WASHINGTON — The press aide to Congressman Brad Finstad tried to dampen growing ethics questions about the travel expenses being paid to Finstad’s chief of staff. The reimbursements have run up to $113,000 since Chief of Staff David FitzSimmons joined the Finstad staff to run his office. The reimbursements, said press aide Jenny Luepke. were for “official purposes.” Members of Cngress have allowances to operate their offices and lots of discretion on how to spend the money FitzSimmons’ reimbursements, however, caught the attention of the Minnesota Star Tribune as out of line. They have been eating up 8% of Finstad’s office budget. Also, they have been among the largest travel reimbursements for chiefs of staff in the whole U.S. House. Confronted by the Star Tribune, Luepke, the press aide, said:

“Just like every Member of Congress, our office determines the best way to utilize those funds to serve the people of our district.”

Luepke explained that FitzSimmons divides his time between Washington and Minnesota, where he lives, albeit it not anywhere near Finstad’s southern Minnesota MN-1Congrrsisnaal district. FitzSimmons motors a lot to events around Minnesota on Finstad’s behalf, she said. Luepke also said that Finstad has “an aggressive engagement strategy” to stay in contact with constituents. This point from Luepke raised questions anew about Finstad assiduously avoiding public meetings for months, limiting his contacts instead to small supportive groups and not inviting unscreened outsiders. Luepke failed to mention that these small meetings require only modest preparation — unlike townhalls. Also, Finstad has been largely invisible during the recent 43-day House recess designed to protect Trump from the scandal about ties to his pedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein. Finstad has been a long-term Trump devotee.

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