NEW YORK – A US congressional committee charged with overseeing the ethical conduct of lawmakers announced Wednesday that it is investigating Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The House Ethics Committee did not specify why it is investigating Ocasio-Cortez, who has represented a New York district since 2019 and has become a champion of the left.
As the committee explained in a statement, an independent entity called the Congressional Ethics Office (OCE) sent its investigation into Ocasio-Cortez to the House Ethics Committee in June of this year.
The lower house Ethics Committee announced Wednesday it was extending the scope of the investigation and had to disclose its existence in order to do so.
The fact that a trial has been launched within the Ethics Committee does not mean that Ocasio-Cortez has violated any rules of the lower house, according to his statement.
The Ethics Committee added that any further action on these inquiries will be deferred until members of Congress who were elected or re-elected in this year’s November midterm elections take their seats in January.
In that election, Republicans won a majority in the House, meaning the inquiry could take on partisan overtones as the far-right wing of the GOP dislikes Ocasio-Cortez, also known as “AOC.”
A spokeswoman for the congresswoman said in statements gathered by local media that Ocasio-Cortez has always taken ethical standards “incredibly seriously” and recalled that she has always refused donations to her campaign from pressure groups and companies.
“We are confident that the matter will be closed,” the spokeswoman added.
The ethics committee that announced the investigation Wednesday is dominated by Democrats, something that has raised many unanswered questions about why Ocasio-Cortez might be under investigation.
