AOC's Chief of Staff Under Investigation for Alleged Campaign Finance Violations
Former staffer, Saikat Chakrabarti. being probed by Federal government agencies
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Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's former chief of staff, who suddenly resigned on Friday, is now being investigated by Federal government agencies for campaign finance misconduct, according to reports.
The investigation is focusing on two political action committees started by Saikat Chakrabarti.
Chakrabarti abandoned his position as Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff along with communications director Corbin Trent.
Chakrabarti is known for being the brainchild behind Ocasio-Cortez's campaign and strategist for the Green New Deal.
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Last month, Chakrabarti even admitted that Green New Deal was not founded on the notion of tackling climate change but was initially designed around implementing socialism into the economy.
He also reportedly sent out tweets tha ignited the clash between Ocasio-Cortez and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"People were not happy that he used his Twitter account to comment about members and the bills that he and his boss oppose," a senior House Democratic staffer told the New York Post.
"There was a series of colliding and cascading grievances."
In a series tweets, Chakrabarti also indicated that Pelosi was a weak leader, even saying in a now-deleted post that moderate Democrats were "hell-bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s."
The former chief of staff slammed Pelosi not jumping on board with President Donald Trump's impeachment.
Pelosi claims we can't focus on impeachment because it's a distraction from kitchen table issues. But I'd challenge you to find voters that can name a single thing House Democrats have done for their kitchen table this year. What is this legislative mastermind doing?
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) July 7, 2019
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"Pelosi claims we can’t focus on impeachment because it’s a distraction from kitchen table issues," he tweeted July 6.
"What is this legislative mastermind doing?"
Chakrabarti, who already made millions in the tech industry, launched two PACs - Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats.
Both entities were designed to rally behind liberal candidates in elections.
But the Federal Election Commission filings revealed that funneled more than $1 million in political contributions into wo private firms that he also owned.
Both PACs raised $3.3 million in a donation in 2016 and 2017.
According to FEC filings, a third of the money was allocated to two private businesses with names identical to the PACs - Brand New Congress LLC and Brand New Campaign LLC.
Meanwhile, Chakrabarti also took a slash in his salary at $80,000 per annum while AOC raised the wages of junior staffers to about $52,000 annually.
The average salary for someone at Chakrabarti's position is $146,830 a year.
Congressional rules also exempted Chakrabarti from revealing outside income, protecting him from public disclosure laws.
