Ocasio-Cortez PAC Under Investigation over Strange Financial Discrepancy
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘s former political action committee is under fire once again, this time subject to a Federal Election Commission investigation after financial discrepancies were found in the organization’s disclosures.
The FEC investigation centers around Justice Democrat PAC’s second quarter financial report, which disclosed several contributions to Democratic congressional campaigns meant to “retire debts” incurred during the 2018 primary.
Debts that did not exist, or warrant such sizable contributions, according to a letter the FEC sent to the PAC on May 30.
“Schedule B of your report discloses one or more contributions to federal candidates for the retirement of debts incurred by the 2018 Primary election campaign [see attached]; however, it appears that the recipient committee(s) had insufficient debts to warrant such a contribution,” the FEC wrote.
“Please note that a committee may only designate contributions to retire a candidate’s debts if those debts exist,” the department added.
The FEC letter specifies 11 instances in which campaigns received such improper contributions, including a $1,210 to Anthony Clark’s Illinois campaign.
The department also called into question a number of reimbursements from federal campaigns that reportedly never received payments from Justice Democrats PAC in the first place.
Finally, the department warned the PAC that if any “impermissible contribution” was made, it must be reconciled and disclosed properly by July 5 — or the department will be forced to pursue “further legal action.”
“Although the Commission may take further legal action regarding this impermissible activity, your prompt action in obtaining a refund and/or redesignating the contribution(s) will be taken into consideration,” the letter reads.
Then-candidate Ocasio-Cortez was a board member at Justice Democrats PAC until June 2018.
A report from the Washington Examiner says that she was still with the organization at the time of the alleged financial misdeeds.
Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti was also a co-founder of Justice Democrats and owner of the Brand New Congress PAC — another organization that supported the candidate’s campaign efforts — according to Bloomberg.
Despite Ocasio-Cortez’s complaints that the FEC is “dysfunctional” and the United States does not take campaign finance violations seriously, her PACs have been subject to a number of campaign finance complaints this year, according to Bloomberg and Fox News.
These complaints have led conservatives to allege that Ocasio-Cortez is hypocritical on the issue of campaign finance law.
Ocasio-Cortez, however, has defended herself against such claims on several occasions via Twitter, asserting that they are “bogus” and part of a vast right-wing “conspiracy.”
In case you saw the conspiracy theory running around, conservative groups have now taken to spamming us by filing bogus ethics complaints so that Fox News can report on “alleged,” untrue scandals.
This is how the misinformation machine works, folks. https://t.co/Gi5PhIJ7Jo
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 8, 2019
“In case you saw the conspiracy theory running around, conservative groups have now taken to spamming us by filing bogus ethics complaints so that Fox News can report on “alleged,” untrue scandals,” she wrote in March.
“This is how the misinformation machine works, folks.”
The Western Journal reached out to Ocasio-Cortez for comment but has not yet received a response. We will update this article if and when we do.
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