(Headline USA) A government watchdog group filed a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission this week, alleging that the agency wrongly dismissed the group’s 2019 complaint that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., violated campaign contribution limits.
The National Legal and Policy Center accused Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign in 2019 of improperly using its campaign funds. The 36-page complaint filed with the FEC alleges that Campaign treasurer Frank Llewellyn and former chief of staff Chaikat Sakrabarti, specifically, funneled more than $1 million of campaign funds into their own companies.
Those companies, in turn, donated thousands of dollars to Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign, the complaint alleged.
The group also alleged that two political action committees, Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, violated the $5,000 contribution limit to federal candidates and donated more to Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign than they were allowed.
NLPC chair Peter Flaherty said he received a certified letter from the FEC in February saying that the agency had dismissed the complaint and closed the file in this matter after its investigations panel deadlocked in a vote on whether to investigate the allegations.
“It is outrageous that the FEC would dismiss NLPC’s complaint that even former FEC Commissioners have indicated raise civil if not criminal violations,” Paul Kamenar, NLPC’s counsel, said in a statement.
Flaherty added that the campaign finance violations allegedly committed by Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign should concern everyone interested in financial transparency and accountability.
“This wasn’t dark money. It was pitch-black money,” he said.
“This appears to be a scheme to spend hundreds of thousands to elect ‘progressive’ candidates without any of the required disclosure for any expenditure of $200 or more.”
Ocasio-Cortez has denied any wrongdoing.
“There is no violation,” she said in 2019 when pressed.
Asked whether she was connected to a “dark money” operation, she again said, “No, no.”
