Ocasio-Cortez Broke Ethics Rules With Partner’s Met Gala Ticket

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) broke House rules and should pay $2,733.28 for “impermissible gifts” related to her attendance at the 2021 Met Gala, the House Ethics Committee decided in a 26-page report released Friday.

The bipartisan panel said it did not find evidence that Ocasio-Cortez’s violations were “knowing and willful.” Still, it determined that she should not have accepted a free ticket for her partner, Riley Roberts. House rules at the time, the panel said, dictated that free tickets for charity events were allowed only for legally married spouses and dependent children. The committee said Ocasio-Cortez should donate $250 for Roberts’ meal to the Costume Institute, which hosts the Met Gala.

The Ethics Committee’s decision is largely a slap on the wrist and the case will be closed once Ocasio-Cortez repays the value of the “improper gifts.” But it follows four years of Republicans using the high-profile Democrat’s attendance — while wearing a dress that said “Tax the Rich” — to hammer progressives over perceived hypocrisy.

Ocasio-Cortez’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the Ethics findings. The report acknowledged her cooperation throughout the review.

The panel also concluded a years-long investigation into allegations that Rep. Mike Kelly’s (R-Pa.) wife engaged in insider trading. She purchased 5,000 shares of steel manufacturer Cleveland-Cliffs stock for $23,075 in 2020, one day after the company told Kelly’s staff they would not shut down two plants after previously suggesting they might.

The report found “substantial evidence” that Kelly violated the Code of Official Conduct, but not insider trading law, and said the Kellys should “divest of all shares of Cleveland-Cliffs before taking any further official action relating to the company.”

The Ethics Committee “reproved” Kelly for “failing to meet his duty of candor to the Committee.” He and his wife, the report said, were inconsistent with their answers and unresponsive at times.

Kelly criticized the ethics probe, which he said “has unnecessarily lasted for nearly five years.”

“In the years since this investigation began, the Cleveland Cliffs Butler Works plant faced an uncertain future due to the Biden administration’s reckless energy policies,” he said in a statement, adding he had fought for the 1,400 workers at the plant. “My family and I look forward to putting this distraction behind us.”

The Kelly findings come as a growing bipartisan group of lawmakers pushes to ban stock trading by House members and their spouses. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) have both supported the ban this year.

The committee voted to reauthorize investigations into Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) but did not release new information into either case.