Rookie Congresswoman Kathleen Rice accepted two gifts from campaign donors — including a $3,300 private plane flight from New York to Boston, according to financial-disclosure forms.
Billionaire hedge-funder Lee Ainslie took Rice on his private jet to Beantown on Oct. 30, 2015, a trip that could have cost just $300 round-trip on a commercial airline.
Ainslie has donated $63,199 to Rice’s Congressional campaign and her runs for Nassau County District Attorney and unsuccessful bid for state Attorney General. His wife, Elizabeth, has contributed $17,600.
Ainslie has a mansion in Old Brookville in Nassau County, where Rice was the DA from 2006 to 2014.
Another donor, Thomas Lane, picked up the $2,500 tab for Rice’s ticket to the March 29, 2015, gala for the opening of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston. Lane, who is a partner at the law firm Winston & Strawn, has donated $82,550 to Rice’s New York races.
Lane squired Rice, who is not married, to a May White House state dinner honoring five Nordic countries.
Rice was the only member of the House of Representatives from New York state to declare gifts on her annual financial-disclosure form, according to a review of the latest filings by The Post.
The disclosures, which detail assets, debts, foreign travel and outside income, are to be filed by May 15 every year. There are strict rules against accepting most gifts of $50 or more for members of the House.
Rice got permission for the flights and the dinner from the House Ethics Committee, according to her spokesman. He said a friend invited her to the Kennedy dinner and that she accompanied “close friends” to Massachusetts “to meet with a local district attorney after a loved one was murdered.”
Elizabeth Ainslie’s brother was murdered in his Plymouth County, Mass. home in September 2015.
The committee gave its approval for the gifts based on the history of friendship between Rice and the Ainslies and Rice and Lane, documents show.
An Ethics Committee spokesman would not comment.
A Virginia-based government watchdog group said the action was unseemly.
“The pricey gifts were allowed because the Ethics Committee simply waived the rule. Congress should not wonder why the public thinks its ethics are a joke,” said Ken Boehm, chair of the National Legal and Policy Center.