He also enclosed a news clipping that identified then-employee Saily Avelenda
as a co-founder of the group NJ 11th for Change, a recently formed group of Frelinghuysen’s constituents who called on him to oppose the Trump agenda.
According
to Avelenda, that letter contributed to her eventual resignation from the company, after she was “questioned and criticized for her involvement” with the group:
“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. …
“I had to write a statement to my CEO, and at my level as an assistant general counsel and a senior vice president, at this employer it was not something that I expected,” Avelenda said.
“I thought my Congressman put them in a situation, and put me in a really bad situation as the constituent, and used his name, used his position and used his stationery to try to punish me.”
The bank’s pressure and criticism of Avelenda was a stunning reversal, given in late March, the bank announced
her promotion to senior vice president/assistant general counsel, a promotion that surely was in the works before Frelinghuysen’s attack.