Ocasio-Cortez Just Got the WORST News of Her Career, & She May Be In Big Trouble
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was just hit with an ethics complaint that might land her in big trouble.
It looks like she may have funneled some campaign moolah through her boyfriend.
Here’s the scoop…
From Daily Wire:
The Coolidge Reagan Foundation filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Wednesday alleging that socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) may have illegally funneled money to her boyfriend through an allied PAC.
Fox News reports that the group alleges “in their complaint that when the Brand New Congress PAC (BNC) — a political arm of Brand New Congress LLC, a company that was hired by Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to run and support her campaign — paid Roberts for marketing services, it potentially ran afoul of campaign finance law.”
AOC’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, was given his position on Alexandria’s staff after funneling cash for her campaign through her boyfriend, Riley Roberts.
Check it out…
“A rich guy used a PAC to pay @AOC’s boyfriend $6,000 when her campaign was running out of money. After AOC won, she gave that rich guy a job in her office. Follow me on a journey,” author Luke Thompson said.
A rich guy used a PAC to pay @AOC's boyfriend $6,000 when her campaign was running out of money. After AOC won, she gave that rich guy a job in her office. Follow me on a journey.https://t.co/KSQqq3xKRY
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
“Last week, @AOC and her Chief of Staff @saikatc (the rich guy in question) freaked out on me when I pointed out it looked like she’d hired her boyfriend. I did some digging in the FEC. Turns out Saikat has “hired” her boyfriend, before…just not to do any actual work,” he said.
Last week, @AOC and her Chief of Staff @saikatc (the rich guy in question) freaked out on me when I pointed out it looked like she'd hired her boyfriend. I did some digging in the FEC. Turns out Saikat has "hired" her boyfriend, before…just not to do any actual work.
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
“.@AOC paid Brand New Congress LLC, which @saikatc owns, for strategic consulting. @BrandNew535, the PAC Saikat ran in parallel to his LLC, turned around and paid Riley Roberts – the boyfriend – the same amount as its sole “marketing consultant”. How swampy,” he said.
.@AOC paid Brand New Congress LLC, which @saikatc owns, for strategic consulting. @BrandNew535, the PAC Saikat ran in parallel to his LLC, turned around and paid Riley Roberts – the boyfriend – the same amount as its sole "marketing consultant". How swampy.
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
The payments to Roberts are the largest payments made by @BrandNew535 to any person or group other than Brand New Congress LLC. Oh, and Roberts doesn't work in marketing. pic.twitter.com/XN8AYl0l7J
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
“The payments to Roberts are the largest payments made by @BrandNew535 to any person or group other than Brand New Congress LLC. Oh, and Roberts doesn’t work in marketing,” Thompson said.
Plus, the timing looks bad.
.@BrandNew535 paid Riley Roberts $3,000 on August 9th, 2017.@AOC's campaign paid Brand New Congress LLC $6,191.32 on August 27th.
A month later @BrandNew535 then paid Riley Roberts another $3,000. pic.twitter.com/Oym09gLGZy
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
Roberts lists his residence as Arizona, where he's from, for the purposes of the disbursement, but for the in-kind work in 2018 and his cash donations to @AOC's campaign, he lists New York. Looks like a sad attempt to be sneaky. pic.twitter.com/lNAzmm4svP
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
When @BrandNew535 decided to pay six grand to Roberts, AOC's campaign was $24,000 in the hole, having raised only about $3,000. By the end of 2017, she'd raised just over $8,000 but spent about $37,250. That's a lot of money on somebody's credit card. pic.twitter.com/0vdioqSigu
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
Now @saikatc says he left @BrandNew535 sometime in August of 2017. But @justicedems, which he continued running, and which remains on his profile, shared an address with @AOC's campaign. It appears he still owns Brand New Congress LLC. pic.twitter.com/T0MS7ab80x
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
https://twitter.com/ltthompso/status/1098217840862220289/photo/1?%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1098217842477015043&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthefederalistpapers.org%2Fopinion%2Focasio-cortez-caught-red-handed-helping-ton-money-get-funneled-boyfriend
Now, maybe he wasn't her spouse then, but they were living together per her Vogue profile, so paying the money is still a massive ethical problem.https://t.co/SEqi5fEAe5 pic.twitter.com/FRduzForEM
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
So, we get an under the table PAC payments to your boyfriend from a wealthy benefactor, who you then hire? Add that to your next lightening round of questions about HR1 @AOC.https://t.co/KSQqq3xKRY
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
More from Medium:
A quick tour through AOC’s campaign expenditures reveals the extent to which Brand New Congress midwifed her campaign into existence, precisely as the FAQ described above would have it. But AOC’s campaign was different from the others backed by Brand New Congress PAC, and not simply because she won. Like other candidates, AOC paid Brand New Congress LLC for strategic consulting, in her case totaling $18,880.14. Unlike in the other cases, Brand New Congress PAC turned around and paid her boyfriend as a “marketing consultant”.
Indeed, while Brand New Congress PAC’s ten largest expenditures were paid to Brand New Congress LLC for “strategic consulting,” a sum that totaled $261,165.20 over the course of the campaign, its eleventh and twelfth largest expenditures were paid to Riley Roberts.
Brand New Congress PAC paid Roberts $3,000 on August 9th:
Eighteen days later, AOC’s campaign paid Brand New Congress LLC $6,191.32:
A month later Brand New Congress PAC then turned around and paid Riley Roberts another $3,000.
Stay tuned…