In a report released Friday, the committee said that Ocasio-Cortez “proactively took steps to comply” with House rules, including using personal funds to rent apparel that would typically be gifted or loaned to Met Gala attendees.

But the report states that, despite Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s significant attempts, the Committee found that she failed to fully comply with the Gift Rule by impermissibly accepting a gift of free admission to the 2021 Met Gala for her partner and by failing to pay full fair market value for some of the items worn to the event.”

The ethics panel said it did not find evidence that Ocasio-Cortez “intentionally underpaid” for costs related to the event, and that “in many instances,” she had relied on a campaign staffer to handle discussions of payment and the advice of her counsel to determine the amounts.

. . . The ethics committee also released a separate report related to Rep. Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican, and allegations that his wife may have bought stock in a steel company based on confidential or nonpublic information he learned in his role as a congressman.

The committee said that it reviewed allegations referred by the Office of Congressional Conduct and “did not find evidence that he knowingly or intentionally caused his spouse to trade based on insider information.”

But the report said that the panel did not receive full cooperation from Mrs. Kelly and was therefore unable to determine whether her stock purchase was improper.”

The report concluded by saying that “Representative Kelly should ensure that he and Mrs. Kelly divest of all shares of Cleveland-Cliffs before taking any further official action relating to the company.”

This some bull shit right here.

  • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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    16 days ago

    The ethics panel said it did not find evidence that Ocasio-Cortez “intentionally underpaid”

    So she didn’t intentionally break any rules.

    Meanwhile Trump fucked underage girls.

  • BigMacHole@sopuli.xyz
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    16 days ago

    How DARE AOC use Insider Knowledge to Trade Stocks and then LIE to Congresspeople about it! Oh wait that was a Republican and AOC just bought her Own Met Gala attire instead of letting designers gift it? What I meant to say was I LOVE INSIDER TRADING and HATE When Lawmakers use their OWN MONEY to buy Clothes!

    • LilB0kChoy@piefed.social
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      16 days ago

      Did you read the entire article?

      The committee called on Ocasio-Cortez to “make additional payments of personal funds to compensate for the fair market value of certain expenses.”

      A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez said that the congresswoman intends to “remedy the remaining amounts.”

      “The Congresswoman appreciates the Committee finding that she made efforts to ensure her compliance with House Rules and sought to act consistently with her ethical requirements as a Member of the House. She accepts the ruling and will remedy the remaining amounts, as she’s done at each step in this process,” her chief of staff Mike Casca said in a statement provided to CNN.

      The House Ethics Committee is bipartisan and reviews matters referred to it by the Office of Congressional Ethics.

      The Office of Congressional Ethics is “a nonpartisan, independent entity charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct against members of the House of Representatives and their staff and, when appropriate, referring matters to the United States House Committee on Ethics.

      It’s also worth noting that “the OCE was created by House Resolution 895 of the 110th United States Congress in March 2008, 191 in the wake of across-the-board Democratic victories in the 2006 elections. It was created under the leadership of then-Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi as part of her effort to clean up what she called the “culture of corruption” in official Washington, which had garnered so much attention in the preceding congressional sessions.”

      This specific incidence is less “fascism” and more “checks and balances working as intended”.

      • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        16 days ago

        I don’t really understand what you’re getting at.

        There’s loads (almost all ?) of public institutions which have become tools for the authoritarian regime.

        This institution is not “working as intended” if it asks a democrat to repay an event ticket but gives a republican a free pass on insider trading.

        I’ll remind you that insider trading is theft. If a stock is worth $x on the open market but you know that due to upcoming legislation or regulator actions it’s really worth $x + $y then when you buy that stock you deprive everyone else in the market of that $y.

        One person received a benefit of a few hundred dollars and the other received a benefit of possibly a few million dollars.

  • chellewalker@lemmy.ca
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    16 days ago

    Gotta love that this nothingburger about AOC underpaying for a ticket buries the very real news about a Rep’s wife that totally didn’t do insider trading guys. Nevermind that said wife actively refused to cooperate, and the committee “recommends” she stop having stocks in the company which is less then a slap on the wrist.

  • SpaceRanger13@lemmy.zip
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    16 days ago

    Interesting. Until this committee checks into this little “gift” I saw we give her a pass. I’m not one for whataboutism, but I think this deserves an exception.