Posted on 02/20/2019 1:15:16 PM PST by COUNTrecount
AOC Faces Ethics Questions After Reports Show Her Chief of Staff Cut Checks to Her Boyfriend Using a PAC
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) may have had her current chief of staff pay her boyfriend using campaign PAC money, according to a report from Luke Thompson, a National Review contributor.
Thompson started down the trail of analyzing Ocasio-Cortez’s professional relationship with her boyfriend, Riley Roberts, after realizing that the congresswoman had Roberts listed as a staff member with his own house.gov email account.
While you were having a nice Valentine's Day, @AOC decided to put her boyfriend on staff – drawing a salary on the taxpayer's dime. Nice to see her adapting to the swamp so quickly. pic.twitter.com/bvncwzxY53
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 15, 2019
As the tweet got more traction, Ocasio-Cortez responded, claiming that it was totally normal for members of the House to give their spouse — or in this case, significant other — an email address so they can see the member’s calendar.
Actually this cal designation is a permission so he can have access to my Google Cal. Congressional spouses get Gcal access all the time.
Next time check your facts before you tweet nonsense.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 15, 2019
It didn’t take long for Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, to hop online to defend his boss. He tweeted to Thompson that Roberts doesn’t work for the office in any capacity and is not paid. The email account, according to Chakrabarti, is purely for logistical access.
He's not paid. We have no volunteers in the office. He's not doing any government work. He can see her calendar just like spouses/partners/family members in other congressional office. Check your damn facts before you report bullshit. Lazy journos need to learn to do their jobs.
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) February 15, 2019
The next day, Thompson took a screenshot that shows Roberts listed as “staff” for Ocasio-Cortez despite their claims otherwise.
It also didn’t take long for Hill staffers — like Jordan Haverly, a communications director for Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) — to pull screenshots from the House IT guidelines showing that spouses, or boyfriends, are not supposed to have official house.gov email accounts.
Just going to leave this here. From the Committee on House Administration's IT policy. pic.twitter.com/Kd75nF17pT
— Jordan Haverly (@jhaverly) February 15, 2019
Fast-forward to Wednesday morning, and Thompson’s quest to find out if Roberts was officially hired by Ocasio-Cortez led him to another potential ethics violation by the Ocasio-Cortez team.
Thompson claims that Ocasio-Cortez worked with her current chief of staff, Chakrabarti, to make two payments totaling $6,000 to Roberts using campaign money from a PAC run by Chakrabarti.
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
Chakrabarti ran a campaign strategy firm called Brand New Congress, LLC. Under that firm, he had a PAC that he used for the campaigns he assisted. Three payments listed on FEC forms caught the eye of Thompson.
The first payment was from Brand New Congress PAC to Roberts for $3,000. Prior to Ocasio-Cortez’s election, Roberts worked in web design, yet he was paid by Brand New Congress for marketing.
Skip ahead 18 days from the original payment made to Roberts, and Ocasio-Cortez cut a check to Brand New Congress, LLC for $6,191.32.
A month later, Brand New Congress PAC cut another check to Roberts for $3,000. So, in total, Chakrabarti received $6,191.32 from Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign, and within two months, Roberts received $6,000 from Chakrabarti for his work as a “marketing consultant.”
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
Thompson also noted that it appears they attempted to distance Roberts’ work with the campaign from the additional payments from Chakrabarti’s PAC by listing him under a different address in Arizona.
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
Thompson also alluded that Chakrabarti got his job in Ocasio-Cortez’s office because of the transaction.
“A rich guy used a PAC to pay [Ocasio-Cortez’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,” he tweeted.
Chakrabarti has political success in his own right from managing Brand New Congress and his work with Justice Democrats, so his qualifications seem to go beyond a simple tit-for-tat situation, but Thompson thinks Chakrabarti did more than just hire Roberts.
In his Medium post, Thompson points to the amount of debt racked up by Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign as leverage that could have been used by Chakrabarti, writing:
By the end of 2017 she’d spent $37,249.94 but raised only $8,361.03. That’s a lot of money to stick on a credit card. Since no loans are recorded on her campaign books, presumably either AOC or Roberts was fronting the necessary cash.
It looks to me like Chakrabarti was effectively reimbursing AOC for a third of her expenses with Brand New Congress LLC, perhaps so that she would stay in the race despite her mounting debt.
While both Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti were quick to respond to Thompson’s report about Roberts’ house.gov email, they haven’t responded to his tweets about the payments to Roberts.
boyfriend? wow thats funny
seriesly, I was mistaken ..
A month later, Brand New Congress PAC cut another check to Roberts for $3,000. So, in total, Chakrabarti received $6,191.32 from Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign, and within two months, Roberts received $6,000 from Chakrabarti for his work as a “marketing consultant.”
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I hear AOC has a degree in economics. I wonder what semester she took money laundering 101?
The house.gov email address is a status symbol and monetizable asset since it implies access to Congress.
Her defense will probably be “it may not be legally right, but it’s morally right”.
The most unflattering picture of the equine socialist
I have yet to see.
They will turn on her for the Amazon screw up. I don’t think this would have come out if she didn’t mess that up.
Billions of dollars. 25k jobs. So much in kickbacks, no show jobs, union dues, construction contracts, waste management contracts, parking, etc. down the drain.
She’s got some heavy weights ticked at her.
I love it.
If anyone in Congress ever retired poor,
I’d love to hear about it.
Boxcar Barbie the Bilious Bug-eyed Brain-dead Bribing Bolshevik Bitch.
What is "How much does it cost to buy a stupid freshman Congress person Alex."
Occasional Cotex, you think you’re privileged,eh?
ROFL
Let’s just hope this evil, conniving, stupid bitch is retired within two years. I suspect she’ll be with us until the United States devolves into Venezuela.
“She could always plead ignorance.”
No need. Its already assumed.
“The house.gov email address is a status symbol and monetizable asset since it implies access to Congress.”
LOL. I can see it now.
your-ad-here@house.gov
Has anybody actually seen her recently or is she just tweeting?
BTTT!
Don’t forget, the LIBERALS are in charge of Congress so it must be assumed the LIBERALS are completely in agreement to purging her.
NOW it is up to the R’s to DEFEND HER, but not so much as to make it really recognizable especially since the Rs will damn an R for ‘leaving the seat up’ etc.
AOC is the main jewel in the R camp...need to keep her around for the value she gives ‘us’ until the LIBs oust her.
Any truth to the ‘rumor’(that I am making up) that PDJT funded her candidacy? After he is from Queens and she represents a portion of Queens County...
The Green Old Deal is SOP for all socialists.
She sure learned the dark side of being a Dem in hurry.
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