Frelinghuysen Lawyers Up For Ethics Probe, Allegedly Targeted Activist: Report

U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen has lawyered up following a state ethics complaint about his alleged targeting of an Essex County activist at her banking job, a report says.

Campaign filings show that Frelinghuysen paid lawyers in New Jersey and Washington nearly $32,000 this spring in response to the allegations, NorthJersey.com reported.

"It was a prudent move given the politically motivated ethics complaints that came from the professional left," Frelinghuysen campaign adviser Mike Duhaime told the publication.

Read the full report here.

“Representative Frelinghuysen could hire Atticus Finch and the ghost of Clarence Darrow, but it still wouldn’t change the fact that he abused his power when he targeted a constituent for exercising her 1st amendment rights,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) spokesperson Evan Lukaske.

“After 22 years in Washington, Frelinghuysen is out of touch with his constituents… he’s fit to be replaced next November,” Lukaske said.

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WHAT’S THE PROBE ABOUT?

In May, West Caldwell resident Saily Avelenda, a senior vice president and assistant general counsel at Lakeland Bank, alleged that Frelinghuysen – the powerful chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations – wrote a fundraising letter to the bank’s executive’s board of directors, identifying her as the “ringleader” of a local activist group.

According to a WNYC report, the letter contained a handwritten postscript: “One of the ringleaders works in your bank!”

Avelenda is a member of local activist group 11th For Change, which has been a vocal critic of Frelinghuysen.

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Avelenda later quit her job due to “issues at work that were difficult to overcome” in the wake of the letter.

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Following Avelenda’s allegations, the nonprofit watchdog group Campaign for Accountability requested an official inquiry into Frelinghuysen’s alleged actions with the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent, non-partisan entity charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct against members, officers and staff of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Campaign for Accountability’s complaint asks the OCE to investigate whether Frelinghuysen “engaged in tortious interference with Ms. Avelenda’s business relations, whether he misused his office for the prospect of political gain, and whether he violated the rule requiring members to act in a manner that reflects creditably on the House.”

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Frelinghuysen's campaign office provided WNYC with the following statement about the letter:

“The Congressman wrote a brief and innocuous note at the bottom of a personal letter in regard to information that had been reported in the media. He was in no way involved in any of the bank's business and is unaware of any of the particulars about this employee's status with the bank.”

An unnamed source told WNYC that to be “illegal,” the letter would need to have threatened action or have been written on Congressional stationery, not campaign letterhead, or the bank would have to have pending business before a Frelinghuysen committee.

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Photo: Rodney Frelinghuysen, Twitter