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Uh Oh: Did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Commit An Ethics Violation With Revelation Of Her Boyfriend’s Congressional Email Account

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  February 15, 2019 4:00 PM

Well, social media was set ablaze when Luke Thompson, a political consultant, noticed that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s (D-NY) boyfriend had a congressional email account. Is he on staff? And if he is, doesn’t that constitute an ethics violation? AOC’s staff vociferously denied that this was the case, calling out Thompson for lying, who was briefly suspended from Twitter (via NTK Network):

It appears Twitter locked out a user on Friday by the name of Luke Thompson after he pointed out that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) boyfriend, Riley Roberts, has a Congressional email account.

Thompson tweeted a screenshot of Riley Roberts’ House email and alleged that Ocasio-Cortez had hired her boyfriend on her congressional staff.

The Guardians’ Ben Jacobs tweeted that Thompson’s account has “been locked by Twitter after noting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s boyfriend has a House email address.”

Fox News has more:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is facing ethics questions after revelations the freshman lawmaker's office gave her boyfriend a congressional email account.

The democratic socialist waded into the issue in response to a tweet alleging boyfriend Riley Roberts had been put on staff. The tweet included a screenshot of an official House email address. Ocasio-Cortez insisted that he was only given the email account so he could access her calendar.

[…]

sked about the arrangement, David O'Boyle, the spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, told Fox News: "From time to time, at the request of members, spouses and partners are provided House email accounts for the purposes of viewing the member’s calendar."

But Jason Chaffetz, former chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said Ocasio-Cortez' claims don’t stack up.

"It’s totally naïve and inappropriate – you wouldn’t allow it in most companies, let alone the House of Representatives. There should be real consequences,” Chaffetz told Fox News.

[…]

Saikat Chakrabarti, the congresswoman’s chief of staff, insisted that the boyfriend isn’t on the payroll and that he’s not doing any work related to the government.

[…]

House IT rules generally prohibit the use of “the House’s electronic mail systems and resources” by unauthorized members, and only “U.S. House of Representative Members, Officers, Employees, Fellows, Interns and Contractors” with appropriate permission can use the system.

But Mr. Roberts isn’t AOC’s husband. It’s just a very odd story that produced a rather entertaining the lengthy Twitter threat from Thompson. And there might be evidence that he was paid with taxpayer money for something related to her office. We’ll keep you updated, but while this is some popcorn material, Ocasio-Cortez’s far left wing agenda is much more odious, though let’s say all of this turns out to be true—this is a rather swampy move, huh? 

Roberts has deleted his Linkedin account. Did Thompson stumble upon something?