Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continues to amuse and amaze. Fresh off of celebrating her role in driving Amazon out of New York City, an innocent question about why her boyfriend is now a member of her Congressional staff led to Luke Thompson, the questioner, being suspended by Twitter for a few days. Well, Luke did some digging and Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! AOC just loves her some D.C. SWAMP!
Keep in mind, her chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, tried to claim Thompson was doxxing Riley Roberts with that information. Except, Congressional staff directories are public information as was his LinkedIn profile until Roberts took it down.
While Thompson was on suspension, he went digging and found some very very interesting information via the FEC. Seems AOC’s Chief of Staff had created a PAC called Brand New Congress in January of 2017 and by that February, this non qualified PAC joined with the Justice Democrat PAC.
As progressives in NYC were finally getting mad at AOC for helping tank the Amazon deal:
Luke Thompson was connecting dots between those two PACS, AOC and her boyfriend Riley Roberts.
A quick tour through AOC’s campaign expenditures reveals the extent to which Brand New Congress midwifed her campaign into existence, precisely as the FAQ described above would have it. But AOC’s campaign was different from the others backed by Brand New Congress PAC, and not simply because she won. Like other candidates, AOC paid Brand New Congress LLC for strategic consulting, in her case totaling $18,880.14. Unlike in the other cases, Brand New Congress PAC turned around and paid her boyfriend as a “marketing consultant”.
~And
Indeed, while Brand New Congress PAC’s ten largest expenditures were paid to Brand New Congress LLC for “strategic consulting,” a sum that totaled $261,165.20 over the course of the campaign, its eleventh and twelfth largest expenditures were paid to Riley Roberts.
Brand New Congress PAC paid Roberts $3,000 on August 9th:
Eighteen days later, AOC’s campaign paid Brand New Congress LLC $6,191.32:
A month later Brand New Congress PAC then turned around and paid Riley Roberts another $3,000.
Thompson then asks a great question. Why would a Silicon Valley veteran and successful entrepreneur play this kind of money game? Can only assume it was so he could end up where he is now, as AOC’s chief of staff.
Keep in mind that AOC’s campaign was in the red BIGLY at the time all these financial two-steps started happening.
The payments to Roberts are the largest payments made by @BrandNew535 to any person or group other than Brand New Congress LLC. Oh, and Roberts doesn't work in marketing. pic.twitter.com/XN8AYl0l7J
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
But supposedly Chakrabarti left the PAC a long time ago. Supposedly.
Now @saikatc says he left @BrandNew535 sometime in August of 2017. But @justicedems, which he continued running, and which remains on his profile, shared an address with @AOC's campaign. It appears he still owns Brand New Congress LLC. pic.twitter.com/T0MS7ab80x
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
A few things to point out here. If Riley Roberts is her spouse, then he can have a House.gov account under specific guidelines. If he is actually married to her, then full financial disclosures from both will have to show up in May per Congressional guidelines. However, the fact that he was only her boyfriend during the campaign makes the financial payments Thompson uncovered very troubling and highly unethical.
There are a lot of people in New York who are extremely unhappy with AOC about the Amazon deal.
Say what you will about @AOC, but despite losing New York 25,000 jobs and billions in revenue, she at least created a job for her boyfriend
— Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) February 20, 2019
Small comfort I’m sure to those who were planning for a future with Amazon.
Sorry, didn’t get the latest memo after 1,000 experienced + qualified journalists of all stripes were let go w/o warning a few weeks ago and still looking for work: are we still pretending that hires like these are evidence of a meritocracy? https://t.co/Qb9JNgcdT2
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 20, 2019
Pot meet Kettle.
One thing for sure, we know that not only is AOC an economic illiterate, she’s now officially a 100% D.C. Swamp Creature!
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Feature Photo Credit: US House of Representatives [Public domain] via Wikimedia, cropped and modified
Jim says: I wonder if this over-painted intellectual dwarf has her eyes on the notional $US 3 billion she claims to have saved in stopping the Amazon deal? It would make a nice ”nest-egg” if her poor ”boy friend” takes the bait and stays with her, even marries her.
Joe in PNG says: Typical nomenklatura Parti type.
xtyron says: “financial two step??” it’s called MONEY LAUNDERING and it’s illegal.
oh yea…
democrat….
Bill Francis says: Human nature is human nature. Some people will always scam and cheat the system for their own personal gain.
GWB says: “Human nature” = ALL people will always scam and cheat the system for their own personal gain.
UNLESS they are taught a set of morals that restrains them. And once you go progressive, you throw off many of those moral restraints in the cause of the religion.
(The Law will only keep your behavior correct insofar as you might get caught. Morals restrain from within, because it’s your very own conscience which will catch you.)
GWB says: she’s now officially a 100% D.C. Swamp Creature
Meh. Honestly, it shows more that she’s a NYC swamp creature. A commenter on Ace points out that – much like Chicago – NYC pols are consistently corrupt, regularly practicing nepotism, getting/giving kickbacks, and all sorts of other shenanigans. She got herself involved in NY politics, and this is just how things are done. She really didn’t need to be corrupted by DC – she’s from NYC. (Why do you think the Clintons moved there?)
(This is pretty mild stuff, too, though it might be indicative of future ignoring of the rules.)
Nina Bookout says: Well…this instance is mild in its own way. However, it’s worth pointing out because – to your point – if she can get away with the little stuff, she’ll try to get away with the big stuff. 😉
I have been greatly entertained and amused by the adoring cult that has grown around AOC and even more so by AOC herself. Since she has moved to full-blown petulant whining mode after being called out for the cow farts/unwilling to work revelation and her gleeful remarks about the end of the Amazon deal, it’s all changed for me.
Now with this latest episode of the PAC-supported boyfriend and the special resume of her chief of staff, she’s just another swamp creature. It took just 46 days for her to go from freshly inaugurated into office/ready to sign bills to the mask not just slipping but falling dead off. Not much amusement in that.
I don’t know what took me so long to discover this site, but now that I have it’s a daily morning read for me. Thanks for publishing timely topics in an informative and entertaining way.
Nina Bookout says: Thank you! Glad you found us! 😉
F.D.R. in Hell says: I’d love to see AOC hook up with that boy Smollett.
Well, not actually “witness” it, but if they got married,
that would be a dynamic pair for the future of America!
“Sandy Smollett for President 2024”
Mark says: Amuse. Amaze. You forgot “Appall.” Occlusional-Cortex was a swamp creature all along. Now she’s found a home in the world’s most fetid mire.
Walter says: Boyfriend, huh. Not what I would have guessed.
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