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Ocasio-Cortez Accused of Operating 'Subsidy Scheme' in New FEC Complaint

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A complaint to the Federal Election Commission claims New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez violated campaign finance rules along the way to her 2018 election to Congress.

Ocasio-Cortez quickly described the complaint filed by the Coolidge Reagan Foundation on Wednesday as “bogus,” Fox News reported.

The complaint is the second filed recently against the high-profile congresswoman. The first complaint alleged she spent money improperly, according to The Associated Press.

The more recent complaint alleges that Ocasio-Cortez and her then-campaign manager Saikat Chakrabarti, who is her current chief of staff, evaded the rules to raise more money than otherwise allowed.

“This Complaint alleges Respondent Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her campaign manager, Saikat Chakrabarti, engaged in a brazen scheme involving multiple political and commercial entities under their control to violate federal election law, circumvent federal contribution limits and reporting requirements, and execute an unlawful subsidy scheme,” the complaint states.

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“This scheme allowed Ocasio-Cortez to gain an unfair advantage by receiving illegally excessive contributions and illegally subsidized campaign services while shielding the full extent of her violations from public view to maintain her false public image as a campaign finance reformer,” the complaint adds.

According to the complaint, “Ocasio-Cortez and the Involved Candidates accepted excessive or illegal in-kind contributions from Brand New Congress LLC, Brand New Congress PAC, and Justice Democrats PAC, and did not properly report them.”

The complaint alleges that Brand New Congress LLC provided extensive services to the campaign, for which it was not paid, amounting to an in-kind contribution that was never reported.

Ocasio-Cortez, in a Twitter post published long before the 2018 election that brought her to Congress, acknowledged that Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats had to be paid for their work under the law.

The complaint also alleges there was an improper relationship between AOC for Congress and the Justice Democrats PAC.

“Through this complex web of shadowy entities, Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti ensured the flow of hundreds of thousands of dollars of unreported, illegal, dark-money contributions to aid the campaigns of Ocasio-Cortez and other far-left Progressive Democrats,” the complaint states. “Ocasio-Cortez and her Chief of Staff repeatedly and blatantly flouted our nation’s campaign finance requirements.”

The complaint includes several examples of instances in which control of the various organizations overlapped.

“Saikat Chakrabarti controlled Justice Democrats PAC. He was the Executive Director of Justice Democrats PAC and, along with Ocasio-Cortez (for whom he served as campaign manager) he controlled a majority of Justice Democrats PAC’s board. Chakrabarti also controlled Brand New Congress LLC. He was its founder and sole member,” the complaint states.

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Should Ocasio-Cortez be charged for these alleged violations?

The complaint alleges that $605,849.42 was transferred from Justice Democrats PAC to Brand New Congress LLC and that the transfer allowed “those funds to be spent without any public reporting or accountability.

“As the mastermind at the heart of this enterprise, Chakrabarti was on all sides of all of these transactions. His PAC raised funds which it paid to his LLC to provide services at below market prices to the candidate, Ocasio-Cortez, for whom he served as campaign manager and who had made disbursements to both his PAC and LLC, as well as the other Involved Candidates. Ocasio-Cortez has since appointed Chakrabarti the Chief of Staff of her congressional office,” the complaint states.

In dismissing the charges, Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday said, “I mean, it’s conservative interest groups just filing bogus proposals.”

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Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack can be reached at jackwritings1@gmail.com.
Location
New York City
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Foreign Policy, Military & Defense Issues




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