Ocasio-Cortez Has Ties to a Dark Money Group
By Andrew Kerr Published on March 15, 2019
https://stream.org/ocasio-cortez-ties-dark-money-group/
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has ties with a dark money group that trains progressive organizers on how to lead grassroots political campaigns across the country.
The group,
Organize for Justice, is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, meaning it can raise unlimited sums of money without having to disclose the identity of its donors to the public.
Organize for Justice was founded by former Ocasio-Cortez campaign volunteers in November, according to corporate documents obtained by
The Daily Caller News Foundation. Justice Democrats' executive director, Alexandra Rojas, also serves on the board of the dark money group....
...
Organize for Justice was founded by former Ocasio-Cortez campaign volunteers in November, according to corporate documents obtained by T
he Daily Caller News Foundation.
Justice Democrats' executive director, Alexandra Rojas, also serves on the board of the dark money group.
In February, the group launched
Movement School, a 10-week training program tasked with "incubating cohorts of highly skilled professionals to lead grassroots political campaigns across the country," according to its website.
The dark money group doesn't charge its participants tuition fees, according to a frequently asked questions page on its website. It requests graduates "prioritize working for campaigns that live the values of
Movement School."
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted her support for
Movement School during its launch event in the Bronx....
....Ocasio-Cortez's attorney told
Snopes on March 8 that she left
Justice Democrats' board in June 2018, but the PAC's corporate filings with Washington, D.C., currently list her and Chakrabarti as "entity governors" of the group.
Ocasio-Cortez never disclosed to the Federal Election Commission that she and Chakrabarti, who served as her campaign chair, controlled
Justice Democrats while it simultaneously supported her primary campaign.
If the FEC finds that her campaign and the PAC were operating in affiliation, it could result in "massive reporting violations," former FEC commissioner Brad Smith previously told TheDCNF.
Former FEC Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky said in a Fox News op-ed Sunday that he believes there's sufficient evidence to "justify opening a criminal investigation" into Ocasio-Cortez's alleged campaign finance violations.
Neither
Justice Democrats nor
Organize for Justice returned requests for comment.