reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut the panel stopped short of issuing any formal sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the committee, the fair-market value of the rented Brother Vellies dress, shoes, jewelry, handbag, and hairpiece totaled $3,724.04.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s campaign delayed payments for months and eventually paid just $990.76 \u2014 most of it from her own pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her staff also disputed some of the invoices and tried to reduce costs by comparing the couture gown to cheaper rentals online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRepresentative Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s attempt to apply a retail rental cost to a handmade couture gown was unrealistic,\u201d the committee\u2019s report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report noted that most vendors weren\u2019t paid until after they made repeated attempts to collect \u2014 some even threatened legal action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That led to subpoenas from the committee and a more than three-year investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the panel said it found no evidence Ocasio-Cortez \u201cintentionally\u201d underpaid for the goods, it did place blame on her former staffers, including ex-campaign manager Rebecca Rodriguez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rodriguez was caught trying to negotiate down the cost of the dress \u2014 from $1,300 to $300 \u2014 and left a $477 hairstylist bill unpaid for nearly six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ethics Committee said no punishment would be necessary \u2014 as long as Ocasio-Cortez donates $250 to cover her boyfriend\u2019s dinner at the event and pays an additional $2,733.28 to the designer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under House rules, members of Congress are barred from accepting gifts \u2014 with a few exceptions, including tickets to charity events if invited by the organization hosting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this case, Vogue editor Anna Wintour invited Ocasio-Cortez and her boyfriend personally, as guests of Vogue<\/em> \u2014 not the museum that officially hosts the gala.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWintour also instructed the Brother Vellies designer to custom-make the dress \u2014 something the designer called \u201cinsane,\u201d since she normally only makes shoes and handbags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite being told to keep expenses low, AOC\u2019s team was met several times with responses like, \u201cMet Gala attendees don\u2019t normally pay for this,\u201d according to her lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rented shoes had a retail value of $635 but were rented for $160. The Brother Vellies handbag was worth $995 and rented for $157. Jewelry was rented for $78, and a paper hibiscus flower for her hair cost $35.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A year later, in May 2022, AOC\u2019s team received another $5,579 bill for car service, hotel rooms, and accessories like Roberts\u2019 bowtie and cummerbund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report noted that the committee never got a clear answer about why the designer didn\u2019t ask for payment up front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The committee concluded that Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s conduct violated House rules, laws, and standards of conduct \u2014 both in accepting the gifts and in delaying repayment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once she repays the remaining value, the committee says the matter will be considered closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Efforts by \u201cSquad\u201d Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and other Democrats to impeach President Donald Trump, with one key<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2160,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions\/2160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}