A federal judge was so angered by the US Postal Service's inability to sweep its facilities for ballots yesterday afternoon, following a court order to do so, that he said he will want answers under oath from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
"I agree the Postmaster is either going to have to be deposed or testify before me under oath," federal Judge Emmet Sullivan said on Wednesday.
He said he was not pleased the USPS couldn't comply with the Election Day court order, and didn't notify him until the court's deadline passed that they didn't have personnel on site in facilities to look for ballots in the mid-afternoon.
Sullivan has put in place several court orders requiring the Postal Service to explain how much election mail it's failing to process daily, especially in states with low performance, which includes parts of key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The court's order on Tuesday for an additional sweep was in response to reports of lower performance in some areas —where strict deadlines for absentee ballots to get to elections boards approached — and questions about what happened to 300,000 ballots without final scans before their delivery.
"Someone may have a price to pay about that," the judge said about the USPS's failure to sweep facilities an additional time on Tuesday.
"It's your clients," Sullivan told a Justice Department attorney representing the USPS. "I am concerned about your clients, each and every one starting at the top of the food chain."
Joseph Borson, representing USPS, told the judge the reason the postal service didn't conduct the sweeps was that "it took some time for this information to get to the right people."
CNN's Ana Cabrera reports on USPS developments: