Philip R. Sellinger took the oath of office as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey after a long record of contributing to political candidates.
Records obtained from the Federal Election Commission show that the US Attorney newly appointed by President Joe Biden has been a generous contributor to Democratic politicians and party organizations, but he also made some substantial donations to some noteworthy Republicans.
Additional details about Sellinger’s work history and involvement in politics were disclosed in a questionnaire he submitted to the US Senate during the confirmation process.
Sellinger gave more than $270,000 to federal candidates and committees since 1989, but most of those contributions occurred in the since 2006.
From 1989 to 1999, Sellinger donated less than $6,000 in all, but from 2000 to 2009, he gave a combined total of more than ten times that amount. From 2010 to the current year, Sellinger gave contributed more than $205,000.
Sellinger gave to state and local candidates or committees almost $31,000 since 2012, about $10,000 in the ten years before that and only $4,000 between 1985 and 1999.
His total combined contributions, according to reports available online from the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission and the FEC add up to just about $316,000.
Sellinger has been a member of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee for Morris County but he contributed to a number of Republicans.
Sellinger contributed to Brandon Beach, a member of the Georgia State Senate, who withdrew before the 2020 Republican primary in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, which is represented by Democrat Lucy McBath, who was a national spokesperson for Everytown for Gun Safety after her son’s death.
Vernon Gale Buchanan, the Republican representative for Florida’s 16th congressional district received funds from Sellinger in 2018, when he faced off against challenger David Shapiro, a Democratic attorney who campaigned with gunshot victim Gabby Giffords touting his support for an assault weapons ban, pledged to always fight against offshore drilling, and claimed a record of standing up for people against big corporations.
He sent $4200 to Republican Senator John McCain the year he ran against President Barack Obama and Sellinger also contributed $3500 to Scott Brown, former GOP Senator for Massachusetts who lost to Democrat Elizabeth Warren in 2012. Brown was ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa under President Donald Trump.
Sellinger also gave money to New York Republican Senator Alfonse M D’Amato and the campaign of Assembly Speaker Garabed “Chuck” Haytaian, when the New Jersey Republican challenged Democratic U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg.
Sellinger was an assistant U.S. attorney in the New Jersey district office from 1981-1984. He worked at Sills Cummis & Gross P.C. from 1984 to 2002, when he left to become a co-managing partner in the New Jersey office of Greenberg Traurig, an international law firm with 2300 attorneys in 40 locations around the globe and close to $2 billion in annual revenue.