Exclusive: Federal Criminal Investigation of House Republicans Intensifies.

Federal criminal investigators summoned popular state Representative and Republican National Committee member John Frey (R-Ridgefield) to an October meeting to answer questions about House Republican practices and other legislative business, Daily Ructions can reveal. Frey, who appears to be in no legal jeopardy, is represented by prominent criminal defense attorney John Droney, a former Democratic state chairman.

FBI agents and at least one assistant United States attorney met with Frey in their Hartford office. Frey and Droney were spotted walking to the appointment by a chatty Capitol village lobbyist.

The criminal investigation of the House Republican caucus and its campaign operation went public in February when agents set up shop in the Legislative Office Building and began questioning GOP legislators. The investigation has so far cost House Republican campaign committees more than $30,000 in legal fees.

Frey is said to be one of several politicos who have recently received the attention of investigators. The list is expected to grow as interviewees are asked both specific and general questions about what goes on at the Capitol that they should know. The continuing investigation is bad news for the Lawrence Cafero-Themis Klarides-Vincent Candelora leadership team. Klarides is taking over from caucus leader  Cafero, who this fall did not seek a twelfth term in the House. Cafero has been a contract partner at the Hartford law and lobbying firm Brown Rudnick. The Republican leaders have been downplaying the significance of the ongoing investigation whenever a restive Republican legislator expresses concern.

The broad questions about legislative business and the House Republican operation under the trio will lead investigators, fortified by time and resources, to the path of bills in which Cafero exercised an intense interest. His role in the strange 2010 death of a popular bill to allow public housing residents to petition to elect a member to local housing authority boards, for example, has long rankled Senate Republicans. Other examples abound in their collective memory.

Updates as required.