«Breaking News» Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff is accused of skirting campaign finance laws

Watchdog groups have questioned whether congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff skirted campaign finance laws.

Saikat Chakrabarti, 33, founded and ran the Tennessee-based PAC Justice Democrats, which spearheaded Ocasio-Cortez's run, prior to joining the freshman New York Democrat's Congressional staff.

According to Federal Election Commission filings, Ocasio-Cortez's campaign paid Justice Democrats a total of $41,108.59 for 'campaign services' and 'strategic consulting' in 2017 and 2018.

Now a report in the New York Post questions whether a PAC can also be a vendor, and points out that PACs can only give $5,000 in services to a campaign. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti (with her above) founded and ran the Tennessee-based PAC Justice Democrats, which her campaign paid $41,108.59

Ocasio-Cortez spokesman Corbin Trent told Post that both the campaign and the PAC followed FEC rules and that they sought advice from an elections lawyer. 

'It was payment for services,' Trent said of the campaign's payments to Justice Democrats.

Some watchdogs are questioning the legality of the arrangement, however. 

'They believe their cause is so great that they don't have to play by the rules,' Tom Anderson, who heads up the Government Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center in Virginia, a conservative watchdog group, told the Post.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is seen with Saikat Chakrabarti in June

'They believe that they are above campaign finance law,' he added.  

Another PAC that Chakrabarti founded to support leftist candidates, Brand New Congress, has already come under scrutiny for paying Ocasio-Cortez's boyfriend Riley Roberts in an alleged cash-funneling scheme.

In the fall of 2017, Ocasio-Cortez's campaign paid $6,191.32 to Brand New Congress, which turned around and hired Roberts as a marketing consultant, making two payments to him totaling $6,000 in August and September of 2017. 

Lawyers for the Coolidge Reagan Foundation asked the FEC to review the matter on Wednesday.

Cortez's team paid Brand New Congress LLC $6,191.32 in 2017 around the same time the group paid a total of $6,000 to her boyfriend, Riley Roberts (pictured), for marketing consulting 

Chakrabarti founded a Silicon Valley app-building company called Some Character LLC before taking an active role in left-wing politics. 

He previously directed social-media for Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. 

Last June, Chakrabarti purchased a $1.6 million home in Montgomery County, Maryland, according to real estate records.

Ocasio-Cortez has imposed a salary cap of $80,000 on her staff however, meaning that Chakrabarti will be paid far less than that the $145,000 average that congressional chiefs of staff make.

The congresswoman says that the salary cap ensures that her junior staffers can make a 'living wage' of at least $52,000.

However, questions have been raised about whether the salary cap is a means to skirt reporting requirements, which mandate that Capitol Hill staff making more than $126,00 report their assets and other income.

Link hienalouca.com

https://hienalouca.com/2019/03/04/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-chief-of-staff-is-accused-of-skirting-campaign-finance-laws/
Main photo article Watchdog groups have questioned whether congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff skirted campaign finance laws.
Saikat Chakrabarti, 33, founded and ran the Tennessee-based PAC Justice Democrats, which spearheaded Ocasio-Cortez’s run, prior to joining the freshman New...

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Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca





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