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Ocasio-Cortez defends her boyfriend’s use of congressional email account

February 16, 2019 | | Print Article

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is dismissing questions of ethics violations after it was revealed she had given her boyfriend a congressional email account.

The democratic socialist came under fire Friday after a tweet emerged showing a screenshot of an official House email address and noting her boyfriend Riley Roberts had been placed on staff, Fox News reported.

(Image: screenshot)

Political consultant Luke Thompson shared the image on Twitter Friday, saying the freshman New York lawmaker’s boyfriend would be “drawing a salary on the taxpayer’s dime. Nice to see her adapting to the swamp so quickly.”

Thompson’s tweet went viral and led to his account being locked for a time on Friday as Twitter claimed he had violated “rules against posting private information.”

Ocasio-Cortez fired back at Thompson, telling him, “Next time check your facts before you tweet nonsense.”

She defended her actions and claimed her boyfriend was given the designation just so he could have access to her calendar. Her chief of staff backed her argument, insisting Roberts was not on staff and giving him access to the calendar was a completely move for a spouse or partner.

Saikat Chakrabarti also tweeted that “Spouses and partners normally get http://mail.house.gov e-mail addresses for the purpose of getting calendar access.”

As a Twitter battle unfolded following Thompson’s tweet and Ocasio-Cortez’s response, the spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer played down the issue.

“From time to time, at the request of members, spouses and partners are provided House email accounts for the purposes of viewing the member’s calendar,” David O’Boyle told Fox News.

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE MISSING …

But former chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Jason Chaffetz, disagreed.

“It’s totally naïve and inappropriate – you wouldn’t allow it in most companies, let alone the House of Representatives. There should be real consequences,” he told Fox News.

“When I was in the House, my scheduler would forward my wife my schedule once a week. But you’re not allowed unfettered access. And he isn’t even her spouse,” Chaffetz said. “… It should be referred to the ethics committee for further investigation.”

According to House IT rules, only “U.S. House of Representative Members, Officers, Employees, Fellows, Interns and Contractors” can have access to the system.

“Being given a password to get into the House computer system has other potentially problematic issues,” Chaffetz noted.

Thompson shared a few other tweets, noting Roberts listed as staff among other things.

Thompson’s account was locked supposedly for posting private information, although it was a government email address and the phone number was publicly available.

Thompson announced he had his access restored a short time later.

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE MISSING …

While the left touted the allegations of Roberts being hired by Ocasio-Cortez as an example of conservatives chasing a conspiracy theory, many Twitter users expressed their anger over the bad optics, regardless of the lawmaker’s claims that it’s perfectly normal to give out House email access.

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Frieda Powers
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