Nothing surprises us anymore. Nothing.
Meet Rodney Frelinghuysen, the Chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, a position of great power. Constituents have been requesting a town hall and, like so many other cowardly GOP cretins, he has refused, for FOUR YEARS now.
To no one's amazement, we learn that a Trump-supporting, AHCA-endorsing New Jersey Republican, in a precariously unsafe (R) district, has used his position of power to destroy the career of an opposition group member by writing to her boss, obviously demanding retaliation.
Saily Avalenda, a Senior VP and general counsel (yeah he went after an attorney, smart?) at Lakeland Bank, is a member of the group NJ 11th For Change, an Indivisible group. Apparently, Rodney doesn't like people challenging HIS cushy job, so he threatened hers. A local Tri-state area report explains.
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, wrote a fundraising letter in March to a board member of a local bank, warning him that a member of an activist group opposing the Republican, worked at his bank.
The form letter, on campaign stationery, asks Frelinghuysen’s supporters to donate two years ahead of his next election because he is under attack. “But let’s be clear that there are organized forces — both national and local — who are already hard at work to put a stop to an agenda of limited government, economic growth, stronger national security,” the letter says.
Above the word local, there’s a hand-written asterisk in the same blue ink as Frelinghuysen’s signature. At the bottom of the letter, scrawled with a pen, is the corresponding footnote: “P.S. One of the ringleaders works in your bank!”
“Needless to say, that did cause some issues at work that were difficult to overcome,” said Saily Avelenda of West Caldwell, New Jersey, who was a senior vice president and assistant general counsel at the bank before she resigned. She says the pressure she received over her political involvement was one of several reasons she decided to leave.
The form letter, on campaign stationery, asks Frelinghuysen’s supporters to donate two years ahead of his next election because he is under attack. “But let’s be clear that there are organized forces — both national and local — who are already hard at work to put a stop to an agenda of limited government, economic growth, stronger national security,” the letter says.
The fundraising letter went to Joseph O'Dowd, a Lakeland Bank board member who has given $700 to Frelinghuysen during previous election cycles, according to Federal Election Commission records. O’Dowd and several managers at the bank also donate to the New Jersey Bankers Association, which in turn gives most of its money to the American Bankers Association. That group has about 20 paid lobbyists in Washington, according to disclosure statements filed with Congress.
Guess who decides the rules and regulations for the operations of these banks? Why who else but our 'public servant,' Rodney, the Chair of the Appropriations Committee! What a coincidence.
He said the letter may look heavy-handed, but to be illegal it would need to threaten action or be written on Congressional stationery, not campaign letterhead, or the bank would have to have business pending before a Frelinghuysen committee.
Back in 2011, for example, when we had a duly elected President, this lobby's criminal objectives could be effectively challenged. How likely is that, given the current political clusterf*ck we face?
According to the WNYC News reporter, Lakeland Bank has not replied for comment on this matter.
Distract. Deflect, Evade. Get away with everything? It sure seems like that's the new normal.
This has got to stop!
The only way cowardly vermin like Frelinghuysen can be neutered is for Americans to vote the bastards out, Tuesday, November 6, United States Elections, 2018
That said, I hope by then we have a way to keep our elections from foreign-tampering, because that's obviously the only way Republican crooks can win elections. Even Gerrymandering won't save them if they keep infuriating their constituents so glaringly.
Here's the audio of the report from WNYC.
