AOC finally files financial disclosure a week late, but omits longtime fiance Riley Roberts’ assets
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Absentee Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t just skipping out on her Bronx and Queens district. It seems her mandatory financial disclosure for 2024 was missing for months, too.
The New York Democrat, who’s made a career out of railing against “the system,” couldn’t even stick to its deadlines. Ocasio-Cortez was one of the lawmakers who asked for a 90-day extension when the filings first came due back in May. But when the second deadline rolled around, she blew right past it, per the New York Post.
The socialist firebrand finally submitted the paperwork on August 20, a week late.
AOC boosts wealth while student loans linger
According to her federal filings, Ocasio-Cortez is sitting on somewhere between $17,000 and $81,000 in cash. But she’s still carrying $15,000 to $50,000 in student loans.
The disclosures, which only list finances in ranges, show she has $15,000 to $50,000 in a savings account, $1,000 to $15,000 in a checking account, and $1,000 to $15,000 in a 401(k) from her days at the National Hispanic Institute, where she worked as educational director before her career in politics took off.
Compared to last year’s filing, she’s doing better. In 2023, AOC reported just $3,000 to $46,000 in the bank. That means she managed to grow her wealth by anywhere between $14,000 and $65,000 over the past year.
Like other rank-and-file House members, AOC pulls in an annual salary of $174,000. But her brokerage account is practically empty, with less than $1,000 reported.
Riley Roberts missing from disclosure
Noticeably absent from the congresswoman’s disclosures is any mention of her longtime partner and fiance, Riley Roberts.
The omission is raising eyebrows because just last month, the House Ethics Committee called her out for playing both sides of the fence. She listed Roberts, 37, as her “spouse” on some forms to score perks like travel and gala access but kept him off her financial disclosure to avoid listing his assets.
“There is a reason Congress requires financial disclosures to include the spouses of members of Congress,” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, interim VP of policy and government affairs at the Project On Government Oversight, told the Post.
“If spousal disclosures were not required, it would be all too easy to exploit that loophole and simply transfer any conflicted or problematic assets or financial activity into the spouse’s name. If her fiancee is going to avail himself of some of the perks and privileges of being the spouse of a member of Congress, he should surely have to likewise comply with the less convenient parts,” he added.
From Met Gala tickets to foreign junkets, AOC leaned on 'spouse' perks
AOC, 35, has freely called Roberts her “spouse” when it meant freebies. She used the title on travel forms this year for junkets to Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Italy.
Back in 2021, the same move got her a free $250 ticket to the Met Gala, the year she rocked her infamous $3,724 “Tax the Rich” dress.
The House Ethics Committee wasn’t amused. “At the same time Representative Ocasio-Cortez was seeking to take advantage of exceptions to the Gift Rule only applicable to spouses and/or certain relatives, she was not disclosing Mr Roberts’ financial interests as is required of Members who are legally married,” blasted the panel in its 26-page July report.
As for Roberts, a web developer who grew up in a wealthy part of Arizona, there’s not much to disclose anyway. On the official form, he had no assets, no liabilities, and no stock holdings.
The couple got engaged in Puerto Rico in 2022, but Ocasio-Cortez has kept quiet about when they’ll make it official.
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