(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Recent reports revealed that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., may be married and hid that fact from the government to avoid disclosing her alleged husband’s finances.
A form filed with the House Ethics Committee this year revealed that AOC listed Riley Roberts, who is publicly-known as her fiancé, as her “spouse,” according to the Washington Free Beacon.
If falsely filed, the forms would qualify for willful misrepresentation and subject the representative to possible criminal prosecution, as AOC neglected to file Roberts’s financials.
The paperwork suggested that AOC and Roberts married on January 13, 2023, barring AOC from taking advantage of the “boyfriend loophole,” as the requirements for married couples are not the same for cohabitating partners.
AOC’s office contradicted the filing, insisting that they only lived together.
“They are not legally married,” AOC spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said. “House Ethics has commonly recognized the term spouse to extend to long-term partners.”
AOC had the opportunity to mark Roberts as her fiancé on the form but neglected to do so. Either the form was marked incorrectly for the purposes of international travel, or AOC may be subject to investigation for opting not to disclose her husband’s finances.
“If Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is going to refer to Mr. Roberts as her spouse in the context of one kind of ethics disclosure, it would be logical and consistent for her to do so in the context of all ethics disclosures, including annual financial disclosures and periodic transaction reports,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, senior government affairs manager at watchdog group Project on Government Oversight.
Other members of “the squad” also found themselves in similar ethically questionable scenarios.
Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., hired her husband as her security guard and paid him $60,000 via her campaign for limited work.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., set up a massive contract with her husband’s political consulting firm, resulting in a payout of $3 million via her official campaign.
Watchdog organizations and investigators submitted complaints in all three cases, but the Federal Exchange Commission has yet to take any action.
