A conservative non-profit has filed a Federal Elections Commission complaint against Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, alleging the freshman congresswoman's campaign team illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her boyfriend through an allied political action committee.
Lawyers for the Coolidge Reagan Foundation asked the FEC to review the matter on Wednesday after questions about AOC's campaign finance activities were raised earlier this month.
On February 20, GOP political consultant Luke Thompson unveiled screenshots of FEC records via his Medium page showing the congresswoman's campaign paid $6,191.32 to Brand New Congress LLC, a progressive PAC and consulting firm that hired Cortez's boyfriend, Riley Roberts, as a marketing consultant during the fall of 2017 not long after Cortez's campaign began.
The screenshots from showed BNC - a group founded by progressive tech engineer Saikat Chakrabarti, Cortez's current chief of staff who previously served as her campaign chair - also made two payments to Cortez's boyfriend totaling $6,000 in August and September of 2017.
An FEC complaint was filed against the campaign team for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (center) on Wednesday, asking the commission to investigate whether she illegally funneled money to her boyfriend Riley Roberts (circled) during her 2018 run for office
The complaint was filed by the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, a conservative non-profit
Payment's made to Cortez's boyfriend from a group working with her campaign were unveiled by GOP political consultant Luke Thompson on February 20
'Why would Chakrabarti, a founding engineer at Stripe and a wealthy veteran of Silicon Valley, be hiring a no-name “UX Experience” guy with little discernible marketing experience to serve as Brand New Congress PAC’s sole marketing consultant?' Thompson asked.
'The answer seems to be that Chakrabarti was funneling money paid to him by AOC’s campaign back to Roberts and by extension to AOC... If the payments from the PAC to her boyfriend were meant to keep her campaign afloat, they were $1,000 over the legal limit for PAC donations in a calendar year.'
CRF
