The Louisiana Senate will have likely vote to put Brandon Fremin on the Louisiana Board of Ethics later this year. (Photo by Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator)
Louisiana senators will have just one candidate to choose from when they vote to fill their vacancy on the state Board of Ethics later this year.
The Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee nominated Brandon Fremin, a former U.S. attorney for the Baton Rouge area. for the job. His nominating hearing took less than 15 minutes at the committee’s meeting Wednesday, and without another choice on the ballot, the Senate will almost certainly elect him to the position.
Like the Louisiana House’s newest ethics board member, Fremin has close ties to Gov. Jeff Landry. He ran the Louisiana Department of Justice’s criminal division from 2016-18 for Landry when the governor was attorney general.
Fremin now works at Talbot, Carmouche and Marcello, a law firm that is a major political donor to Landry, state lawmakers and judges. The governor has also appointed partner John Carmouche to the LSU Board of Supervisors.
Ethics board members are not allowed to engage in political campaigns, including making campaign contributions, under state law, but the prohibition does not appear to apply to a member’s employer.
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Fremin worked for the East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s Office for several years. President Donald Trump nominated him to serve as U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana in 2018. He left that position in 2021 after President Joe Biden took office.
He could not be reached for comment at his law firm Wednesday.
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As the federal government’s top law enforcement official in Baton Rouge, Fremin’s most high-profile case was the prosecution of John Paul Funes, who was convicted of embezzling nearly $80,000 as the former head of the Our Lady of the Lake Foundation.
In 2019, he admitted he stole gift cards meant for cancer patients and used the charity’s resources to fly his friends and family to LSU and New Orleans Saints football games on private planes, according to The Advocate. Funes served half of his 33-month federal sentence and was released from prison in 2021.
On the ethics board member, Fremin would be one of 15 appointees who determines whether public officials and employees are misusing their government authority. He will also help decide whether campaign funds for state and local elections have been acquired and used in compliance with state law.
The ethics board and the governor have been in negotiations for 18 months over charges Landry faces over flights Landry took on a political donor’s plane to and from Hawaii in 2021. As a board member, Fremin would be part of bringing that dispute to a close.
The board alleged Landry and his donor, retired energy executive Greg Mosing, violated state ethics laws by not publicly disclosing the plane trips.
Last year, with his ethics charges outstanding, Landry pushed through a law change that gave him more power over the ethics board. The new law also gives the Louisiana House and Senate total control over the selection of their ethics board appointees for the first time.
Prior to 2024, the legislators were only allowed to elect board members from a list of nominees that the leaders of Louisiana’s private colleges and universities provided. The process was an attempt to insulate ethics board members from political influence.
Landry’s law change removed that buffer, and lawmakers now pick their own nominees. Fremin was selected under this new process.
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