A government accountability nonprofit is calling on the House to launch a probe into whether Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., misappropriated her taxpayer-funded member allowance.
Americans for Public Trust, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, sent a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on Tuesday, questioning “several troubling expenses” from AOC’s disbursements, which they claim are “in contravention of federal law and the standards of the House of Representatives.”
Each member of Congress receives a Member Representational Allowance (“MRA”), a budget for official duties that “may not be used for personal or campaign purposes,” according to the Congressional Research Service. However, the “Squad” member is being accused of using these funds for “campaign purposes.”
AOC reportedly made a payment of $3,700 to a “Juan D Gonzalez” and another for $850 to “Bombazo Dance Co Inc.,” with both expenditures described as being used for “training.”
The progressive congresswoman has addressed the issue on social media, claiming in a post on X responding to a claim she is “wasting tax dollars.”
“100% wrong,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “None of this is taxpayer money, this is an FEC filing. Be loud and wrong about something else. Try again next time.”
The filing states that Ocasio-Cortez’s “assertion that these expenses are ‘an FEC filing,’ and not reflective of her MRA – as well as her claim that ‘[n]one of this is taxpayer money’ – is both troubling and obviously incorrect.”
“Either she does not know the difference between her campaign funds and MRA, or, more likely, she knows the highlighted expenses were not for official business and should have been paid by her campaign and reported to the FEC.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, said, “Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s troubling payments from her taxpayer funded account for activities such as dance classes should be investigated.”
“Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s troubling payments from her taxpayer funded account for activities such as dance classes should be investigated. In the era of reining in government spending, the American people deserve to know lawmakers are being good stewards of their tax dollars.”
The congresswoman has faced ethics complaints in the past, including from the Heritage Foundation in 2023 accusing her of “falsely accusing” and “defaming” the creator of the Libs of TikTok Twitter account, Chaya Raichik.
Ocasio-Cortez also faced an ethics probe in 2023 after being accused of accepting “impermissible gifts associated with her attendance at the Met Gala in 2021,” which may have violated House rules, standards of conduct and federal law.
