AOC May Be Going to Jail! Seriously!

If the Federal Election Commission (FEC) finds that the New York Democrat’s campaign operated in affiliation with the PAC, which raised more than $1.8 million before her June 2018 primary, according to former FEC commissioner Brad Smith, “it would open them up to “massive reporting violations, probably at least some illegal contribution violations exceeding the lawful limits”

Ocasio-Cortez never disclosed to the FEC that she and Chakrabarti, who served as her hamburger-eating 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.

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The group backed 12 Democrats during the 2018 midterms, but Ocasio-Cortez was the only one of those to win her general election.

Former FEC commissioner Hans von Spakovsky said, “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,”

Brad Smith, a former FEC commissioner, says that if a complaint were to be filed, he thinks “it would trigger a serious investigation,” and potentially result in jail time for Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti.

Republican election attorney Charlie Spies said: “It 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.”

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.

“At minimum, there’s 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 fire,”

The website for Justice Democrats PAC indicated that Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti had legal control over the PAC. According to Smith, “The admission makes it open and shut if someone wants to file a complaint with the FEC.”

And if the FEC concludes that Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign and Justice Democrats were operating as affiliated committees, “then anyone who contributed over $2,700 total to her campaign and the PAC would have made an excessive contribution,” which is a campaign finance violation.

FEC records show Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign and Justice Democrats raised a combined $4.6 million during the 2018 midterm election cycle. There’s 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.

According to FEC records, Justice Democrats raked in far more than $25,000 from individual contributors of over $2,700 after Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti took control.