Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Breitbart – National Legal and Policy Center has filed a complaint alleging climate action champion Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign manager concocted an elaborate scheme to avoid mandatory disclosure of at least $885,735 to the Federal Election Commission.
FEC Complaint Filed Against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for ‘Extensive Off-the-Books’ Campaign
Posted on March 4, 2019 by Peter Flaherty
National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) filed a formal Complaint today with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), her chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti, and several other individuals and groups who orchestrated an extensive operation to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign spending during the 2018 campaign, in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended.
The funds were expended in support of ten or more Congressional candidates by a for-profit entity called Brand New Congress LLC, apparently operated by Chakrabarti. The Act requires that all expenditures of $200 or more to be disclosed to the FEC, and their purpose identified. The Complaint alleges that Chakrabarti’s LLC served as a “cutout,” for at least $885,735 received from Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign and two federal political action committees, Brand New Congress PAC and Justice Democrats PAC.
The final disposition of the funds is unknown because whatever expenditures were made were never reported to the FEC. It appears, however, that they underwrote a score of campaign-related events and activities for Ocasio-Cortez and other Congressional candidates.
Chakrabarti described the operation on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow as a “unified” national campaign to elect progressives to Congress, whereby candidates would be freed from the responsibility of raising money or administering their campaigns. He did not mention that it would also free candidates from the responsibility of disclosure. He stated that one of the campaign’s priorities is to “get rid of the influence of money in politics.”
According to Tom Anderson, director of NLPC’s Government Integrity Project, “These are not minor or technical violations. We are talking about real money here. In all my years of studying FEC reports, I’ve never seen a more ambitious operation to circumvent reporting requirements. Representative Ocasio-Cortez has been quite vocal in condemning so-called dark money, but her own campaign went to great lengths to avoid the sunlight of disclosure.”
NLPC helped expose irregularities in the use of campaign funds by ex-Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY), who Ocasio-Cortez defeated for re-election in 2018.
Click here for Washington Examiner story by Alana Goodman titled, “AOC’s Chief of Staff Ran $1M Slush Fund by Diverting Campaign Cash to His Own Companies.”
Source: https://nlpc.org/2019/03/04/fec-complaint-filed-against-rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-for-extensive-off-the-books-campaign/
Let us hope the Democrats find time in their busy schedule to probe the finances of at least one person who is not connected to President Trump.
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Of all the nasty characteristics of the leftist/marxist movement, the one that is most pervasive are lies/deception. Of course there are endless variations & forms — outright lies, lies by omission, half truths/half lies, crying wolf/scare-mongering, number manipulation, fabricated history — the list goes on limited only by their evil imaginations.
Nothing in the lame-stream media can be trusted.
Use the insanity defense. Dems are always setting new precedence in the courts and Congress.
Last line of the article: “Let us hope the Democrats find time in their busy schedule to probe the finances of at least one person who is not connected to President Trump.”
Riiiight. On a cold day in …. (Although she’s ticked off enough Democrats already, so maybe…)
By the way, I’ve been wondering how she’s been able to afford those multi-thousand-dollar outfits. Campaign expenditures, perhaps?
In her successful 2018 campaign to become Congressional Representative of New York District 14, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat):
Raised: $2,084,838
Spent: $1,673,699
Retained as Cash on Hand: $368,811
Note: source of above information is
opensecrets.org/races/candidates?cycle=2018&id=NY14&spec=N
How much of that money was funneled into/through the LLC?
Color me SHOCKED !!!!!
Campaign finance laws are for the Little People, not for the Bosses!
Hopefully she gets the same treatment / jail time, relative to the amount of money involved, that Dinesh D’Sousa received. But of course, there are two sets of rules in America: One for Republicans where they go to jail. Another for Democrats, where nothing will happen.
Just add this to the list of Democrat crimes where nothing will happen. Perhaps time will prove me wrong, but I doubt it.
“get rid of the influence of money in politics.”
It’s always been about getting other people’s money out of politics. Money that supports me is pure.
We need AO-C around us of what the insanity of the Left looks like.
It’s interesting that in the US as in the UK (and probably elsewhere as well) the sense of entitlement increases in direct relationship to how far left you are.
The rules don’t apply to them.
Trying to take the money out of politics doesn’t apply to the money they spend.
While the rest of us starve/freeze/ aren’t allowed to travel they are at liberty to do all those things in the name of “saving the planet”.
And on and on!
I’ve been battling this sort of attitude for decades. The (very) occasional victory is worth celebrating but I’m afraid they’re becoming rarer.
Just two months in office and Alexandria may already be among the large cadre of Congressional Crooks.
That would be a cadre that consists of 97% of congress critters. 😉
Anthony/Mods: I’m surprised you allowed the comment from Rhys Jagger (https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/03/05/climate-action-champion-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-accused-of-massive-campaign-finance-violations/#comment-2647288) to stand. It is patently anti-Semitic.
So what are the legal consequences of doing that (besides being investigated)?
depends on what letter is after their name (D or R). sadly that’s not sarcasm.
Flagrant hypocrisy-something the left are notorious for. If it is an actual offense, then she has to go-simple.
If the boot were on the other foot, the Democrats would be howling for blood, so time for a level playing field. Mind you, she is such a dope that she could actually wake people up that she speaks utter propaganda and rubbish, but then again, never underestimate the extent of human stupidity. There would be people out there that actually believe her drivel.
AOC, the gift that keeps giving. The Republican Party should pay her rent in DC in return for the favor she does for the R party.
Just think–after five years in the slammer, AOC will finally be old enough to run for president!