It gets a little tiresome doing so many posts featuring this twaddling twit, but she is the most visible face of the Democratic Party at the moment. This story is also an example of the utter media bias in the U.S. news
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Saikat Chakrabarti, the progressive firebrand’s multimillionaire chief of staff, apparently violated campaign finance law by funneling nearly $1 million in contributions from political action committees Chakrabarti established to private companies that he also controlled, according to an explosive complaint filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and obtained by Fox News.
Amid the allegations, a former FEC commissioner late Monday suggested in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation that Ocasio-Cortez and her team could separately be facing major fines and potentially even jail time if they were knowingly and willfully violating the law by hiding their control of the Justice Democrats political action committee (PAC). Such an arrangement could have allowed Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign to receive donations in excess of the normal limit, by pooling contributions to both the PAC and the campaign itself.
The FEC complaint asserts that Chakrabarti established two PACs, the Brand New Congress PAC and Justice Democrats PAC, and then systematically transfered more than $885,000 in contributions received by those PACs to the Brand New Campaign LLC and the Brand New Congress LLC — companies that, unlike PACs, are exempt from reporting all of their significant expenditures. The PACs claimed the payments were for “strategic consulting.”
Although large financial transfers from PACs to LLCs are not necessarily improper, the complaint argues that the goal of the “extensive” scheme was seemingly to illegally dodge detailed legal reporting requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which are designed to track campaign expenditures.
This is not the first time AOC and Chakrabarti have been hit with allegations of impropriety regarding campaign finances: you had the issue with how her boyfriend was seemingly paid illegallyseemingly paid illegally.
“These are not minor or technical violations,” Tom Anderson, director of NLPC’s Government Integrity Project, said in a statement. “We are talking about real money here. In all my years of studying FEC reports, I’ve never seen a more ambitious operation to circumvent reporting requirements. Representative Ocasio-Cortez has been quite vocal in condemning so-called dark money, but her own campaign went to great lengths to avoid the sunlight of disclosure.â€
Added Anderson: “They believe their cause is so great that they don’t have to play by the rules. They believe that they are above campaign finance law.”
There are possibilities of civil and criminal penalties for these actions, especially for Chakrabarti. But, would that actually happen? Politicians get away with things like this all the time with no more than a slap on the wrist, while normal citizens, such as Dinesh D’Souza, were forced to plead guilty. He was sentenced to five years probation, eight months in a “community confinement center,” weekly counseling sessions and given a $30,000 fine, all for an improper $20,000 campaign donation.
It’s a heck of a freshman class the Dems have. AOC doing all her crazy things, and now this. Ilhan Omar and her Jew and Israel hatred. Most of them refusing to condemn Nicholas Maduro of Venezuela.
As for media bias, see if you can find this allegation on the front page of most media outlets. Not on the front page of the NY Times, Washington Post, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, LA Times, nor CNN. These make up, with a few others, the biggest, most influential media outlets in the U.S. Yet, nothing. When they are finally forced to cover this, they’ll do it in a way to protect her, much like with the allegations involving her boyfriend. That’s not reporting, it’s advocacy.
Who are you kidding? Only Trump supporters get threatened with jail time for campaign finance irregularities. We all know who is above the law.
TEACH typed: It gets a little tiresome doing so many posts featuring this twaddling twit
Then do more on the twittering twat, DJ Trump!
Simple. If the Ocasio-Cortez campaign broke campaign finance laws they should be punished accordingly, as should DJ Trump.
Anyway, the FEC didn’t charge anything, didn’t make the complaint, but the right-wing:
“National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) filed a formal complaint today with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), her chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti, and several other individuals and groups who orchestrated an extensive operation to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign spending during the 2018 campaign, in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended.”
Media bias? A conservative group filed a complaint against a Democratic Representative. Big deal. The news will be if the FEC considers the complaint valid.
Maybe Trump can intervene with the FEC the way he ordered the DOJ to scuttle the CNN-Time Warner merger. Curiously, that alleged abuse of power was not reported in conservative media.
“Cohn apparently agreed that Trump’s interest in the merger was inappropriate. “Don’t you f*cking dare call the Justice Department,†Cohn reportedly told Kelly after the meeting at which Trump demanded a lawsuit. “We are not going to do business that way.†(The Trump administration insists that there was nothing political about the case, which it lost, appealed, and then lost again.)”
So in other more coherent words……nothing will happen to her.
Crusader Rabbit may be a twat, according to some people, but The Donald is a man. And, one apparently, who did nothing wrong, since Schiff For Brains had joined Mule Ears and all the Fake News in conceding.
Media bias? A conservative group filed a complaint against a Democratic Representative. Big deal.
Funny how Jessica would be all over the blog trying to convince anybody such a thing was a big deal if done to a Lefty.
Curiously, that alleged abuse of power was not reported in conservative media.
Because it wasn’t an abuse. Presidents do it all the time. Gibson Guitar, f’rinstance.
Only Trump supporters get threatened with jail time for campaign finance irregularities.
Not this time and this is the big story. Even MSLSD is saying they’re getting tired of Occasional Cortex.
Bottom line: the Demos as a party are worried she’ll cost them the election next year. Not the Presidency, they know there’s no hope there, but control of the House, all the time and money spent in vote fraud up in smoke. So, what was a call to have her primaried a month a go is now leaks of incrimination evidence.
Is this a great country or what?
Frankly I think it’s too little, way too late, regarding too few people, what with infanticide, birthstriking, blackface, Green Final Solution, etc.
“scuttle the CNN-Time Warner merger”
Strange, you lefties are usually against big companies getting bigger. Ah, right, TDS. What Trump is against you are for.
Jeff,
So you like big monopolies of news organizations. Define how Trumps actions were irregular. And quoting Cohn, good God you are stupid.
It’ almost like NYC politicians are corrupt or something.
https://americanlookout.com/uh-oh-wife-of-nyc-mayor-bill-de-blasio-cant-account-for-850-million-given-to-city-mental-health-program/
Ocasio-Cortez never disclosed to the FEC that she and Chakrabarti, who served as her campaign chair, controlled the PAC while it was simultaneously supporting her primary campaign, and former FEC commissioners say the arrangement could lead to multiple campaign finance violations.
The rules like ya’ know don’t apply to someone trying to ya know like save the world or something.
William Teach: There are possibilities of civil and criminal penalties for these actions, especially for Chakrabarti. But, would that actually happen? Politicians get away with things like this all the time with no more than a slap on the wrist, while normal citizens, such as Dinesh D’Souza, were forced to plead guilty
It has to do with whether it was an oversight, which is a civil violation, or whether there was intention to break the law, which is criminal. That depends on the evidence of each case. D’Souza intended to break the law, so the penalty was criminal.
D’Souza was railroaded by an overzealous political prosecutor of the Obama administration.
He received a full pardon.
People go to jail all the time for breaking the law even though they didn’t mean to.
Z,
Wrong.
There is no such thing as a difference between civil and criminal based on intent. That was something made up for Hillary. There are various gradations. It will be interesting to see if this but job gets off like Hillary did. What I can’t understand is why either liberals our conservative would be comfortable with the treatment of D’Souza. That screams of foul play and corrupt politics. Most people just get a fine for his activity. The fact that someone pleads guilty to any crime is meaningless. That is only the product of negotiation with the prosecutor,it may have little to do with the actual offense.
William Teach: People go to jail all the time for breaking the law even though they didn’t mean to.
Sure, e.g. drunk drivers who accidentally kill someone. However, campaign finance laws require a finding of intention to be found criminally liable.
As for D’Souza, the court found no evidence of selective prosecution, and he pleaded guilty to a felony of knowingly making illegal campaign contributions.
Z,
Wrong on all counts.
And rosie o’donnell outright admitted to the world she made illegal contributions and yet she is still walking free.
Not wrong exactly. Just ambiguous. D’Souza received a full pardon. Not sure the Kiddiez understand why.
david7134: There is no such thing as a difference between civil and criminal based on intent.
American Bar Association: “All criminal violations of federal campaign finance laws require proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the violator acted knowingly and willfully in violation of the laws, which means that the violator knew what the law required or prohibited but acted contrary to the law.”
That means if it was an inadvertent error, it doesn’t constitute a criminal act. The FEC can still impose a civil penalty.
david7134: Most people just get a fine for his activity.
No. D’Souza pleaded guilty to having broke the law “knowingly and willfully”.
Z,
Wrong, you have vocalized, but my points are still in place. It takes a level of maturity, experienced and knowledge to understand the factors here. You may reach that level after college and add about 10 years. Till then, just a child.
david7134: you have vocalized
We responded substantively, and you ignored the response.
You said, “There is no such thing as a difference between civil and criminal based on intent.” We provided evidence from the American Bar Association that your claim was false.
Z,
Wrong.
david7134: Wrong.
We provided support for our position. You said “Is not!” more than once. The reader can decide which is more convincing.
“I learned long ago not to wrestle with pigs. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.”
You like it.
Just once. Once. Make an argument. “Wrong” is not an argument.
David makes arguments all the time.
You’re too stupid, and bigoted, to know when you’ve been beaten.
PS What the ABA says and what the statute says may well be 2 different things.
Oh no, not another one.
Controversial Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) may have taken a $17,500 payday from her own Congressional campaign, in violation of strict Federal Election Commission guidelines
http://tinyurl.com/y54jwrz8
A partisan conservative group filed a complaint with the FEC.
The Daily Caller quotes a former FEC official who claims that the Representative and her colleague could be looking at jail time!
Here’s the “former FEC official” the Daily Caller found:
“Hans Anatol von Spakovsky is an American attorney and a former member of the Federal Election Commission (FEC). He is the manager of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative and a senior legal fellow in Heritage’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. He is an advocate for more restrictive voting laws. He has been described as playing an influential role in making alarmism about voter fraud mainstream in the Republican Party, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
He was nominated to the FEC by President George W. Bush on December 15, 2005, and was appointed by recess appointment on January 4, 2006. However, von Spakovsky’s nomination was opposed by Senate Democrats, who argued that his oversight of voter laws was unacceptably partisan and that he had consistently acted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters.
Opposition to the nomination was bolstered by objections from career Justice Department staff, who accused von Spakovsky of politicizing his nominally non-partisan office to an unprecedented degree. While von Spakovsky and the Bush Administration denied the accusations of partisanship, the nomination was withdrawn on May 15, 2008. Von Spakovsky subsequently joined the staff of the Heritage Foundation, a politically conservative think tank. On June 29, 2017, President Donald J. Trump named him to be a member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.”
This is how “fake news” rockets through the right-wing echo chamber. The Gateway Pudendum probably covered the “story” (yes). It will be emailed and linked, and when it sinks under its own weight, right-wingers will swear it’s true long after it’s over. Was Obama born in Kenya? Does Hillary have Parkinson’s?
We’ll wait to see what Trump’s FEC has to say.
No need to investigate, huh, nignorant? Perhaps it would carry more weight if it was reported by Buzzfeed or CNN.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Saikat Chakrabarti, the progressive firebrand’s multimillionaire chief of staff, apparently violated campaign finance law by funneling nearly $1 million in contributions from political action committees Chakrabarti established to private companies that he also controlled, according to an explosive complaint filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and obtained by Fox News.
Here’s the WaPo article:
Payments to corporation owned by Ocasio-Cortez aide come under scrutiny
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/payments-to-corporation-owned-by-ocasio-cortez-aide-come-under-scrutiny/2019/03/05/ae5045ee-3f61-11e9-9361-301ffb5bd5e6_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d4fedcc45a4f
and from The Hill:
Conservative group alleges PACs established by Ocasio-Cortez aide failed to disclose spending
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/432796-conservative-group-alleges-pacs-established-by-top-ocasio-cortez-staffer
Said FOX “News”: apparently violated campaign finance law
Actually, a right-wing group asserted that she “violated campaign finance law”. The FEC will investigate as they should. Do you agree that the Trump campaign should be investigated for violations? After all Trump is Individual One in a felony committed at Trump’s request.
These days, Fox is at least as Left as it is Right, so you might want to listen.
More to the point, this has less to do with Left-Right than it has to do with Establishment-Crazy.
ICYMI Occasional Cortex has been getting on the nerves of a lot of Establishment Demos (one of whom thought she ought to be primaried – shot across the bow, that). Her “I’m the boss” twat seems to have been the last straw and now info about how she really won seems to be slipping out.
Harvey is always the last one to get the memo (even then, she doesn’t get it).
And the Trump campaign has been investigated. No there there.
After all Trump is Individual One in a felony committed at Trump’s request.
Care to document that?
Just because a Conservative group filed the suit doesn’t mean it has no merit.
And someone who knows election law might just be a little bit better informed than Crusader Rabbit. And a former FEC official who actually was, unlike Radella, doesn’t need scare quotes around it.
Was Obama born in Kenya? Does Hillary have Parkinson’s?
He’s admitted it. That’s the least she probably has (the woman can’t even stand on her own, for God’s sake).
Self Importance in anonyomity seems to be a real problem for the leftists of this world. Z and E talk alike, use the same verbiage and generally make the same points. Once again Z has returned to being a lawyer from his previous expeditions into being a climate expert.
I surmise that E and Z need a few more X’s and O’s to be able to convince people that they are so wildly intelligent that they cant seem to speak with out using *****WE*****
Who exactly is ******WE******?????
We understand your frustration. There exist many ways to tell lies, but the truth is the truth (unless you listen to Giuliani). That’s why two people telling you the truth sound alike.
Explain who **** WE **** is?
What makes you think we’re obligated to kowtow to your demands?
Why can’t you argue facts and evidence rather than espousing conspiracies?
Ah, you’re the one with the little voices in her head.
Considering Rudy (and Ed Dennis) broke the mob and guided Gotham through 9/11, I’d guess more people would take his word than yours.
And the truth comes out of different people differently. Some actually know what they’re talking about.
As we’ve established, you never do.
WE is short for WEASEL.
WE’re humbled by your wisdom.
Surprised the little voices would accept constructive criticism.
Early reporting from someone on top of this illegal skimming of campaign funds.
http://tinyurl.com/yyt3s9te