According to a statement, the panel released on Wednesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is the subject of an investigation by the House Committee on Ethics.
The statement, which gave few details about the investigation, stated that the panel will make an announcement regarding its course of action following its organizational meeting in the ensuing Congress, which would be sometime in 2023.
Ocasio-spokesman Cortez’s expressed her confidence that the case would be dropped. According to spokeswoman Lauren Hitt, The congresswoman has always taken ethics incredibly seriously, refusing any donations from lobbyists, corporations or other special interests,” spokesperson Lauren Hitt said in a statement.
According to the statement, the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics referred its investigation into Ocasio-Cortez to the House ethics panel in June. When that office refers to an investigation, it usually does so because it has grounds to think an ethics rule was broken. The announcement of the probe, according to a statement released on Wednesday by acting Chair Susan Wild (D-Pa.) and Ranking Member Michael Guest (R-Miss. ), “does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the committee.”
The probe was recently extended by the House Committee on Ethics, which led to Wednesday’s disclosure.
After Ocasio-Cortez attended the Met Gala in September 2021, a conservative watchdog complained to the Office of Congressional Ethics, claiming that her ticket might have been an illegal gift. When asked via email if Ocasio-attendance Cortez at the dinner was a factor in the probe, a representative for the congresswoman did not respond.
At the $35,000-per-ticket New York society event, Ocasio-Cortez made a statement by donning a dress bearing the words “Tax the Rich.” She was invited as a guest of the Met, a spokeswoman said. She was not permitted to keep the clothing, however.
It was claimed in 2019 that Donald Trump had become “enamored” and “starstruck” with a politician half his age and his ideological rival, and had compared her to a historical figure made famous in America at least by a Broadway musical. This was a rather unusual spin on the news of the day.
Trump reportedly added, “I dubbed her Eva Perón,” according to Tim Alberta’s book American Carnage. ‘That’s Eva Perón,’ I exclaimed. It’s Evita, then.
Perón, an actor who was wed to the president of Argentina, Juan Perón, supported working-class and female voters but passed away from cancer at the age of 33 in 1952.
The Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical Evita, which had its London and Broadway premieres in 1978 and 1979, and which Trump has cited as his favorite show after seeing it six times, is largely responsible for her fame outside of Argentina.
“I know that, like every woman of the people, I have more strength than I appear to have,” she responded.
After a shocking primary win over veteran House Democrat Joe Crowley, Ocasio-Cortez was elected to Congress in 2018. She has now gained notoriety as a leading figure among progressives, going by the moniker AOC, and has become the object of harassment and abuse from the right.
