{"id":2030167,"date":"2023-09-13T05:25:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T09:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-aoc-married-her-office-says-no-her-legal-filings-in-congress-say-otherwise\/"},"modified":"2023-09-13T05:29:54","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T09:29:54","slug":"is-aoc-married-her-office-says-no-her-legal-filings-in-congress-say-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-aoc-married-her-office-says-no-her-legal-filings-in-congress-say-otherwise\/","title":{"rendered":"Is AOC married? Her office denies it, but her congressional filings suggest otherwise."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fis-aoc-married-her-office-says-no-her-legal-filings-in-congress-say-otherwise%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2030167&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<h2>Is AOC Married\u2063 or Not? The Confusion Surrounding Her Relationship Status<\/h2>\n<p>Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s (D., N.Y.) office says she isn\u2019t \u2064married. But she has described\u200c her fianc\u00e9, Riley Roberts, as \u200cher &#8220;spouse&#8221; in forms filed with the House Ethics Committee in \u20622023, which has a strict definition of that term\u2014&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/ethics.house.gov\/sites\/ethics.house.gov\/files\/documents\/Dec%202022%20House%20Ethics%20Manual%20website%20version.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">someone to whom you are legally married<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That could become a problem for the left-wing darling, since willful misrepresentations on the documents are a no-no\u2014they could subject her \u200dto criminal prosecution,\u200c the forms state\u2014and members of Congress \u2063are required to disclose\u200b the financial information \u200bof their spouses,\u2064 which Ocasio-Cortez has \u200cdeclined \u200cto do.<\/p>\n<p>But \u2062taken at face value, <a href=\"https:\/\/disclosures-clerk.house.gov\/gtimages\/MT\/2023\/500026961.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">four<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/disclosures-clerk.house.gov\/gtimages\/MT\/2023\/500025932.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">legal<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/disclosures-clerk.house.gov\/public_disc\/financial-pdfs\/2022\/10052480.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filings<\/a> submitted \u200dto the House Ethics Committee pertaining to AOC\u2019s overseas travels in 2022 and 2023 suggest the pair have been legally married at least since Jan. 13, 2023. If that is the case, the &#8220;Squad&#8221; member can no longer \u2062leverage the so<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-john-cornyn-gets-heckled-by-texas-gop-amid-gun-control-negotiations\/\" title=\"Sen. John Cornyn Gets Heckled By Texas GOP Amid Gun Control Negotiations\">-called boyfriend loophole<\/a>\u200c to evade\u2063 public disclosure of his finances. While \u200dlawmakers are required to disclose financial information about their spouses,\u200b live-in romantic partners and fianc\u00e9s are exempt from the rule.<\/p>\n<p>If they are not, her forms were \u200dfiled incorrectly. &#8220;They \u200bare not legally married,&#8221; AOC spokeswoman Lauren Hitt told the <em>Washington\u200d Free Beacon<\/em>. &#8220;House Ethics has commonly recognized the term spouse to extend to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/youtube-temporarily-demonetizes-beauty-influencer-after-he-admits-sending-sexually-explicit-messages-to-two-16-year-old-boys\/\" title=\"YouTube Temporarily Demonetizes Beauty Influencer After He Admits Sending Sexually Explicit Messages To Two 16-Year-Old Boys\">long-term partners<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hitt\u2019s statement is false. The House Ethics Committee, which \u2064has <a href=\"https:\/\/ethics.house.gov\/sites\/ethics.house.gov\/files\/documents\/CRPT-117hrpt706_0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sole jurisdiction<\/a> over \u2062the Code\u2064 of Official Conduct that governs the \u200dacts of members of the House, <a href=\"https:\/\/ethics.house.gov\/sites\/ethics.house.gov\/files\/documents\/Dec%202022%20House%20Ethics%20Manual%20website%20version.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">defines<\/a> a \u200dspouse as &#8220;someone to whom you\u200b are legally married.&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez had the\u200b option to describe Roberts as her fianc\u00e9 in the forms to the committee, but instead, checked boxes representing him as her &#8220;spouse.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The House Ethics Committee declined to comment.<\/p>\n<h3>Financial Disclosure and Marriage Status<\/h3>\n<p>Ocasio-Cortez did not disclose any \u200dof \u200cRoberts\u2019s\u2064 reportable stock holdings, assets, liabilities, \u200bor income on her latest <a href=\"https:\/\/disclosures-clerk.house.gov\/public_disc\/financial-pdfs\/2022\/10052480.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">financial disclosure<\/a> submitted in August, though she did make two references to her &#8220;spouse&#8221; in the filing.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear why Ocasio-Cortez considers Roberts \u200cher spouse for the purposes of overseas travel but \u200dnot when it comes to financial disclosure. It\u2019s also unclear why Ocasio-Cortez never identified Roberts as her spouse in ethics disclosures prior to 2023, even though, according to her office,\u2062 the legal status of their relationship has remained unchanged since she joined Congress in 2019.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s possible that Hitt was referring to the Office of Congressional Ethics, which <a href=\"https:\/\/ethics.house.gov\/sites\/ethics.house.gov\/files\/documents\/OCE%20Report%20and%20Findings_16.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">considers<\/a> long-term\u200d romantic partners of lawmakers to be &#8220;synonymous with a spouse.&#8221; But the \u200bOffice of Congressional Ethics is effectively \u2062subservient\u200b to the House Ethics Committee. As an independent entity, the\u200b Office of\u2062 Congressional Ethics cannot <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-aoc-married-her-office-says-no-her-legal-filings-in-congress-say-otherwise\/\" title=\"Is AOC married? Her office denies it, but her congressional filings suggest otherwise.\">make legally binding enforcement decisions<\/a> against lawmakers; it simply makes enforcement recommendations to the Ethics\u200b Committee.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, Ocasio-Cortez has opened herself \u2064up to charges of hypocrisy, said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the\u200b senior government affairs manager at the Project on Government Oversight. Hedtler-Gaudette called on the\u200c New York Democrat to\u2062 &#8220;put \u200bher money where her mouth is&#8221; and disclose her household\u2062 finances to the public.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If \u2063Rep. Ocasio-Cortez \u2064is going to refer to Mr. Roberts as her spouse in\u200c the context of one kind of ethics disclosure, it would be \u200clogical and consistent for her to do \u200cso in the context of\u2062 all ethics disclosures, \u200bincluding annual financial disclosures and periodic transaction reports,&#8221; Hedtler-Gaudette \u2064told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h3>About Riley Roberts<\/h3>\n<p>Roberts,\u2064 a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/riley-r-7410bb14a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">web developer<\/a> and\u200b growth consultant, has been a quiet fixture\u2064 in Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s life throughout her tenure on the Hill. The left-wing lawmaker announced her\u2062 engagement to Roberts in May\u200b 2022 \u200dand has since said little about \u2064her \u2064wedding plans. She <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/aoc-engagement-confirmed-boyfriend-name-riley-roberts-2022-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> <em>Insider<\/em> that \u2064she and \u2064Roberts were &#8220;taking some space \u200cto savor&#8221; \u200ctheir \u200cengagement before tying the knot.<\/p>\n<h3>Ethics and Transparency<\/h3>\n<p>The confusion surrounding Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s finances comes as she has established herself as a champion of ethics and transparency in \u2062government. She \u200d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2023\/05\/02\/aoc-lmatt-gaetz-congress-stock-trade-ban\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">introduced<\/a> legislation in April that would ban members of Congress and their spouses from owning stocks.<\/p>\n<p>Ocasio-Cortez has also attacked Supreme\u2063 Court justice Clarence Thomas for his supposed ethical transgressions. The &#8220;Squad&#8221; member led\u2064 an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2023\/aug\/12\/aoc-democrats-federal-investigation-clarence-thomas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">effort<\/a> in\u2063 August calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to launch a federal investigation into\u200b the conservative\u200d justice\u2019s &#8220;blatant disregard for judicial ethics&#8221;\u200b for &#8220;failing to report significant gifts he received from Harlan Crow \u200band other \u2063billionaires.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The\u200b lawmaker has <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-says-us-lawmakers-shouldn-t-hold-crypto-to-remain-impartial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">boasted<\/a> that she does not hold\u2063 stocks or cryptocurrencies so she \u200ccan do her job &#8220;as ethically and impartially as I can.&#8221; It is not clear if Roberts owns or trades stocks or crypto, however. Nor is it clear if\u200d Ocasio-Cortez intends to revise\u2064 her ethics disclosures to reflect Roberts\u2019s finances. Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s office did not answer a series of follow-up questions from the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h3>Potential Legal Issues<\/h3>\n<p>If \u2063Ocasio-Cortez is indeed married to Roberts, she may have created other legal issues for\u200c herself, legal \u2062experts told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If they were married \u200bthen she would be required to disclose his finances on her 2022 \u200cfinancial disclosure,&#8221; said Kendra Arnold, executive director \u2062of\u2064 the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust. &#8220;There is no exception to this rule.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Willful misrepresentations\u200d in congressional financial disclosure\u200d forms could result in civil penalties of up\u200c to $50,000, or, in extreme cases, imprisonment of up to five years, \u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/ethics.house.gov\/financial-dislosure\/failure-file-or-filing-false-disclosure-statements\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according<\/a> to the House Ethics Committee. Ocasio-Cortez could also be \u2062reprimanded by the committee or be censured by a majority vote of \u2062the House \u200cif she intentionally concealed her husband\u2019s finances\u2063 from the \u2064public, said\u2063 Paul Kamenar, an attorney for the National Legal and Policy Center.<\/p>\n<p>Ocasio-Cortez first identified Roberts\u200d as her &#8220;spouse&#8221; when she <a href=\"https:\/\/disclosures-clerk.house.gov\/gtimages\/MT\/2023\/500025932.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">requested authorization<\/a> from the House\u200b Ethics Committee on January 13 for the pair to accept sponsored travel to Japan and South Korea\u2062 the following \u200dmonth. Upon her return, Ocasio-Cortez again identified Roberts as her &#8220;spouse&#8221; in a signed \u2062disclosure to the committee\u200c dated March 13.<\/p>\n<p>The Maureen and Mike Mansfield\u2063 Foundation,\u200c which sponsored the trip, told the\u200d <em>Free Beacon <\/em>that Roberts accompanied Ocasio-Cortez to Japan and South Korea at \u200dhis own\u2062 expense.<\/p>\n<p>Ocasio-Cortez again referred to Roberts \u200das her &#8220;spouse&#8221; in a gift travel <a href=\"https:\/\/disclosures-clerk.house.gov\/gtimages\/MT\/2023\/500026961.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">disclosure<\/a> form submitted \u200bin September detailing her August travels to South America. Ocasio-Cortez said Roberts accompanied her on the \u2064trip, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/soros-funded-house-democrats-socialist-sympathy-tour-to-south-america-records-show\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">funded<\/a> by George Soros\u2019s Foundation to Promote \u200cOpen Society.<\/p>\n<p>The primary sponsor of that trip, the Center for\u200b Economic and Policy Research, confirmed to the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> that Roberts accompanied Ocasio-Cortez on her trip \u2063to South America on his own dime.<\/p>\n<p>Ocasio-Cortez also made two references to her &#8220;spouse&#8221; in her 2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/disclosures-clerk.house.gov\/public_disc\/financial-pdfs\/2022\/10052480.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">financial disclosure<\/a>. Ocasio-Cortez reported that she paid for their \u2064flight\u2062 expenses to Venice, Italy, for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-vacations-with-hunter-as-conservatives-call-out-federal-govt-for-double-standards\/\" title=\"Biden vacations with Hunter as conservatives call out federal govt. for double standards\">week-long vacation<\/a> in August that year. During that trip, the pair appears to have attended a four-day art conference sponsored by the Los Angeles-based Mara Foundation, an obscure Los Angeles-based charity that awards prizes to artists, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/groups.google.com\/g\/women-in-machine-learning\/c\/2fWWRD5zURQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">records<\/a> obtained by the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Mara Foundation CEO Kour \u2064Pour did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n<h3>Past\u2063 Ethical Quandaries<\/h3>\n<p>This is not the \u200cfirst ethical quandary Ocasio-Cortez has\u200b faced in her congressional tenure.<\/p>\n<p>The Office \u2062of Congressional Ethics announced in March that Ocasio-Cortez likely violated federal law in connection\u200d to her attendance at the Met \u200bGala in 2021. The \u2062office\u2019s investigation found \u2063that\u2062 Ocasio-Cortez dragged her feet for nearly eight months\u200c to repay the workers who helped make her infamous &#8220;Tax the Rich&#8221; dress. The House Ethics Committee is currently investigating the matter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s office denies her marriage, yet she referred to her fianc\u00e9, Riley Roberts, as her &#8220;spouse&#8221; on official forms submitted to the House Ethics Committee. This poses a potential issue for the progressive icon, as the committee strictly defines &#8220;spouse&#8221; as someone legally married.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":2030168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2030167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2030167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2030168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2030167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2030167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2030167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}