Radical firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was revealed on Wednesday to be under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. It was also announced that the case was originally brought to the eight-member panel on June 23.
The committee will announce its next steps after it meets in the next Congress, which will be in 2023.
There was no indication in the Ethics Committee statement as to the details of the inquiry, which was forwarded to the panel by the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics.
Reps. Susan Wild (D-PA), the Committee Acting Chair, and Michael Guest (R-MS), the Ranking Member, acknowledged that the fact of the investigation “does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the committee.”
Ocasio-Cortez faced an ethics complaint in 2021 over the acceptance of tickets to the Met Gala in New York City. The progressive representative was accused of breaking House rules after she accepted free tickets, which according to the Associated Press cost a minimum of $30,000.
BREAKING: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) Is Under Investigation By House Ethics Committee
“Typically, when that office forwards an investigation, it’s because it has reason to believe an ethics law was broken.”https://t.co/ux4UaDuzVz
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) December 7, 2022
Under House rules, members may accept tickets to charity events if they are directly from the event organizers. However, a second complaint was filed against the representative accused her of getting tickets from a table sponsor for herself and another.
AOC struck back by declaring that she was one of “several” elected officials at the star-studded event. She said that her presence and that of others were “due to our responsibilities in overseeing and supporting the city’s cultural institutions for the public.”
The Office of Congressional Ethics is required to take up citizen complaints of possible unethical acts by lawmakers. It then decides to either take the matter further or dismiss it altogether.
In this case, the complaint was moved on to the Ethics Committee.
A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement that the representative is committed to high ethical standards. It was noted that she does not accept “any donations from lobbyists, corporations, or other special interests.”
The Ethics Committee normally has 45 days to review referrals from the Office of Congressional Ethics. That period may be lengthened in the case of an election cycle, such as the recent midterms.
The committee is required, however, to release a statement, as it did this week in the case of Ocasio-Cortez.
