New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is under a House Ethics investigation, a statement from the Ethics Committee revealed on Wednesday.
“The Acting Chairwoman and Acting Ranking Member of the Committee on Ethics have jointly decided to extend the matter regarding Representative Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, which was transmitted to the Committee by the Office of Congressional Ethics on June 23, 2022,” the letter states. The acting chairwoman is Democrat Susan Wild (D) and the acting Ranking member is Michael Guest (R).
It also states that the “fact of a referral or an extension and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject of the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee.”
“The Committee will announce its course of action in this matter following its organizational meeting and adoption of Committee Rules in the 118th Congress,” it concludes.
The statement does not reveal why Ocasio Cortez is under investigation.
The New York congresswoman has faced ethics complaints with the Office of Congressional Ethics over allegations that she illegally funneled cash through a PAC to her boyfriend, the Washington Examiner reported.
“This Complaint alleges Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez improperly converted U.S. House resources to her non-official, personal use by obtaining an official ‘@mail.house.gov’ e-mail address for her boyfriend, despite the fact he was not employed by her congressional office,” that complaint, from March of 2019, read. “Moreover, it appears she obtained the e-mail address for him by falsely designating him a ‘staff’ member.”
AOC was also hit with an ethics complaint after she accepted a free ticket for the Met Gala in September of 2021.
The American Accountability Foundation’s Thomas Jones wrote in an ethics complaint that AOC broke House rules by accepting “an impermissible gift”
“[W]hile the individual’s invitations may bear the name of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum has ceded control over the invitations to a for-profit company, specifically Condé Nast, and to its Chief Content Officer, Anna Wintour,” Jones wrote, according to the New York Post.
He wrote that “the New York Times outlines that the Met does not have control over who is invited to the event, but rather the for-profit company, is in control of who gets invited.”
