Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wore a white dress that read “Tax the Rich” to the 2021 Met Gala in New York City.
She spent the evening hobnobbing with celebrities and some of the world’s most wealthy elites.
Then she stiffed the vendors — and it seems Ocasio-Cortez improperly accepted gifts from the event hosts, the House Office of Congressional Ethics said Thursday.
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You can’t make this stuff up, folks.
The Ethics Commmittee announced “there is substantial reason to believe that [Ocasio-Cortez] accepted impermissible gifts associated with her attendance at the Met Gala in 2021.”
“In 2021, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was invited to and attended the Met Gala with Mr. Roberts. As part of her attendance, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was provided with a couture dress, handbag, shoes, and jewelry,” the House Ethics Committee said in a report.
“She also received hair, makeup, transportation, and ready-room services,” the report said. Ocasio-Cortez’ boyfriend “Riley Roberts received a bowtie and shoes in advance of the event.”
“While Rep. Ocasio-Cortez appears to have now paid for the rental value of the attire she wore to the Met Gala and for the goods and services she and her partner received in connection with this September 2021 event, payment for these goods and services did not occur until after the [Office of Congressional Ethics] contacted her in connection with this review,” the report stated.
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Ocasio-Cortez blamed a campaign staffer for the lack of payments in an interview with the House Ethics Committee.
“And I just never, ever, ever would have allowed that to happen knowing what I have learned, but that I wasn’t privy to the invoices, wasn’t privy to the ones that had been sent,” she reportedly told investigators, “And it is just a deeply regrettable situation. I feel l terrible for especially the small businesses that were impacted.”
But the House Ethics Committee said Ocasio-Cortez may not have pad for “several thousands of dollars’ worth of goods and services provided to her.”
Incredibly, Ocasio-Cortez isn’t the only Democratic Party leader accepting improper gifts at the Met Gala.
Another Democratic congresswoman, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat whose 30-year career in Congress that ended in January after she lost a contentious primary, was also investigated by the House Ethics Committee for possibly soliciting a ticket to the annual gala.
Investigators for the committee said Maloney called the museum’s president in 2016 when she learned she had not been invited to that year’s Met Gala, a fundraiser for the Costume Institute where prominent New Yorkers rub shoulders with Hollywood stars.
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“I received a call this past week from Carolyn,” Emily Rafferty, the Met’s former president, wrote in a email to the museum’s director. “She is unhappy to say the least that she is not receiving an invitation to the Party of the Year.” Rafferty said Maloney “went on about how much she does for the Met, always responsive when you call, and proactive re the institution’s needs in DC.”
Maloney did not face any punishment for her 2016 transgression because she left office.
Also, AOC's hairstylist for the met gala threatened to file a complaint with New York City’s Office of Labor Policy and Standards for Workers after the stylist's invoice went unpaid for five months.https://t.co/84sIWQrjFH pic.twitter.com/6R8poS3w2s
— Zach Everson (@Z_Everson) March 2, 2023