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Congresswoman says postal workers stole more than $20K from campaign

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. in 2021. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus, File)
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By Daniela Altimari, CQ-Roll Call (TNS)

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik’s campaign is accusing postal workers of opening mail and stealing more than $20,000 in campaign donations.

In a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a lawyer for the New York Republican alleges that packages containing donation checks sent by the campaign were ripped open on four separate occasions between June and November. The packages contained campaign contributions totaling nearly $20,000, the letter states.

“These repeated security failures by USPS have not only resulted in the loss of ... campaign contributions, but also — and more alarmingly — have exposed hundreds of Congresswoman Stefanik’s campaign supporters to potential identity theft or financial fraud,” the campaign’s lawyer, Michael E. Toner, wrote with two colleagues from the Wiley Rein firm.

“Evidence indicates that Elise for Congress’s packages were plundered by a USPS employee or contractor while the packages were in transit,” the letter states.

In a Nov. 16 letter to Stefanik’s campaign, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Postal Service’s law enforcement arm, said it recovered a piece of mail that had been “targeted for theft” at the FedEx international hub in Memphis. The U.S. Postal Service contracts with FedEx and other private companies to transport first-class mail.

“Currently, Elise for Congress is continuing to identify our grassroots donors who have been affected by this and look forward to a speedy response from Mr. DeJoy,” a spokesman for Stefanik said.

Postal Service spokesman Dave Paretenheimer said the agency received Stefanik’s letter on Thursday and would respond to her attorney “directly with our findings in this investigative matter.”

The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General is investigating the theft, Toner said in the letter, but “they indicated it would be difficult to identify the USPS employees or contractors who perpetrated these crimes unless and until one or more of Elise for Congress’s supporters becomes the victim of identity theft or financial fraud.”

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