elections and to empanel a grand jury for the purpose of considering criminal indictments for Donald Trump, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, members of the United States Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors, and any other officials in the Trump government that are participating in or have participated in the subversion of New Jersey state elections,” Pascrell wrote.

The letter was prompted by President Trump’s interview with Fox Business Network on Thursday in which he effectively conceded that he was intentionally sabotaging USPS to stymie the trend of states expanding access to mail-in voting ballots. USPS has notified 46 states and D.C. last week that the sweeping changes being made within the agency, coupled with the increased demand for mail-in ballots due to the pandemic, meant that voters’ ballots were at risk of not being delivered by the Nov. 3 deadline.

“We do not have much time to prepare and our state, like others, will rely absolutely on the USPS’s efficiency,” Pascrell wrote. “Amid this ongoing pandemic, the USPS will be the electoral heart and engine or New Jersey’s and America’s electoral machinery.”

In fact, “New Jersey will mail a ballot to every voter in the state for November’s elections, as well as hold in-person voting amid the coronavirus pandemic, the state’s Democratic governor said on Friday.” New Jersey to mail ballots to everyone in November election.

Earlier in the week, Pascrell called on USPS Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb to open an investigation into whether the DeJoy’s recent “operational changes” were intended to undermine the timely delivery of mail-in ballots. He also emphasized the postmaster general’s conflicts of interest — he owns a stake in USPS contractors and competitors worth between $30-$75 million — noting that DeJoy stood to “personally benefit if those very same logistics companies wound up filling in the service gaps created from his directive.”

See the full Criminal Referral (Scribd).

In Arizona, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs on Friday wrote a letter to Republican state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, asking him to investigate whether crimes have been committed under Arizona state law, specifically A.R.S. § 16-1003 “A person who knowingly … delays the delivery of a ballot, is guilty of a class 3 misdemeanor.”

Howard Fischer reports, Arizona’s elections chief claims Trump is sabotaging mail-in voting:

Arizona’s top election official wants a state investigation into whether President Trump and his administration are conspiring to violate a state law making it a crime to knowingly delay delivery of a ballot.

Sec. of State Katie Hobbs

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs pointed out that Louis DeJoy, a donor to the Trump campaign and the president’s appointed postmaster general, has announced what he called changes to the “organizational structure” of the financially struggling Postal Service.

That includes eliminating overtime, meaning some items at the post office would be left for the following day. There also would be hiring freezes.

Hobbs also cited reports that mail-sorting machines were being deactivated or removed entirely.

“The effect of these changes, taken individually or together, is an extended transit period for mail,” she wrote in a formal complaint to Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

Brnovich is involved because the Legislature, at his request, gave him $530,000 a year in 2019 to create a special Elections Integrity Unit to investigate allegations of fraud.

How ironic. This bullshit unit was established by Republicans to pursue their GOP “voter fraud” fraudulent claims of voter fraud which do not exist, and here is their “Dear Leader” and his toady Postmaster General engaged in an honest to God massive scheme of voter suppression and tampering with the U.S. mail to disenfranchise voters in order to steal an election.

Hobbs, in her complaint, said the issue is more complex than budget problems, suggesting that the Trump administration is attempting to “sabotage” the postal service with the goal of preventing Arizonans from exercising their rights.

The timing comes right before a major election, she noted. Hobbs also pointed to the broad interest in voting by mail, saying about 85% of the ballots cast in the Aug. 4 primary came in that way.

On top of that are very public comments by the president arguing that voting by mail could lead to inaccurate and fraudulent results.

Finally, Hobbs pointed out that Trump was asked about efforts by some in Congress to provide $25 billion in emergency funding for the Postal Service.

“They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all these millions and millions of ballots,” he told Fox News. “If they don’t get those items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.”

Hobbs, a Democrat, said that shows Trump is acting intentionally [establishing criminal intent].

“There’s no need to read between the lines here,” she told Brnovich who, like Trump, is a Republican. “The president explicitly admitted to an intentional effort to interfere with the USPS’ ability to deliver ballots by mail.”

Hobbs said the president’s comments and the refusal to fund the postal service have to be seen in context. She said this isn’t just any normal election.

She said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends voting by mail as the safest way of casting a ballot given the COVID-19 outbreak.

“He is directly trying to undermine that,” Hobbs said. “He is trying to disenfranchise voters and make it harder for them to participate when it’s the safest way for them to vote right now.”

Earlier this week, Thomas Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president of the Postal Service, warned officials in Arizona and other states that delivery delays could mean that many ballots may not get delivered on time to be counted.

Hobbs said that already forced her office to modify its longstanding advice to voters to get their ballots in the mail six days ahead of Election Day. Arizona law says any ballot not received by 7 p.m. on Election Day is not counted.

Her letter to Brnovich refers to a law [A.R.S. § 16-1003] that makes it a Class 3 misdemeanor to knowingly delay delivery of a ballot. That subjects the offender to a fine of $500 and up to 30 days in county jail.

But she said this is about more than the criminal code.

“Arizona’s Constitution states that ‘all elections shall be free and equal, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage,’ ” she wrote. “In a state where the vast majority of voters choose to do so by mail, attempts to sabotage the USPS just months before an election are most certainly attempts to interfere with ‘the free exercise of the right of suffrage.’”

Mark Brnovich
Mark Brnovich

The attorney general, for his part, was noncommittal — and a bit dismissive.”

“We review every complaint, regardless of merit,” Brnovich said in a prepared statement.

“Pffft! Yeah, right, like I’m going to investigate this.”

Brnovich, in a swipe at Hobbs, said he “will continue to protect the integrity of our elections, even when other state officials won’t.”

He was referring to the fact that Hobbs has sided with some organizations that have challenged changes in election laws approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

He means the Republican legislators who have been legislating your constitutional rights to citizens initiative, referendum and recall out of existence by imposing odious hyper-technical requirements.

Brnovich has regularly abused his office by pursuing partisan litigation, usually joining the idiocy of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, such as joining the lawsuit to repeal “Obamacare” in its entirety, as he pursues his interest in running for governor of Arizona in 2022. No one should expect this partisan hack to ever actually do his job and enforce A.R.S. § 16-1003. How would that look to right-wing voters in a Republican gubernatorial primary?

Just to be clear, this is a dereliction of duty and misfeasance of office.

It is going to take Democratic attorneys general in Democratic states to thwart this Republican criminal conspiracy to steal an election.

UPDATE: Progressive PAC VoteVets has released a new ad repudiating President Donald Trump for his attacks against the United States Postal Service (USPS). Veterans Group Mocks Trump for “Finally” Going to War––Against USPS:

The video features narration highlighting the military deferments Trump received when he was younger (he crafted the now-infamous “bone spurs” excuse to get out of serving in Vietnam. The narrator also points out how much veterans depend on the Postal Service for prescription deliveries and for receiving their ballots. An estimated 100,000 veterans also currently work for the Postal Service, according to its official website.

“This is just a warmup for the fall,” the narrator says. “Donald Trump plans to disrupt absentee ballots and vote-by-mail for millions of Americans in the middle of a pandemic he failed to control,” the voice-over concludes. “Because Donald Trump knows if the mail delivers ballots to America’s veterans, we’ll deliver a message right back — you lose.”





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