Thursday, February 28, 2019

FEC Complaint Filed Against Ocasio-Cortez For Illegal Payments To Boyfriend

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is in some hot water now over payments to her boyfriend.

Then it was discovered that her boyfriend was paid handsomely for some cushy job with one of her main campaign supporter PACS. And now a Republican group has filed a complaint arguing that she violated campaign finance laws to pay her boyfriend, Fox News reported.

A Republican group filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday alleging that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's campaign may have illegally funneled thousands of dollars through an allied PAC to boyfriend Riley Roberts.

Members of the Washington, D.C.-based Coolidge Reagan Foundation allege in their complaint that when the Brand New Congress PAC - a political arm of Brand New Congress LLC, a company that was hired by Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to run and support her campaign - paid Roberts for marketing services, it potentially ran afoul of campaign finance law.

"It's not illegal for to pay her boyfriend, but it appears that they created some sort of scheme to avoid claiming the money ," Dan Backer, a D.C.-based attorney who filed the complaint on behalf of the foundation, told Fox News.

The FEC complaint specifically cites the use of "Intermediaries" to make the payments, "The vague and amorphous nature of the services Riley ostensibly provided," the relatively small amount of money raised by the campaign at that stage and "The romantic relationship between Ocasio-Cortez and Riley" in asserting the transactions might violate campaign finance law.

The Coolidge Reagan Foundation - a 501(c)(3) - is requesting that the FEC look into the payments for potential violations on relevant campaign finance laws that state that campaign contributions "Shall not be converted by any person to personal use" and that "An authorized committee must report the name and address of each person who has received any disbursement not disclosed."

https://thefederalistpapers.org/opinion/fec-complaint-filed-ocasio-cortez-illegal-payments-boyfriend

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