DeJoy’s calendar released by Postal Service is almost entirely redacted

The Postal Service on Tuesday released the calendar of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after a federal lawsuit and months of pressure from Democrats, although the document has been almost entirely redacted. 

The calendar, released as part of an ongoing lawsuit by liberal legal organization American Oversight, shows that DeJoy held more than 450 meetings and conference calls from June 15 to Nov. 7, but the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) office blacked out nearly every detail on the schedule beyond dates and times. 

A limited number of other words were not redacted, including “meeting,” “teleconference” and “prep for all hands.” 

DeJoy, who took on his post in June, came under scrutiny ahead of the 2020 election when cost-cutting measures led to mail delays and concerns about the Postal Service’s ability to handle a surge in mail-in election ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

DeJoy fundraised for President Trump in the past and also previously served as an executive for XPO Logistics, a company that contracts with the Postal Service. 

DeJoy’s past, as well as his sweeping policy changes, prompted calls for the release of his calendar to see who he had met with leading up to the election. 

In September, American Oversight sued the Postal Service to see “to what extent the White House is interfering in the agency’s operations or undermining trust in absentee voting — either on behalf of private industry or to benefit the president’s reelection chances,” the group said at the time. 

The Postal Service argued in August that DeJoy’s calendar counted as a personal record and was, therefore, not subject to release under FOIA, but eventually agreed in October to process and release nonexempt portions of the calendar. 

The FOIA office did not specify on the documents why the calendar appointments were redacted, though the agency is required to cite specific exemptions detailed in the law. 

However, a letter accompanying the document details that the redacted portions related to trade secrets, privileged interagency communications and personnel records protected by privacy interests. 

Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, condemned the redactions in an email to the Huffington Post Tuesday. 

“Shrouding his calendar in secrecy likely violates the letter of the law, and certainly violates its spirit,” Evers wrote. “DeJoy works for the public, but you wouldn’t know it from his calendar. Even in the Trump era, this is an extraordinary level of obfuscation.”

DeJoy’s calendar, which is also the subject of a congressional subpoena, first came into question in August when Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) during a hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee asked DeJoy to release his calendar, arguing that it was subject to FOIA. 

The congresswoman asked DeJoy at the time if he or his staff had deleted any items from the schedule, which the postmaster general denied.