NEW YORK – Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti obtained majority control of Justice Democrats PAC in December 2017, according to archived copies of the groupโs website, and the two appear to retain their control of the group, according to corporate filingsย obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. If the Federal Election Commission (FEC) finds that the New York Democratโs 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 โmassive reporting violations, probably at least some illegal contribution violations exceeding the lawful limits,โ former FEC commissioner Brad Smith said.
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, and former FEC commissioners say the arrangement could lead to multiple campaign finance violations. The group backed 12 Democrats during the 2018 midterms, but Ocasio-Cortez was the only one of those to win her general election.
โIf 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,โ former Republican FEC commissioner Hans von Spakovsky told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
And fellow former FEC commissioner Brad Smith told TheDCNF that if โa complaint were filed, I would think it would trigger a serious investigation.โ He also noted that such a probe could potentially result in jail time for Ocasio-Cortez and her chief of staff, Chakrabarti.
Republican election attorney Charlie Spies told TheDCNF: โIt looks like the campaign and PAC are under common control and the PAC was funding campaign staff and activities as an alter-ego of the campaign committee, which would be a blatant abuse of the PAC rules.โ
Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti could face prison if the FEC determines that they knowingly and willfully withheld their ties between the campaign and the political action committee from the FEC to bypass campaign contribution limits, according to Smith.
โAt minimum, thereโs a lot of smoke there, and if there are really only three board members and she and [Chakrabarti] are two of them, sure looks like you can see the blaze,โ Smith, a Republican, told TheDCNF. โI donโt really see any way out of it.โ
Justice Democrats stated on its website from December 2017 until two weeks after Ocasio-Cortezโs June 2018 primary victory that she and Chakrabarti held โlegal controlโ of the PAC, and corporate filings obtained by TheDCNF show that the two still serve on the three-member board of Justice Democrats on paper.
Political committees are affiliated if they are โestablished, financed, maintained or controlled by โฆย the same person or group of persons,โย federal election law states.
Smith said: โThe admission makes it open and shut if someone wants to file a complaint with the FEC. I donโt see how the FEC could not investigate that. Weโve even got their own statement on their website that they control the organization. I donโt see how you could avoid an investigation on that.โ
And if the FEC concludes that Ocasio-Cortezโs campaign and Justice Democrats were operating as affiliated committees, โthen anyone who contributed over $2,700 total to her campaign and the PAC would have made an excessive contribution,โ which is a campaign finance violation, Smith told TheDCNF.
Ocasio-Cortezโs campaign and Justice Democrats raised a combined $4.6 million during the 2018 midterm election cycle, FEC records show. Thereโs a maximum five-year prison sentence for anyone who knowingly and willfully receives a collective $25,000 or more in excessive campaign contributions in a single calendar year.
Justice Democrats raked in far more than $25,000 from individual contributors of over $2,700 after Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti took control, according to FEC records.
โIf this were determined to be knowing and willful, they could be facing jail time,โ Smith told TheDCNF. โEven if itโs not knowing and willful, it would be a clear civil violation of the act, which would require disgorgement of the contributions and civil penalties. I think theyโve got some real issues here.โ
Spies, who served as legal counsel for Mitt Romneyโs 2008 presidential campaign, said: โThere are a bunch of well-funded groups on the left that file complaints on much thinner grounds than this against conservatives and Republican candidates. I hope that these so-called non-partisan groups file complaints and treat this with the same urgency that they would if it were a conservative candidate.โ
Justice Democrats Went All In On Ocasio-Cortezโs Primary Campaign
Ocasio-Cortez credits Justice Democrats for recruiting her to run for Congress in May 2017. She tweeted that the group got her campaign up and running by helping โwith all that stuff a normal person would need (what forms to fill out? ect).โ
Ocasio-Cortez paid a combined $27,293 to Justice Democrats and to what was effectively its predecessor, Brand New Congress LLC, for administrative, staffing and overhead services from the time she declared her candidacy to her shock primary victory, according to FEC records. Ocasio-Cortez only began paying her staffers directly through her campaign beginning in March 2018, according to her campaign reports.
Justice Democrats supported Ocasio-Cortez throughout her entire primary run. The group, which Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti appear to have legally controlled for much of her campaign, had raised more than $1.8 million by the time she ousted incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley.
Ocasio-Cortez was the only Justice Democrats-sponsored candidate to win her general election. She was also the only Justice Democrats-sponsored candidate to hold legal control of the PAC.
The other 11 candidates propped up by Justice Democrats lost their respective races, according to The New York Times.
Justice Democrats staffers said there were discussions to goย all inย for Ocasio-Cortez as early as June 2017.
Justice Democratsโ goal was for one of its sponsored candidates to defeat the incumbent, co-founder Corbin Trent told The Washington Post in June 2018, and former Justice Democrats staffer Max Berger tweeted that they established that goal in 2017.
But the PAC was advertising that it sought to replace numerous Democratic members of Congress with progressives.
Ocasio-Cortez And Chakrabarti Obtained Legal Control Of Justice Democrats
Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti, who served in multiple leadership roles within her campaign includingย campaign manager, were serving on the board of the Justice Democrats as early as Dec. 2, 2017,ย according to anย archived copyย of the PACโs website.
Cenk Uygur and Kyle Kulinski of The Young Turks network were also on PACโs board in early December 2017, but Uygur was forced out of the organization Dec. 22, 2017, after what Chakrabarti called โextremely disturbing sexist and racist statementsโ Uygur made in the early 2000s were unearthed.
Kulinski announced on YouTube the following day that he was resigning from Justice Democrats due to the PACโs โvenomousโ Twitter statement urging Uygurโs resignation. Kulinski said he had โstrong disagreements with the staffโ of Justice Democrats, but added that the PACโs candidates had โnothing to do with this.โ
Board members Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti were left in control over Justice Democrats after Uygur and Kulinskiโs departures, according to an archived version of its website on March 23, 2018.
โJustice Democrats PAC has a board consisting of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Saikat Chakrabarti that has legal control over the entity,โ the Justice Democrats website read that day.
Justice Democrats then reported that Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti were โgovernorsโ of the organization in aย document submittedย to the Washington, D.C. Department of Consumer & Regulatory Affairs on March 28, 2018. A third listed governor was the PACโs treasurer, Nasim Thompson.
A governor of an organization incorporated in D.C. is any person โunder whose authority the powers of an entity are exercised and under whose direction the activities and affairs of the entity are managed,โ according to the D.C. Law Library.
The Justice Democratsโ website continued to state that Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti held โlegal control over the entityโ for weeks after Ocasio-Cortezโs shock primary victory over Crowley on June 26, according to a July 10, 2018 archive of its website.
The Justice Democratsโย websiteย currently states thatย Alexandra Rojas and Thompson hold legal control of the organization, but the PAC hasnโt filed documents to Washington, D.C. where itโs incorporated reflecting the change, meaning that Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti currently retain majority control of Justice Democrats on paper.
Politico reported Jan. 16 that Chakrabarti resigned from the board, and Justice Democratโs website no longer listed Ocasio-Cortez as a board member as of Aug. 8, 2018. TheDCNF received the corporation filing document still showing both as governors on Feb. 25. The D.C. government website showed the same as of Monday afternoon.
Ocasio-Cortezโs office and Justice Democrats did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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