Posted on 03/12/2019 11:55:17 AM PDT by Liz
Former FEC Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky called for an investigation into alleged campaign finance violations by NY Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her top aide.There seems to be enough evidence here to justify opening a criminal investigation, von Spakovsky wrote in a Fox News op-ed Sunday.
Ocasio-Cortez and her top aide Saikat Chakrabarti have since December 2017, controlled the outside PAC credited with being the central force behind her June 2018 primary victory. An ex-FEC Commissioner called for an investigation into alleged campaign finance violations by Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her top aide Saikat Chakrabarti.
Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti have, since December 2017, held legal authority over Justice Democrats PAC, an outside PAC credited with orchestrating her upset primary victory over incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in June 2018.
The conservative National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) also filed an FEC complaint last week, first reported by the Washington Examiner, alleging that Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress, another PAC controlled by Chakrabarti, funneled $1 million into two private companies under his control during the 2018 midterms.
As a former FEC commissioner who has studied the complaint against Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti, I have concluded that there is unquestionably more than enough evidence to justify the FEC opening a civil investigation, Hans von Spakovsky, now a Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow, wrote in a Fox News op-ed Sunday.
Ocasio-Cortez never disclosed to the FEC that she and Chakrabarti, who served as her campaign chair, controlled Justice Democrats PAC while it was simultaneously supporting her primary campaign. If the FEC finds that her campaign and the political action committee were operating in affiliation, it could result in her campaign receiving excessive contributions, former FEC commissioner Brad Smith told TheDCNF.
If someone gave Ocasio-Cortez a $2,700 contribution and then gave another contribution to either of the other two PACS that Ocasio-Cortez and/or Chakrabarti were running, her campaign violated federal law by receiving and keeping a contribution above the legal limit, von Spakovsky explained.
Ocasio-Cortez called the NLPCs complaint a conspiracy theory propagated by conservative groups looking to receive airtime on Fox News. However, she hasnt addressed TheDCNFs reporting surrounding her and Chakrabartis legal control over Justice Democrats starting in December 2017.
The two continue to serve as governors of Justice Democrats, according to the PACs business filings in Washington D.C. CNN, ABC News, NBC News and The Washington Post also didnt disclose the facts surrounding Ocasio-Cortezs control over Justice Democrats in stories about the freshman Democrats mounting campaign finance scandals.
Von Spakovsky said Chakrabartis use of two LLCs under his control to fund campaign infrastructure and fundraising services for his PACs and 12 political candidates, including Ocasio-Cortez, runs counter to Ocasio-Cortezs call for more transparency in government. Is the NY congresswoman who claims to be an honest and upstanding crusader for good government and transparency really a hypocrite who improperly hid her own campaign spending in a complex maze of fundraising groups? von Spakovsky asked.
Von Spakovsky said he expects the four active FEC commissioners, two Republicans, one Democrat and one independent, will vote in favor of opening an investigation into Ocasio-Cortez given all the evidence of possible violations of the law that has already been made public.
We dont know what further investigation will find, he said. But it is clear an investigation is needed to determine if Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti broke the law.
This has the backing of older dems, I would bet.
They make no bones about not liking the old white women in charge who protect white men.
I’d usually say no chance of trouble for AOC, but you can bet nancy and Diane are backing this in private.
And that other nut better be careful as I’m sure Jewish senators aren’t happy with her.
The old establishment types are going to take her out.I bet San Fran Nan is pushing the FEC forward on this.
The FEC complaint filed against AOC is alleging her COS, Saikat Chakrabarti, created multiple private
companies-—LLCs-—to siphon off campaign contributions from her various PACs for her personal use......
BTW, besides socialism (gag)....Bernie and AOC have a lot in common.
AOCs COS used to be Bernies....wait for it.....”Director of Organizing Technology.”
AND THIS—Saikat Chakrabarti, is a proven tech expert.
(A) He co-founded a web design tool,
(B) He built up the product team at the payment processor “Stripe”.........
(C) He then came to the Sanders campaign after (cough) growing disillusioned with the tech world.
Saikat Chakrabarti was Bernie’s Director of Organizing Technology. Even old man Bernie knew enough to hire a tech expert.
So, I guess (smirk) Chakrabarti’s tech skills musta come in mighty handy when donations to Bernie were wire-transferred to the DNC
and ended up in Hillary’s account. Debbie W/S headed the DNC at the time and was ousted b/c of her bias for Hillary.
Course, none of us heard about any of this, but.....
<><> Chakrabarti-the-tech-whiz did find out about the DNC theft, didnt he?
<><> Chakrabarti did speak to D/W/S about it, or to Debbie’s tech expert, Imran Awan, didnt he?
<><> Chakrabarti did tell Bernie he was fleeced, didnt he?
<><> Chakrabarti WAS working for Bernie, wasnt he?
cont
Leave AOC alone.
She is the greatest gift the GOP ever had from the Dems.
cont
Now the details about that FEC complaint:
The FEC complaint asserts that AOC’s COS, Saikat Chakrabarti, early on established two PACs that raised big bucks for AOC’s campaign:
<><> the Brand New Congress PAC, and,
<><> Justice Democrats PAC.
After a whole lot of money was raised, Chakrabarti systematically transferred $885,000+ in PAC contributions to his private companies with similar names:
<><> the Brand New Campaign LLC, and,
<><> the Brand New Congress LLC.
Saikat Chakrabarti’s private companies, unlike PACs, are exempt from reporting all of their significant expenditures.
Keep in mind it is a much-used criminal act to open bank accounts using similarly named entities as Chakrabarti did.
It’s easy to siphon off money for oneself by putting checks into the new accounts with similar names, depositing checks that were made out to the original entity.
Even your bank will advise you that if the check-writer “mis-spelled” your name.....to just endorse the check with the correct name.
AND PRESTO: a check made out to Brand New Congress PAC, is deposited in the Brand New Congress LLC account.
Campaign finance attorneys described the arrangement as really weird and an indication “theres something amiss.” They said there was no way of telling where the political donations went meaning (A) the donations could have been pocketed, or, (B) used by the LLC’s to pay for off-the-books campaign operations.-—SNIP-—SOURCED FROM FR.
JUST WONDERING .....does Chakrabarti have a reputation among Democraps for facilitating the conversion of campaign donations?
Maybe we should ask Bernie (/s)?
Yep, the ignorant twit doesn't know she's messing with the deep state.
LOL...this is true......reason why the Dems want her out.
This is why there is no way outsiders can ever survive in DC. There are way too many rules. A gotcha is always going to getcha.
Not defending her though. This seems like a no-brainer. Even common sense would tell you to at least look into absolutely anything that benefits you in the least little way and evaluate it against law.
WOW!!
I’m from staten island and i was SO ANGRY!!!
I know some minority leftists who were really hoping for this place to open.
So I said how the HECK can you vote D when they just took your potential WHOLE FUTURE AWAY!!!???
I tell them she’s living great and took away ONE BIG chance for you to build a better life!!
SO MANY small businesses were counting on that move.
SMH
America is learning t dislike AOC , Omar, and Tlaib. all three threaten the accumulation of swing voters to the Dem side in 2020.
i hope all three continue to caterwaul to the high heavens. Pelosifer knows that the Dems are taking huge hits because of them and The Bern, forcing Pelosi to anoint Biden.
Oprah and Moochelle will try to anoint Harris.
The Donks are about to eat each other alive. So I would love to see the three Jew hating Congresswomen keep it up, as well as Maxterine Plotters.
PDJT is going to beat the Donks like a drum in November 2020.
"I tell minority lefties shes living great and she took away your ONE BIG chance to build a better life!!"
Great comeback.
Gov Cuomo was counting on the Amazon move to boost his presidential chances. PO'ing Cuomo was not a good thing......
Speaking as someone of Italian descent who LOVED Rudy, you could put a Glock in my mouth and i STILL wouldn’t vote for that moron, leftists scum.
Rudy was great for NYC but obviously not conservative enough for the Presidency.
But Cuomo?
My father hated his father and now his kid hates cuomo’s kid :)
I was very proud that Scalia and Alito were on the SC at the same time.
But I’m second generation.
My nephews couldn’t give a dam either way anymore :)
And that’s as it should be.
They are completely detached from their grandparent’s roots.
One day we’ll be like he folks on here who have people dating back to Plymouth Rock :)
I’d argue the opposite - she would be lucky to serve 2 terms and not serve 3. She is the Congresswoman from Apathy, New York... she won the Dem primary because 98% of the residents refused to go out and vote in it. I’d give her credit for hustling her base of 8000 hard-core leftists but she’d stand no chance if the idiot incumbent took her seriously. But as the (d) candidate she won the general.
Now with her views known, her meddling with the l’affair d’Amazon, her disruption of the status quo, her support for the anti-Semitism of other Dems that 1) New York will gerrymander her district in 2020 and 2) they will investigate her every which way possible and 3) they will mount a serious campaign against her. AOC’s 15 minutes are up.
I heard some of her comments on “Capitalism” the woman is a complete ditz. She couldn’t even properly define it before she condemned it as irredeemable (deplorable) garbage... the system that brought every immigrant group to American throughout our history, elevated more people out of poverty than any other, that is responsible for nearly every major human achievement and advancement she calls garbage. That she is taken seriously at all is scandalous.
Great post.
She’s taken seriously by spoiled white kids and “gimme” minorities.
They are rabid supporters and the msm builds it up to make her sounds like she has many more supporters than she does.
From what I heard about her campaign violation issues, it looks pretty dodgy to me. She started 2 PACs, and then started 2 for-profit corporations with the exact same names. Who does this, unless you expect to confuse banks into accepting deposits made out for one entity to be deposited into the other account?
So far no evidence has been made public, but there is no reason to create a charity and a corporation with the exact same names at the exact same time. But that is exactly how one would try to create slush funds and embezzle money.
I don’t think anyone would have the testicular fortitude to take this on. Nobody wants to mess with the PRincess. She’s the new Ms. America. Even the Dems are afraid of her.
Exactly. An 18-year old in the police academy could sniff that scam out a mile away.
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