Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) may have had her current chief of staff pay her boyfriend using campaign PAC money, according to a report from Luke Thompson, a National Review contributor.
Thompson started down the trail of analyzing Ocasio-Cortez’s professional relationship with her boyfriend, Riley Roberts, after realizing that the congresswoman had Roberts listed as a staff member with his own house.gov email account.
While you were having a nice Valentine's Day, @AOC decided to put her boyfriend on staff – drawing a salary on the taxpayer's dime. Nice to see her adapting to the swamp so quickly. pic.twitter.com/bvncwzxY53
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 15, 2019
As the tweet got more traction, Ocasio-Cortez responded, claiming that it was totally normal for members of the House to give their spouse — or in this case, significant other — an email address so they can see the member’s calendar.
Actually this cal designation is a permission so he can have access to my Google Cal. Congressional spouses get Gcal access all the time.
Next time check your facts before you tweet nonsense.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 15, 2019
It didn’t take long for Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, to hop online to defend his boss. He tweeted to Thompson that Roberts doesn’t work for the office in any capacity and is not paid. The email account, according to Chakrabarti, is purely for logistical access.
He's not paid. We have no volunteers in the office. He's not doing any government work. He can see her calendar just like spouses/partners/family members in other congressional office. Check your damn facts before you report bullshit. Lazy journos need to learn to do their jobs.
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) February 15, 2019
The next day, Thompson took a screenshot that shows Roberts listed as “staff” for Ocasio-Cortez despite their claims otherwise.
It also didn’t take long for Hill staffers — like Jordan Haverly, a communications director for Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) — to pull screenshots from the House IT guidelines showing that spouses, or boyfriends, are not supposed to have official house.gov email accounts
Just going to leave this here. From the Committee on House Administration's IT policy. pic.twitter.com/Kd75nF17pT
— Jordan Haverly (@jhaverly) February 15, 2019
Last week, @AOC and her Chief of Staff @saikatc (the rich guy in question) freaked out on me when I pointed out it looked like she'd hired her boyfriend. I did some digging in the FEC. Turns out Saikat has "hired" her boyfriend, before…just not to do any actual work.
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 20, 2019
Chakrabarti ran a campaign strategy firm called Brand New Congress, LLC. Under that firm, he had a PAC that he used for the campaigns he assisted. Three payments listed on FEC forms caught the eye of Thompson.- READ MORE