"Steve who? Oh, Bannon. Yeah, I really didn't know him. Didn't know him very well. And he was only on the campaign a short time. He was basically the coffee boy. I only met him once. And a total loser. Another disgruntled former employee. Next question?"
The US Postal Service is out to deliver justice against former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
It may not have come as a shock that Bannon, often described as a grifter, was allegedly caught up in a scheme to defraud donors to a crowdfunding campaign that promised to construct a wall on the US-Mexico border.
But it was a surprise to some that the USPS, the same agency that President Donald Trump has tried to cripple ahead of an expected surge of mail-in ballots in November, carried out his arrest on a $28 million megayacht called Lady May off the coast of Connecticut Thursday morning:
The Postal Service has police? That’s really pushing the envelope.
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) August 20, 2020
These aren’t your everyday mail carriers: They are part and parcel of an elite police unit known as the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), which has been fighting crime since the mail fraud statute was enacted in 1872. There are about 1,200 such postal inspectors who carry weapons, make arrests, execute federal search warrants, and serve subpoenas. They have even inspired a CBS series, “The Inspectors.”
All agents must complete a 16-week training program that covers firearms, physical fitness, and defensive tactics. In 2019, they made 5,759 arrests and 4,995 convictions related to postal crimes, according to USPS.
“They say, ‘Oh, you’re a lot like the FBI.’ And I like to tell them, ‘No, the FBI is a lot like us,’” one USPIS agent says in a recruiting video:
They often team up with other federal, state, and local authorities to investigate mail theft, fraud, identity theft, narcotics cases, opioid investigations, lottery scams, and more.
I know it’s a cliché to talk about the Trump years as a series of TV seasons, each wackier than the next. But having Steve Bannon, Super Patriot®, Bane of the Chinese™, Keeper of the MAGA Faith, and Watcher of the Wall, arrested on a Chinese billionaire’s superyacht for bilking money from people who actually believed his GoFundMe site to build the border wall was on the up-and-up was just too good.
But to have him arrested by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at the precise moment the country is freaking out over Trump’s war—or “war” —on the Post Office? *Chef’s kiss.* Someone deserves an Emmy.
-------------------------------- If you think looting is bad wait until I tell you about civil forfeiture.
Posts: 33811 | Location: On the Hudson | Registered: 20 April 2005
