Radical Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has been hit with an ethics complaint over allegations that the congresswoman abused her taxpayer-funded member allowance.
A government accountability watchdog is calling on the House to launch a probe into whether Ocasio-Cortez misappropriated her allowance for personal expenses.
The complaint was filed by Americans for Public Trust (APT), a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization.
APT sent a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on Tuesday.
The organization is questioning “several troubling expenses” from AOC’s disbursements.
APT filed the complaint after AOC was accused of using taxpayer funds to pay for personal expenditures such as “dance classes.”
The group argues that AOC’s spending is “in contravention of federal law and the standards of the House of Representatives.”
Each member of Congress receives a Member Representational Allowance (MRA).
According to the Congressional Research Service, the MRA is a budget for official duties that “may not be used for personal or campaign purposes.”
However, AOC is being accused of using these funds for personal and campaign purposes.
AOC reportedly made a payment of $3,700 to a “Juan D Gonzalez” and another for $850 to “Bombazo Dance Co Inc.”
Both expenditures were described by AOC as being used for “training.”
In addition, AOC reportedly spent $3,384.74 in taxpayer money on food at a Mexican restaurant.
The congresswoman has addressed the issue on social media.
In a post on X responding to a claim that she is “wasting tax dollars,” AOC insisted that the reports are “100% wrong.”
“None of this is taxpayer money, this is an FEC filing,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
“Be loud and wrong about something else. Try again next time.”
However, APT, responding to AOC’s X post in the filing, notes that her claims are false.
The filing states that AOC’s “assertion that these expenses are ‘an FEC filing,’ and not reflective of her MRA – as well as her claim that ‘[n]one of this is taxpayer money’ – is both troubling and obviously incorrect.”
“Either she does not know the difference between her campaign funds and MRA, or, more likely, she knows the highlighted expenses were not for official business and should have been paid by her campaign and reported to the FEC.”
In a statement, Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, said:
“Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s troubling payments from her taxpayer funded account for activities such as dance classes should be investigated.
“In the era of reining in government spending, the American people deserve to know lawmakers are being good stewards of their tax dollars.”
The congresswoman has faced ethics complaints in the past.
In 2023, the Heritage Foundation accused AOC of “falsely accusing” and “defaming” Chaya Raichik, the creator of the Libs of TikTok account on X.
AOC also faced an ethics probe in 2023 after being accused of accepting “impermissible gifts associated with her attendance at the Met Gala in 2021.”
Her attendance at the glitzy event triggered allegations that she violated House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law.
https://slaynews.com/news/aoc-ethics-complaint-troubling-abuse-taxpayer-funded-member-allowance/
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