Will AOC Be Held Accountable?: FEC Makes A Final Decision on AOC’s Campaign Violations Probe

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has been given a pass by the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) in a 4-2 vote by its members to dismiss the findings of a two-year-long federal probe into possible campaign violations, according to the New York Post. This probe concluded that AOC’s campaign did not “properly” disclose a number of its expenses and that two political action committees “did not properly disclose the purpose of the disbursements” to shell companies set up by AOC’s former chief of staff during her 2018 run for Congress.

The 36 paged complaint about election campaign violations was sent to the FEC by the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a governmental watchdog organization, which has responded to the dismissal by filing a lawsuit in Washington D.C. federal court which called out the FEC for not providing a reason for its decision.

The FEC was noted by the New York Post for waiting “more than 30 days to publicly disclose their investigative findings, according to the NLPC, perhaps in an effort to avoid a legal challenge, a spokesman for the NLPC said.”

The NLPC’s director of the Government Integrity Project remarked that “It was highly irregular for the FEC to release its statement of reasons after the deadline for us to file suit.”

The complaint alleges that various AOC campaign staffers funneled more than $1 million through said shell companies and that these cash donations may have violated the $5,000 contribution limit to federal candidates.

NLPC’s lawyer said “The FEC has gone after a whole host of people whose violations are dwarfed by the scale of this scheme. It appears to be not prosecutorial discretion, but prosecutorial favoritism.”

In A Victory For Trump, FEC Commissioner Mocks Bragg, Says Stormy Payment ‘Not A Campaign Finance Violation

There is a certain irony in all this. AOC’s alleged election contribution violations seem to have more meat to them than a certain Manhattan DA’s indictment of former president Donald Trump does. While Mr. Bragg’s actual indictment charges do not directly mention the 2016 election and any illegal election contribution, he did mention at a press conference that “[t]he evidence will show he [Trump] did so to cover up crimes relating to the 2016 election.” The document listing charges against Trump is weak in the extreme with one former assistant U.S. attorney calling it ripe for dismissal because “it fails to state a crime…it fails to state a crime 34 times.”

While Bragg’s theory seems to be that Trump’s 2017 alleged payments to Stormy Daniels were an illegal campaign contribution for his 2016 successful run for the White House, this theory makes no sense on its face. According to the FEC, “When candidates use their personal funds for campaign purposes, they are making contributions to their campaigns. Candidate contributions to their own campaigns are not subject to any limits.” Furthermore, it is not clear that Trump knew about the payments to his lawyer, Michael Cohen, were going to hush money at all and even if he did it is not clear that the reason he authorized said payments were for election-related purposes.

AOC seems to have a different mindset toward the indictment. When Governor Youngkin (R-VA) blasted the indictment as being done “for pure political gain” and said that “[a]rresting a presidential candidate on a manufactured basis should not happen in America”, AOC mocked Youngkin by inquiring on Twitter “did you even see the indictment before sending this tweet?”

Just one question, Governor: did you even see the indictment before sending this tweet? https://t.co/bAbjoPoYm7

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 31, 2023

She also cheered on Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) being drowned out by counter-protesters when the Georgia lawmaker visited Manhattan to protest the indictment of, arrest of, and general weaponization of the legal system against Donald Trump. She wrote “Welcome to NYC… Where there are still social consequences for shameless bigotry.” 

Welcome to NYC! 🗽 Where there are still social consequences for shameless bigotry https://t.co/tjE4At3jmK

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 4, 2023

The irony of the situation was not lost on conservative commentator Amuse who wrote on Twitter that “Calling @ManhattanDA, your friend @aoc was found to have commuted business record fraud. The shell companies her rep set up did not properly account for contributions. Prove justice is fair and prosecute her.”

Calling @ManhattanDA, your friend @aoc was found to have commuted business record fraud. The shell companies her rep set up did not properly account for contributions. Prove justice is fair and prosecute her.

https://t.co/PxDm6gT1lh

— @amuse (@amuse) April 9, 2023

Joking aside, the chances of Mr. Bragg doing so are minimal.