Two organizations linked to Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her outgoing senior aides are the subject of a Federal Election Commission investigation into alleged campaign finance violations, the Washington Examiner has learned.
The FEC opened an official case on March 7 to examine complaints against Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress, two campaign committees started by Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of staff Shaikat Chakrabarti, according to an FEC confirmation letter disclosed to the Washington Examiner. The matter was assigned a case number and remains open. Ocasio-Cortez also sat on the board of Justice Democrats from December 2017 to June 2018, the Daily Caller reported.
The original FEC complaint was filed by the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group, and claimed the Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress PACs were engaged in “an elaborate scheme to avoid proper disclosure of campaign expenditures.”
Campaign finance records indicate that the two PACs transferred over $1 million in political donations to private companies controlled by Chakrabarti, according to the complaint, which was first reported by the Washington Examiner in March. The private companies, which had names that were similar to the PACs, are not legally subject to the same spending restrictions and disclosure requirements as political action committees.
In 2016 and 2017, Chakrabarti’s PACs raised about $3.3 million for a project to help elect liberal candidates, 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. According to the National Legal and Policy Center complaint, the arrangement skirted reporting requirements and may have violated the $5,000 limit on contributions from federal PACs to candidates.
Tom Anderson, director of the National Legal and Policy Center’s Government Integrity Project, said he welcomed the FEC’s decision to look into the matter.
“Representative Ocasio-Cortez and Saikat Chakrabarti have engaged in the most blatant scheme we have seen to avoid transparency and accountability concerning campaign finance and financial disclosure laws,” said Anderson.
An FEC spokesperson said the agency can not discuss the status of ongoing reviews. Justice Democrats provided the FEC with a response to the initial complaint in the spring. FEC investigations can take months or years to complete, particularly in cases that are financially complex.
The New York Post also reported on Saturday that an unspecified federal body is investigating possible campaign finance violations by Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress. It is unclear if that report refers to a separate probe.
Ocasio-Cortez’s House office has not received notice of a separate federal investigation and has not been asked to turn over documents at this time, according to source close to the congresswoman.
Justice Democrats is currently run by activist Alexandra Rojas and is no longer affiliated with Ocasio-Cortez or Chakrabarti. Chakrabarti, an influential liberal organizer who was widely seen as the architect of Ocasio-Cortez’s successful 2018 campaign and legislative priorities, stepped down as the congresswoman’s chief of staff last Friday, the Intercept first reported. Ocasio-Cortez’s spokesperson Corbin Trent, a liberal activist who was previously affiliated with Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, also resigned from her office.
Chakrabarti is reportedly joining an environmental activist group called New Consensus to work on building support for the Green New Deal policies. Trent will move over to Ocasio-Cortez’s 2020 reelection campaign where he will lead her communications team.
