Lawmaker Accuses USPS Employees of Stealing $20K in Campaign Contributions

A member of Congress has accused U.S. Postal Service employees or contractors of repeatedly stealing mailed campaign contributions and said the agency owes her a better explanation. 

The June thefts totaled nearly $20,000 and left supporters vulnerable to identity theft and financial fraud, campaign representatives for Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said. Attorneys for the campaign wrote a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy suggesting the agency has dropped the ball in investigating the crimes and demanding more information on postal management’s response. The lawyers also cited the USPS inspector general and the Postal Inspection Service for inadequate probes, saying the inspection service has not even returned its phone calls. 

The IG “immediately commenced” an investigation upon receiving the allegations, said Tara Linne, a spokesperson for the office, but was subsequently told by the Postal Service the campaign eventually received the checks that had been taken out of their original envelopes. Stefanik’s attorneys said in their letter that “the evidence indicates that Elise for Congress’s packages were plundered by a USPS employee or contractor while the packages were in transit.” Linne, however, said the IG’s investigation had, as of October, “not identified evidence of employee involvement.” 

Linne added Stefanik’s campaign brought forward new allegations last week, which were in the Postal Inspection Service’s jurisdiction as it is the entity responsible for “investigating mail theft by non-employees.” Stefanik’s attorney’s did not respond to a request for comment on what evidence it had that USPS employees or contractors were involved in the theft. 

“We will work closely with the Inspection Service to the extent evidence of postal employee involvement is identified,” Linne said. “The OIG understands the seriousness of these allegations, and the impact these losses have on the American people and their trust in the U.S. Postal Service. We take our mission and responsibility to investigate fraud, waste, and abuse very seriously.” 

Dave Partenheimer, a USPS spokesperson, said only that the agency would respond directly to Stefanik’s campaign with its findings on the investigative matter. 

Stefanik’s attorneys were not satisfied with the various responses. 

“It is unacceptable that USPS has repeatedly allowed these targeted thefts to occur and cannot identify who committed the thefts, let alone where or how the thefts occurred,” they wrote. 

They requested from DeJoy a list of all actions USPS has taken to investigate the matter, how it will prevent future incidents and what steps USPS will take to prosecute mail theft more broadly. The issue has been a growing concern in recent months, leading to a House Oversight and Reform hearing on the issue in September. Lawmakers said the complaints they received about postal theft issues had skyrocketed. The IG noted at the hearing an uptick in thefts of the keys that open blue boxes and delivery box units, while representatives of the Postal Police Force union said the law enforcement staffing levels had been decimated. 

“Mail theft is rampant in the United States, and USPS appears unwilling or unable to effectively deter or prevent it,” Stefanik’s attorneys said to DeJoy. “We hope that you and USPS are taking these systemic issues as seriously as they deserve to be taken.”