Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has been hit with an ethics complaint from a nonprofit government accountability project over expenses involving “training.”
The best part is that AOC might have initiated the call for a probe into her spending activity by spouting off about it on social media.
Americans for Public Trust sent a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on Tuesday pointing to two specific expenditures made on December 13th last year. One was for “Bombazo Dance Co Inc.” for $850, and another for “Juan D Gonzalez” for $3,700.
The charges were first revealed on X by conservative commentator Paul Szypula, who accused the congresswoman of “wasting tax dollars so she can dance and throw parties.”
.@AOC got dance lessons on 12/13/2024 from Bombazo Dance Co Inc and made the US taxpayer cover the $850 bill for that “training.”
On the same day there was $3,700 paid to Juan D Gonzalez for more “training.”
Earlier, on 9/18/24, AOC spent $3,384.74 for food at Taco Bamba… pic.twitter.com/RPPVrQhJxR
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) March 8, 2025
Ocasio-Cortez responded to the allegations, which also included a September charge of $3,384.74 for food at “Taco Bamba Shirlington.”
She angrily denied that she had wasted taxpayer money.
“100% wrong. None of this is taxpayer money, this is an FEC filing,” she fired back. “Be loud and wrong about something else. Try again next time.”
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That comment seems to have been (at least in part) an impetus for the ethics complaint and a demand for a probe into AOC’s expenditures.
The filing points to the devout socialist’s assertion that what Szypula is referencing is an “FEC filing” when it clearly is not. They are from a Statement of Disbursements, a quarterly report published by the U.S. House of Representatives detailing all receipts and expenditures for House Members, committees, leadership, officers, and offices.
You can find the entire report here.
The key difference between a Statement of Disbursements and an FEC filing lies in scope and purpose: SODs focus on congressional operating expenses, often funded by taxpayers, while FEC filings monitor campaign-related financial activity, supported by contributions and subject to strict election law regulations.
That fact seemed to confuse AOC, and Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, called her out in the ethics filing, saying, “Her claim that ‘[n]one of this is taxpayer money’ is both troubling and obviously incorrect.”
“Either she does not know the difference between her campaign funds and MRA, or, more likely, she knows the highlighted expenses were not for official business and should have been paid by her campaign and reported to the FEC,” Sutherland writes.
Ah, the volumes that could be written about the things AOC ‘does not know.’
It seems that she was loud and wrong herself. As Szypula wrote in a follow-up X post:
For anyone confused as to what this filing is, because AOC or her stooges are gaslighting, it’s a list of all the expenses that members of Congress made using their “MEMBERS REPRESENTATIONAL ALLOWANCE.”
In 2024, AOC had an allowance of almost $2M.
She spent about $1.8M. The vast majority went to her staff of 19 regular employees and 3 interns. At least one of the regular staff AOC admitted entered the US illegally.
That’s Naureen Akhter, her Deputy Chief of Staff who AOC paid $145,999.96 a year from the taxpayer in 2024.
@ICEgov needs to do a full investigation into everyone AOC has employed as a member of Congress. There are likely many other illegals she’s been paying using federal dollars.
AOC has also been exposed employing illegals as part of her campaign staff.
So, while it’s offensive that she’s wasted thousands of our tax dollars on dance and drums lessons, it’s far worse that she’s likely spent millions of our tax dollars employing illegals to work in the US Government.
Investigate, prosecute, and jail AOC.
This isn’t the first time AOC has been slapped with an ethics complaint, though these things rarely lead to any tangible punishment. Ocasio-Cortez was accused of accepting “impermissible gifts associated with her attendance at the Met Gala in 2021.”
You may recall, that appearance involved her stunt with the super-cringe ‘Tax the Rich’ dress.
“Tax the rich” says AOC’s dress … at the Met Gala … where tickets cost $30,000.
But AOC doesn’t mean them; she means you. You’re rich. Because you work. Tax you. That’s the reality. The Met Gala guys get tax breaks. You don’t. pic.twitter.com/awGxEdT2xB
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) September 13, 2021
Regarding the latest alleged transgression, it’s unclear why AOC would need dance classes or lessons. She’s repeatedly demonstrated that she’s got some decent moves.
Here she is dancing like an injured animal as protesters chanted, “AOC has got to go” at a town hall meeting a couple of years ago.
Shouting Protesters Temporarily disrupt AOC Listening Forum Event in Astoria Queens, held on Wednesday evening.
THREAD 👇 pic.twitter.com/fKJMmde1Sw
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) October 20, 2022
Come to think of it, she might want to get her money back. Or the taxpayer’s money back.
“Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s troubling payments from her taxpayer-funded account for activities such as dance classes should be investigated,” Sutherland said in the complaint. “In the era of reining in government spending, the American people deserve to know lawmakers are being good stewards of their tax dollars.”
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