A former commissioner for the Federal Election Commission believes jail time is possible for freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., because of her control of a political action committee while running an election campaign.
The Daily Caller spoke with former FEC commissioner Brad Smithe about revelations that Ocasio-Cortez and her chief of staff, Saikat Chaikrabarti, controlled the Justice Democrats PAC beginning in December 2017.
The Daily Caller said the information comes from archived copies of the group’s website.
And the two apparently retain their control, according to corporate filings.
“If the Federal Election Commission (FEC) finds that the New York Democrat’s campaign operated in affiliation with the PAC, which had raised more than $1.8 million before her June 2018 primary, it would open them up to ‘massive reporting violations, probably at least some illegal contribution violations exceeding the lawful limits,'” Smith told the news organization.
It’s because Ocasio-Cortez “never disclosed to the FEC that she and Chakrabarti, who served as her campaign chair, controlled the PAC while it was simultaneously supporting her primary campaign,” the report said.
Former FEC commissioner Hans von Spakovsky told the Daily Caller News Foundation that “if the facts as alleged are true, and a candidate had control over a PAC that was working to get that candidate elected, then that candidate is potentially in very big trouble and may have engaged in multiple violations of federal campaign finance law, including receiving excessive contributions.”
Smith said a complaint likely would trigger an investigation, and that “could potentially result in jail time for Ocasio-Cortez and her chief of staff, Chakrabarti.”
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