Thread by @weareoversight

President Trump is following the same playbook he has for months: undermining and discrediting mail-in voting.

Here’s an overview of how the president has undermined voting by mail during a global pandemic, and how we’ve been investigating.

In April, the White House threatened to veto the CARES Act if it contained funding to ensure USPS’s stability. Many predicted USPS would be especially important in the election as more voters would vote by mail during the pandemic.
washingtonpost.com/business/2020/…

That same month, Trump said "Republicans should fight very hard" against attempts to increase access to vote-by-mail.
americanoversight.org/news-roundup-p…

In May, amid uncertainty regarding #USPS funding and vote-by-mail, Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman submitted his resignation, raising serious concerns, as he was an important part of USPS’s vote-by-mail efforts.

In June, as many states considered extensive mail-in voting during the pandemic, the president attacked vote-by-mail systems as rife with fraud and argued that “whoever cheated the most would win.” There is no evidence to support his claims.
washingtonpost.com/politics/minus…

President Trump also installed campaign donor Louis DeJoy to the position of Postmaster General in June. Over the summer, DeJoy adopted policies that could make it harder for Americans to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic.
npr.org/2020/08/01/898…

Under DeJoy, USPS began slashing post office hours at locations across the country. The new postmaster also announced plans to eliminate overtime for postal workers, and directed them to leave mail at distribution centers if it would delay letter carriers getting to their routes.

In August, Politico reported that aides to President Trump were looking for ways to limit Americans' ability to vote by mail and to give the president an advantage in the upcoming election.
politico.com/news/2020/08/0…

Also in August, President Trump explicitly stated his intentions to sabotage the Postal Service, telling Fox Business that if USPS doesn’t get additional funding ”that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting.”
apnews.com/14a2ceda724623…

Now, the president is questioning the validity of votes that were cast by mail.

We’ve been filing FOIA requests, and when necessary suing, to investigate these efforts to undercut USPS and vote-by-mail. Learn more here:
americanoversight.org/investigation/…

Here’s some of what we’ve uncovered so far, and what we’re still investigating.

We obtained Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman’s resignation letter. As mentioned, Stroman was the agency point person for vote-by-mail initiatives.

https://twitter.com/weareoversight/status/1310633750880026626?s=20

Documents we obtained showed that during DeJoy’s first two weeks as Postmaster General, he hired four staffers — his chief of staff, two senior executive advisers, & his senior executive administrative assistant — with ties to his private-sector work.

https://twitter.com/weareoversight/status/1306611169990520833

We obtained almost 10,000 additional pages of documents from USPS through a #FOIA request.

The records showed turmoil at the agency as the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020…

We still are in litigation to uncover more documents.

In September, we sued USPS for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s emails related to USPS’s vote-by-mail efforts.
americanoversight.org/american-overs…

Also in September, we sued the USPS for DeJoy’s calendar.

In August, USPS claimed the calendar, which is kept on a government computer & accessed by agency staff, is a personal record not subject to FOIA.
americanoversight.org/american-overs…

Last month, USPS agreed to release DeJoy’s calendars in response to our #FOIA lawsuit. Stay tuned for more documents.

https://twitter.com/weareoversight/status/1319736680274944001