Ocasio-Cortez accused of campaign finance violations
Published on Mar 5, 2019
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Chief of Staff Ran Slush Fund – Funneled Over $1 Million in Campaign Donations to His Own Companies
March 4, 2019
According to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Committee Monday (FEC), two PACs founded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s top aide, Saikat Chakrabarti funneled over $ 1 million in political donations into two of his own private companies, reported the Washington Examiner.
So much for Ocasio-Cortez’s promise to reduce “dark money” in politics!
According to a complaint filed by government watchdog group National Legal and Policy Center, it appears Chakrabarti set up his two companies for the sole purpose of hiding how the donations were used.
The Washington Examiner reported:
The arrangement skirted reporting requirements and may have violated the $5,000 limit on contributions from federal PACs to candidates, according to the complaint filed by the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group.
Campaign finance attorneys described the arrangement as “really weird” and an indication “there’s something amiss.” They said there was no way of telling where the political donations went — meaning they could have been pocketed or used by the company to pay for off-the-books campaign operations.
PACs are required to disclose how and when funds are spent, including for expenditures like advertisements, fundraising emails, donations to candidates, and payments for events and to vendors.
The private companies to which Chakrabarti transferred the money from the PACs are not subject to these requirements.
The complaint names Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Saikat Chakrabarti and asks the FEC to investigate and audit the two PACs alleging they were engaged in “an elaborate scheme to avoid proper disclosure of campaign expenditures,” reported the Examiner.
“It appears Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her associates ran an off-the-books operation to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, thus violating the foundation of all campaign finance laws: transparency,” Director of National Legal Policy Center Tom Anderson said.
Chakrabarti founded the two PACs in question in 2016 and 2017.
Brand New Congress was founded in 2016 and Justice Democrats was founded in 2017 with the end goal of getting ultra progressive candidates elected to Congress — ultimately these two PACs helped radical Communist Ocasio-Cortez win a Congressional seat last November.
The Washington Examiner explains how Chakrabarti set up the PACs and his shell companies to move the money around in secret:
In 2016 and 2017, Chakrabarti’s PACs raised around $3.3 million for the project, primarily from small donors. During this time, the committees transferred over $1 million to two shell companies controlled by Chakrabarti with names similar to one of the PACs, Brand New Campaign LLC and Brand New Congress LLC, according to federal election filings.
A few weeks after starting the Brand New Congress PAC, Chakrabarti formed one of the companies, Brand New Campaign LLC, in Delaware, using a registered agent service and mailbox-only address.
Over the next seven months, as small-dollar political donations poured into the PAC from progressives across the country, the committee transferred over $200,000, 82 percent of the contributions, to the company Brand New Campaign LLC. The payments were for “strategic consulting,” according to federal election filings. They were sent to an apartment address listed for Chakrabarti in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan.
In 2017, Brand New Congress PAC transferred another $240,000 to Brand New Congress LLC, also for “strategic consulting.” Another PAC co-founded by Chakrabarti that year called “Justice Democrats” transferred an additional $605,000 to Brand New Congress LLC in 2017.
Bradley A. Smith, a former chairman of the FEC, said he has never seen such an arrangement. “It’s a really weird situation,” he said. “I see almost no way that you can do that without it being at least a reporting violation, quite likely a violation of the contribution limits. You might say from a campaign finance angle that the LLC was essentially operating as an unregistered committee.”
Recall, AOC’s Chief of Staff Saikat Chakrabarti is a radical Communist and a huge fan of Indian political leader Subhas Chandra Bose who was an ally of Adolf Hitler and Imperial Japan.
Ocasio-Cortez was lambasted by conservative media after her boyfriend’s name appeared on the House directory list — many speculated she put her boyfriend on payroll like a good Socialist.
“Nice to see her adapting to the swamp so quickly,” writer Luke Thompson said after discovering AOC’s boyfriend was designated as House staff a few weeks ago.
Sanders on Green New Deal: Doesn’t Go Too Far — ‘The Future of the Planet Is at Stake!’
By Pam Key
Friday on ABC’s “The View,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) Green New Deal does not go too far.
Co-host Sunny Hostin asked, “Does the Green New Deal go too far?”
Sanders said, “No. You cannot go too far on the issue of climate change. The future of the planet is at stake, OK?”
He added, “We have, according to the best scientists in the world, we have 12 years to begin substantially cutting carbon emissions before there will be irreparable damage to the planet. I talked to some folks who were in Paradise, CA, remember the terrible, terrible fire that wiped out the whole community?”
Sound Familiar? Dem Governor Running For President Vowing To Switch To 100% Clean Energy, Provide Millions Of Green Jobs
By James Barrett
Second-term Washington Gov. Jay Inslee officially announced his presidential candidacy Friday, and he’s running on a platform that sounds like it was ripped from the since-deleted, much-maligned FAQ for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘s “Green New Deal.”
In a presidential announcement video released Friday, Inslee issues some rather familiar doom-and-gloom warnings as well as some pie-in-the-sky promises.
“We’re the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we’re the last that can do something about it,” the governor says ominously as apocalyptic images play in the background, which the viewer is clearly supposed to believe are the grim results of global warming.
“We went to the moon and created technologies that have changed the world,” he continues. “Our country’s next mission must be to rise up to the most urgent challenge of our time: defeating climate change. This crisis isn’t just a chart or graph anymore. The impacts are being felt everywhere.”
“We have an opportunity to transform our economy, run on 100 percent clean energy, that will bring millions of good paying jobs to every community across America, and create a more just future for everyone,” Insleee proclaims.
Inslee is a former congressman who was elected governor in 2012 and has another two years in office after winning his second election in 2016. Calling his bid a “longshot campaign,” The Seattle Times provides some highlights of Inslee’s progressive and largely “climate-focused” political career:
As governor, Inslee generally has pursued a liberal agenda, backing minimum-wage increases, higher taxes on the wealthy and businesses, raises for teachers and state government employees and declaring a moratorium on the death penalty. He also backed a record-setting, $8.7 billion tax-break deal to lure Boeing’s 777 plant and angered labor leaders by pressuring the Machinists union to approve a contract that ended workers’ defined-benefit pension plan.
He also has pushed an ambitious climate agenda, with mixed results, failing to persuade lawmakers and voters to adopt pollution fees on carbon emissions, but boosting electric-car infrastructure and creating a clean-energy fund that has poured millions into green projects. Despite Inslee’s agenda, greenhouse emissions in Washington have continued to rise, missing near-term reduction goals set in state law.
The Times reports that Democratic lawmakers in Washington are currently “making a big push” to try to ram through Inslee’s climate change agenda, many of the proposals of which have been stalled for “years.” Just a day before his announcement, the State Senate was debating his radical request to phase out the use of fossil fuels at Washington utlities, the paper notes.
Inslee, 68, has also proven that he’s willing to take on Trump on the national stage, opposing the president on rolling back business-stifling environmental regulations, arming teachers to better protect students, and the administration’s so-called “Muslim ban.”
The Democratic governor’s “green” candidacy shares much in common with AOC’s “Green New Deal,” which sets as its goals a massive overhaul of the economy, which will include 100% use of renewable energy in ten years, net-zero emissions, massive infrastructure projects — including high-speed rails all over the country and the “greening” of all buildings — Medicare-for-All, and living wage jobs for every American.
Everyone Who’s Never Read A History Book Shocked As Socialist Turns Into Authoritarian At First Whiff Of Power
By The Babylon Bee
U.S.—After a recently elected democratic socialist politician suddenly began using authoritarian, elitist-sounding language mere weeks after getting her first whiff of power, every single person in the country who’s never read a history book expressed their shock and surprise at the sudden transformation.
The woman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, tweeted “We’re in charge” in the context of a proposed sweeping government takeover of the economy, saying her critics who haven’t proposed an alternative were “shouting from the cheap seats.” She also declared “I’m the boss, how about that?” in a recent video interview. The statements shocked certain groups of people across the country, namely, those who haven’t been in the same room as a history book anytime in the past few decades.
“Wow, a socialist who was elected on her promises to work ‘for the people’ is suddenly telling everyone she’s in charge and they have to listen to her? That’s really weird,” said one man in Portland who dropped his world history class in high school. “I would have thought socialists never suddenly transform into power-hungry maniacs as soon as they get their first high from telling people what to do.”
“It’s just, I’ve never heard of that happening in the past, say, 100 years or so,” he added before he had to return to his Starbucks shift, wrapping his work apron around his hammer and sickle T-shirt.
Another thing shared in common by those who were surprised by this development is never having read Animal Farm by George Orwell, sources confirmed at publishing time.
AOC WARNS OF ‘LIST’ FOR DEMS WHO VOTE WITH REPUBLICANS – REPORT
Bipartisanship not allowed by new radical Democrats
By Bradford Betz
After more than two dozen moderate Democrats broke from their party’s progressive wing and sided with Republicans on a legislative amendment Wednesday, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reportedly sounded the alarm in a closed-door meeting Thursday and said those Democrats were “putting themselves on a list.”
The legislation that prompted the infighting was a bill that would expand federal background checks for gun purchases, the Washington Post reported. But a key provision requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be notified if illegal immigrants attempt to purchase guns saw 26 moderate Democrats side with Republicans.
CUOMO URGING AMAZON FOR SECOND CHANCE, DESPITE OCASIO-CORTEZ VICTORY LAP
According to the Post, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scolded her wayward center-leaning colleagues, telling them: “We are either a team or we’re not, and we have to make that decision.”
But Ocasio-Cortez reportedly took it a step further. She said she would help progressive activists unseat those moderates in their districts in the 2020 elections, the report said. Her spokesman Corbin Trent told the paper that she made the “list” comment during the meeting.
“She said that when activists ask her why she had to vote for a gun safety bill that also further empowers an agency that forcibly injects kids with psychotropic drugs, they’re going to want a list of names and she’s going to give it to them,” Trent said, referring to ICE.
Ocasio-Cortez has vehemently denounced ICE since bursting onto the political stage — but has also raised concerns among fellow Democrats that she’s picking fights with her own party.
“I’m sure Ms. Cortez means well, but there’s almost an outstanding rule: Don’t attack your own people,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., told Politico earlier this year. “We just don’t need sniping in our Democratic Caucus.”
Her star status and outsize influence bringing Democrats on board with controversial policies like the Green New Deal have rankled some long-time members. But the freshman congresswoman appears unfazed by the pushback, often hitting back at her critics on Twitter.
In response to criticism earlier this year from former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted a snarky: “New party, who dis?”
The gun bill on the floor earlier this week would expand the scope of background checks and require nearly all gun buyers to undergo one – including if they bought at a gun show, online or in a private transaction.
Dems: We Have To Enact Socialism So We Can Find Out What It Is
U.S.—Democrats across the country have begun urging the nation to enact socialism “so we can find out what it is,” stating that we won’t know exactly what the politico-economic system entails unless we pass it into law.
Speaking to CNN Wednesday, Christine Hallquist, one of the nation’s first transgender gubernatorial candidates stated, “I’m not sure I even know what socialism is,” but added that she agrees with her party’s increasingly favorable view of the failed economic system.
“We need to pass it so we can find out what’s in it,” Hallquist added. “That’s the best reason to pass sweeping overhauls of things like healthcare and our economy: so you can test your policies on the nation like a bunch of little guinea pigs.”
Congressional Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer also pushed for enacting socialism as soon as possible so the nation can find out what’s in it. “It worked for Obamacare. Well, for us, anyway,” Pelosi said in a press conference.
Finally, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chimed in on the conversation, stating that socialism should “like, double the economy or something because we take away all the money and then give it all back so that’s like 2 or 3 times as much money as there was at first.”
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