'Squad' members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib being probed for alleged financial irregularities, reveals investigative report
Three-fourths of the ‘Squad’ members have come to face serious challenges in terms of allegations of violation of rules and ethics for personal or political benefit. And it is not even a year that the trio has taken oath as members of the Congress. The three members who have found themselves at the receiving end are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Ayanna Pressley is the fourth member.
According to an investigative report done by the Daily Caller, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) filed complaints while the House Ethics made inquiries against the trio who have promised a counter narrative in Donald Trump’s America.
Ocasio-Cortez's link with Justice Democrats under the scanner
Ocasio-Cortez or “AOC”, who made history in the midterm elections last year from New York, won it largely because of the Justice Democrats PAC -- an outside political action committee that picked her to enter politics in 2017. However, after she was given much backing by the Justice Democrats but AOC’s terms with them came under the scanner this year with two complaints submitted to the FEC.
One complaint was filed in April and it was over “AOC”’s control over the Justice Democrats while their PAC was backing her primary campaign. The Congresswoman and her former campaign chair Saikat Chakrabarti were appointed to hold two of the PAC’s three board seats in December 2017 but the FEC was never told about the affiliation that Ocasio-Cortez had with the Justice Democrats, the report added.
According to the Daily Caller report that cited several former FEC commissioners, the Democratic politician could face civil or criminal procedures for not having disclosed her campaign’s link to the outside PAC. The other complaint alleged that Chakrabarti, who served as Ocasio-Cortez’s main man until August, was running a slush fund during the midterm polls by diverting $1 million from the Justice Democrats PAC to an LLC under himself.
“If this were determined to be knowing and willful, they could be facing jail time,” former FEC chairman Brad Smith was quoted as saying. He added: “Even if it’s not knowing and willful, it would be a clear civil violation of the act.”
Ilhan Omar accused of using campaign funds for personal use
Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has always been under scrutiny for various reasons and one of them is the allegation of abuse of campaign funds even before starting the congressional campaign last year.
In June, Minnesota’s Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board asked Omar to replay her state campaign $3,500 it had inappropriately spent for non-campaign purposes in 2016 and 2017 while she was a member of Minnesota’s state legislature. The Somalian-born also paid $500 civil penalty for using funds meant for campaigning to travel to a conference, not related to her campaign, in Florida. What made things worse for Omar is her reported affair with her campaign consultant Tim Mynett, as per a divorce filing by the latter’s wife Beth. According to FEC findings, the Congresswoman’s campaign had given tens of thousands of dollars in “travel expenses” to Tim’s firm E Street Group.
Omar’s campaign started making travel payments to Mynett’s firm on April 1, which was about a week before his wife alleged in her divorce filing that he admitted to having an affair with the Democratic politician. Mynett’s “more recent travel and long work hours now appear to be more related to his affair with Rep. Omar than with his actual work commitments,” Beth said in her divorce filing.
The payments saw the National Legal and Policy Center to file an FEC complaint against Omar’s campaign alleging that she was using her campaign money to facilitate an affair.
National Legal and Policy Center Director Tom Anderson, who has also filed a complaint against “AOC”, said by using campaign funds for personal use, Omar was caught doing a “brazen act”. Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch also wrote a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics in September seeking an investigation into the accused Congresswoman’s campaign payments to Mynett’s company. It has been reported that Omar’s campaign has disbursed $370,000 to Mynett’s company.
Rashida Tlaib accused of diverting campaign money for own use
Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is also accused of diverting campaign funds for personal use. This month, the five members of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) have voted to recommend the House Ethics Committee to continue probing whether she did the wrong thing, the Daily Caller report said.
Under the House rules, a candidate gets a salary from his/her campaign up to what they earned the year prior to their campaign. But they are allowed to get it till the date of their election. In the case of 43-year-old Tlaib, she is accused of having received over $17,500 from her campaign following her election victory in November last year. “If Rep. Tlaib converted campaign funds from Rashida Tlaib for Congress to personal use, or if Rep. Tlaib’s campaign committee expended funds that were not attributable to bona fide campaign or political purposes, then Rep. Tlaib may have violated House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law,” OCE is quoted as saying.
Tlaib, the Squad member, denied any wrongdoing and said in a statement that she got the minimum salary payments required to meet her personal family obligations.