Congressional investigators have extended their review into Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), after the Office of Congressional Ethics concluded that Ocasio-Cortez’s 2021 Met Gala dress could have been an improper gift.
“Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may have accepted impermissible gifts associated with her attendance at the Met Gala in 2021,” the OCE board wrote in a Thursday afternoon ruling, which was unanimously approved in a 5-0 vote. “If Rep. Ocasio-Cortez accepted impermissible gifts, then she may have violated House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law.”
As for what action comes next, the board recommended that the Ethics Committee “further review the above allegation.” But that doesn’t mean the Ethics Committee is formally opening an investigation, which would require a vote to empanel a subcommittee. Despite widespread reporting immediately characterizing the announcement as an ethics investigation, the Ethics Committee issued a statement that conspicuously didn’t mention forming a subcommittee to look into Ocasio-Cortez. Instead, leaders just said they would review the case.
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The Ethics Committee first announced it would extend its review on Dec. 7, which started a 45-day clock to decide whether to open an investigation. That clock stopped when the new Congress took control on Jan. 3, allowing the committee to formally organize for the current term. The committee took that step on Tuesday, restarting the clock and leaving about 20 days to make the decision on whether to open an actual investigation.
Ocasio-Cortez spokesperson Lauren Hitt told The Daily Beast that Ocasio-Cortez had “fully cooperated” with the probe. “We are confident the Ethics Committee will dismiss this matter,” she said in an emailed statement.
Ocasio-Cortez has blamed a miscommunication with her staff for what she characterized as a payment snafu.
“I just never, ever, ever would have allowed that to happen knowing what I have learned, but that I wasn't privy to the invoices, wasn't privy to the ones that had been sent,” she said. “And it is just a deeply regrettable situation. I feel terrible for especially the small businesses that were impacted.”
OCE investigators also found that payment for a $477 hair appointment associated with the Met Gala also wasn’t paid promptly.
Notably, in a Feb 27, 2023 letter to the Ethics Committee, the legal counsel for Ocasio-Cortez, David Mitrani, admitted to the Office of Congressional Ethics that there were “delays in paying vendors for costs associated with the Congresswoman’s attendance at the Met Gala.”
“The Congresswoman finds these delays unacceptable, and she has taken several steps to ensure nothing of this nature will ever happen again,” he said. He added that the incident involving the controversial dress, which said “Tax the Rich,” definitively did not “rise to the level of a violation of House Rules or of federal law.”
But OCE investigators didn’t seem to agree.
In a subsequent press release from Ethics Committee chairman Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) and ranking member Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA), the committee leaders said Ethics would review the matter, noting that a final ruling hadn’t been made. But the Ethics Committee stopped short of opening a formal investigation—a step they didn’t shy away from with Rep. George Santos (R-NY).
Almost simultaneously with the Ocasio-Cortez news, the Ethics Committee announced it had voted unanimously to empanel an investigative subcommittee dedicated to Santos.
Santos, the freshman lawmaker who ran on a resume of almost pure fiction, will face a formal investigation from the Ethics Committee.
