Berg & Androphy: President Trump, Postmaster General DeJoy Are Accused of Voter Suppression Conspiracy in U.S. Postal Service Lawsuit
Lawsuit seeks restoration of mail sorting machines, lifting of postal worker hiring freeze, and court order preventing interference in Presidential election
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- President Donald J. Trump and his campaign contributor Postmaster General Louis DeJoy are accused in a lawsuit filed today of conspiring to use the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to suppress mail-in votes in the 2020 election, the Berg & Androphy law firm said.
According to David Berg, founder of Berg & Androphy, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is "doing Trump's bidding, slowing mail delivery and putting his thumb on the electoral scales, ensuring chaos during the Fall elections and, along with Trump, sowing doubt in the minds of Americans about the integrity of the outcome. In the name of cost-cutting at USPS, he has instead compromised the constitutional right of Americans to vote, gutting key postal service efficiencies by removing high speed mail sorting machines that sort flat mail like ballots, from post offices nationwide, freezing additional hiring, cutting off overtime and prohibiting postal workers from making extra or later trips to complete deliveries."
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of voters Teresa Richardson, of Texas, Gina Arfi, of New York, and Chris Carroll, of Pennsylvania. Richardson, a cancer survivor who waited hours to vote in Houston during the spring primary, has not received her mail-in vote application. Arfi is a New York resident who applied for but did not receive her mail-in ballot and could not vote at the polls for fear of contracting COVID-19 and infecting her 85-year-old mother, whom she lives with. Carroll, scheduled to be out of town during primary voting, applied for and did not receive his absentee ballot and consequently, could not vote at all in the Pennsylvania primaries.
Berg also said, "President Trump has gaslighted the public, falsely claiming widespread mail-in voter fraud. Fearful of mail-in voting, Trump's claims of a 'rigged' 2020 presidential election are becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ms. Richardson, Ms. Arfi and Mr. Carroll are standing up for the integrity of our voting system and our democracy."
A longtime Republican fundraiser, DeJoy, who the lawsuit labels a "walking conflict of interest," a reference to his substantial investments in postal service competitors and his $30 million still invested in his former employer, which does substantial business with USPS. During the 2016 presidential campaign he and his wife contributed $440,000 to Trump's campaign.
According to the complaint, since being named Postmaster General in May 2019, DeJoy has instituted changes to USPS policies and procedures that have hampered the ability of the postal service to receive, process, sort and delivery mail by ordering the removal of ten percent of high-speed sorting machines, freezing hiring, cutting off overtime and prohibiting mailmen and women from making extra trips to ensure that mail is delivered on time. "The 'predictable result,'" the lawsuit asserts, "at a time when the pandemic has caused thousands of USPS employees to call in sick, quarantining and/or ill with COVID-19, is just what happened during the Spring primaries, but in spades: citizens, such as the Plaintiffs, will not receive applications for mail-in ballots or they will not arrive in time to be counted."
The lawsuit seeks replacement of removed USPS high-speed mail sorting machines and restoration of them to normal function and operation, restoration of USPS employee overtime pay, lifting of USPS hiring freeze, and a court order enjoining the President, Postmaster General and USPS from interfering with the plaintiffs' fundamental right to vote in U.S. elections.
The case is "Teresa Richardson, et al., v. Donald J. Trump, Louis DeJoy, and United States Postal Service," Case No. 1:20-cv-02262 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
CONTACT: Erin Powers, Powers MediaWorks LLC, for Berg & Androphy, [email protected], 281.703.6000.
SOURCE Berg & Androphy
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