Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s dark money hypocrisy (socialism up close and personal)

NYPOST.COM ^ | 3/7/19 | NY POST EDITORIAL BOARD

[Liz]

Pretend you’re a freshman lawmaker who perpetually rails against dark money — but your chief of staff has funneled $1 million-plus in political donations to two of his own companies. That’s the hypocritical pickle Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez finds herself in. At a House hearing, AOC made a big show of waxing indignant about what’s legal under campaign laws......now she’s left arguing that moves by her then-campaign manager (now her chief of staff), were legal (however smelly).

Watchdogs at the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) charge that Chakrabarti skirted reporting requirements and violated the $5,000 limit on donations to federal PACs. “These are not minor technical violations. We are talking about real money. In all my years of studying FEC reports, I’ve never seen a more ambitious operation to circumvent reporting requirements, ” said NLPC’s Tom Anderson.

Lawyer David Mitrani claims the FEC doesn’t require disclosure of the embarrassing info. Mitrani is (A) a lawyer for AOC's campaign, and, (B) lawyer for AOC's PACs and LLCs (they all share the same lawyer!).

AOC's “Get the dark money out of politics” act argues that it’s OK because it’s not outright forbidden.

Hypocrite.

[Liz]

....an FEC complaint was filed against AOC alleging her COS, Saikat Chakrabarti, created multiple private
companies---LLCs---- to siphon off campaign contributions from her various PACs for her personal use......

BTW, besides socialism (gag)....Bernie and AOC have a lot in common.
AOC’s COS used to be Bernie’s....wait for it....."Director of Organizing Technology."

AND THIS--Saikat Chakrabarti, is a proven tech expert.
(A) He co-founded a web design tool,
(B) He built up the product team at the payment processor "Stripe".........
(C) He then came to the Sanders campaign after (cough) growing disillusioned with the tech world.

Saikat Chakrabarti was Bernie's Director of Organizing Technology. Even old man Bernie knew enough to hire a tech expert.

So, I guess (smirk) Chakrabarti's tech skills musta come in mighty handy when donations to Bernie were wire-transferred to the DNC
and ended up in Hillary's account. Debbie W/S headed the DNC at the time and was ousted b/c of her bias for Hillary.

Course, none of us heard about any of this, but.....

<><> Chakrabarti-the-tech-whiz did find out about the DNC theft, didnt he?

<><> Chakrabarti did speak to D/W/S about it, or to Debbie's tech expert, Imran Awan, didnt he?

<><> Chakrabarti did tell Bernie he was fleeced, didnt he?

<><> Chakrabarti WAS working for Bernie, wasnt he?

cont

[Liz]

cont

Now the details about that FEC complaint:

The FEC complaint asserts that AOC's COS, Saikat Chakrabarti, early on established two PACs that raised big bucks for AOC's campaign:
<><> the Brand New Congress PAC, and,
<><> Justice Democrats PAC.
After the money was raised, Chakrabarti systematically transferred $885,000+ in PAC contributions to his private companies with similar names:
<><> the Brand New Campaign LLC, and,
<><> the Brand New Congress LLC.
Saikat Chakrabarti's private companies, unlike PACs, are exempt from reporting all of their significant expenditures.

Keep in mind it is a much-used criminal act to open bank accounts using similarly named entities as Chakrabarti did.
It's easy to siphon off money for oneself by putting checks into the new accounts with similar names, depositing checks that were made out to the original entity.

Even your bank will advise you that if the check-writer "mis-spelled" your name.....to just endorse the check with the correct name.

AND PRESTO: a check made out to Brand New Congress PAC, is deposited in the Brand New Congress LLC account.

==========================================

ANALYSIS --- Chakrabarti's companies appear to have been set up for the sole purpose of obscuring how AOC's donations were used. The arrangement skirted reporting requirements and may have violated the $5,000 limit on contributions, according to the FEC complaint filed by the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group.

Campaign finance attorneys described the arrangement as “really weird” and an indication "there’s something amiss." They said there was no way of telling where the political donations went — meaning (A) the donations could have been pocketed, or, (B) used by the LLC's to pay for off-the-books campaign operations.---SNIP---SOURCED FROM FR.

===================================

JUST WONDERING .....does Chakrabarti have a reputation among Democraps for facilitating the conversion of campaign donations?

Maybe we should ask Bernie (/s)?

[PGalt]

“No controlling legal authority.” /s

[Steely Tom]

If the parties were reversed and A-O-C was a Republican, the other side would never, never, never let go of this.

The only reason they’re going after PDJT is to cover up their corruption, as exemplified by A-O-C’s corrupt campaign. I bet the scamming and double-dealing we’ve seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg with her.

[Liz]

Ut Oh: Ocasio-Cortez Hit With More Ethics Trouble
Gave Her Boyfriend (A) a Congressional Email Account, (B) Security Clearance, and (C) put him on her payroll?
SOURCE https://townhall.com ^ | March 7 2019 | by Matt Vespa / FR Posted by Beowulf9

The half-baked socialist is a virtual whiz at spending other people's money.
The $52,000 staff salaries she bragged about make more sense......as a sub rosa plan to put her boyfriend on the payroll.

That's her mother holding the Bible.....boyfriend is grinning tall guy on right with the beard.

She got caught putting her live-in boyfriend on the Congressional payroll.....
and the buzz is he's got top level security clearance over OUR SAFETY and SECURITY.

Reports indicate suspicious payments to AOC’s boyfriend began during her campaign......there's all those LLC bank accounts with no accountability.

=========================================

FACTS ON FILE
<><> Absent a waiver from House Ethics, family members have to be volunteers to get official house.gov email addresses,
<><> AOC’s office apparently doesn’t believe in having unpaid workers; according to her COS they have no volunteers in the office.
<><> So boyfriend is designated as "staff" but also isn’t on AOC’s staff, so says the socialist nitwit;
<><> even though boyfriend showed up last Friday morning in the House directory as processing into AOC's personal office as a "staffer".

===============================

AOC'S boyfriend, Riley Roberts, is (drum roll please)
<><> a professional digital marketing and growth consultant,
<><> who specializes in (A) social media presence, and, (B) subscriber engagement.

His hiring was based “on his experience managing successful advertising and social media campaigns."

Among his (cough) "services" to AOC: advertising strategies for potential growth, developing metrics, and,
aiding in execution of strategy to increase brand awareness for her PAC.”

Roberts DID ALL THAT during 2 month trial period, working August 3, 2017, through the end of Sept 2017.

[ThunderSleeps]

Come on, don’t you know some pigs are more equal than others? The rules are only meant to apply to the others, not the pigs at the top. Up top it’s situational ethics, the ends justify the means, and as long as their intentions were good...

[ManHunter]

Yet another “so what?” story. Does anyone think that Eeyore or anyone close to her will be held to account?

[KarlInOhio]

AOC = Apprentice of Chavez (or Castro).

With a million dollar skim in just a few months of campaigning she is well on her way to becoming a billionaire like her idols while she starves us.

[\/\/ayne]

Dimocrats: "I can't live... If living is without Dark Money.
I can't give... I can't live anymooooooooooooore!"

- with apology to Harry Nilsson

[Tucker39]

Hey! Lighten up here! The aspiring young communist congressperson/nee bartender is only emulating every high level commie who’s gone before her. From the Russians with their beachside dachas, to the NK Kim family with their wagyu beef and loster tail. Even ol’ Bernie owns 3 luxury homes. I’m surprised AOC doesn’t already have a Lamborghini. What’s the surprise?

[poconopundit]

I like it: Apprentice of Castro

[Liz]

LOL.....and how did Bernie afford three homes on a Congressman's salary?

Maybe we should ask Saikat Chakrabarti......Bernie's onetime Director of Organizing Technology?

[itsahoot]

“No controlling legal authority.” /s

And sure enough there wasn’t.

[Rappini]

Yeah but isn’t that what Comrades do.

[Liz]

AOC is raising money off the cop-out House resolution condemning Anti Semitic and anti-Islam hate.

AOC'S FUND-RAISER READS: “It’s official – AIPAC is coming after Alexandria, Ilhan and Rashida,” the email began,
referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

“Rashida, Ilhan and Alexandria have at times dared to question our foreign policy, and the influence of money in our political system.
And now, lobbying groups across the board are working to punish them for it.”

“Help us build a progressive movement that fights for the honest conversation, inclusiveness and our universal fight with hate with a $27 contribution,” it continued.

The email quotes an “AIPAC activist” – Stephen Fiske – who had told the NYT that the trio “will not be around in Congress in several years.”

[elcid1970]

Would love to say to AOC:

“Filthy capitalist DOLLARS, Congresswoman!!? I thought you progressives never touch the stuff!!”

[Tucker39]

All I know at this point is that when Bernie and his people got P.O’d over Shrillary stealing the Primary/Nomination from him, she and the DNC slid a nominal $Millon to him under the table. He forthwith went and bought a waterside home for $600K and up. I bet he’s secretly happy he left Shrillary go ahead and get her arse whupped by Trump instead of him.