Government watchdog group the Foundation for Accountability and Civil Trust (FACT) on Thursday sent a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics saying Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) used taxpayer-funded resources for political purposes.
One of FACT's primary complaints stems from Ocasio-Cortez's use of official floor and committee videos.
"Her posts prominently displayed both official House photographs and video footage, on which she commented and instructed viewers to watch the videos. Ironically, in one of the posts she discussed the ethics standards to which she should be held," the complaint said. "Additionally, on Ocasio-Cortez's political Instagram page, she directly links to her official House Instagram account and includes a link for political contributions, alongside the posts of official video footage and her comments on official action. There are numerous ethics rules violated in this case, all of which require separation between official action and resources and political action and fundraising."
“In a way, it’s a straight forward complaint,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Broadly speaking, the rules clearly define that politics and government works cannot overlap. There are reasons for that: mostly because we don’t want our taxpayer dollars going toward campaigns."
"One is influencing the other,” Arnold said, referring to what she believes is the New York Democrat’s penchant for using Twitter as a form of cross promotion. “Once we elect … you cannot use whatever the government provides you for political purposes. Part of the issue is one violation stacked on another.”
This isn't the first complaint Ocasio-Cortez has received. A few days ago, the National Legal and Policy Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, claiming AOC's chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabart, allegedly created multiple LLCs to funnel campaign contributions from various political action committees. Naturally, the Congresswoman denied the allegations.
Here's the full letter, with even more examples of AOC's social media posts:
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