A Republican advocacy group has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission arguing that Riley Roberts – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ boyfriend – illegally received $6,000 through a political action committee (PAC) allied with her congressional campaign.
The PAC is called Justice Democrats, founded by progressive commentator Cenk Uygur and Saikat Chakrabarti.
Chakrabarti now serves as AOC’s chief of staff.
Fox News’ Perry Chiaramonte has more:
Members of the Washington, D.C.-based Coolidge Reagan Foundation allege in their complaint that when the Brand New Congress PAC (BNC) — 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 [Ocasio-Cortez] to pay her boyfriend, but it appears that they created some sort of scheme to avoid claiming the money [as a campaign expense],” Dan Backer, a D.C.-based attorney who filed the complaint on behalf of the foundation, told Fox News. “What exactly did he do for that money?”
It was first reported last week that the Brand New Congress PAC paid Roberts during the early days of the Ocasio-Cortez campaign. According to FEC records, the PAC made two payments to Roberts – one in August 2017 and one in September 2017 – both for $3,000.
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 is specifically requesting the FEC investigate potential violations of pertinent campaign finance laws.
AAN Staff
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