“Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has repeatedly listed her fiancé as a “spouse” on disclosures filed with the House Ethics Committee, though the congresswoman’s office denies she has gotten married.
Ocasio-Cortez indicated in four forms submitted to the ethics panel in connection to foreign travel in 2022 and 2023 that Riley Roberts, her web developer fiancé, is her spouse — beginning in January of this year. However, the New York Democrat has not made any announcements about the arrangement, and her spokeswoman, Lauren Hitt, told the Washington Free Beacon that Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts “are not legally married,” raising concerns among ethics experts.
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“They are not legally married,” Hitt said. “House Ethics has commonly recognized the term spouse to extend to long-term partners.”
Still, the discrepancy between the congresswoman’s disclosures and statements could lead to watchdogs launching further investigations into the finances of Ocasio-Cortez, who was found in March by the Office of Congressional Ethics, a nonpartisan body reviewing misconduct allegations against lawmakers, to have likely flouted federal law over her 2021 Met Gala attendance. The House Ethics Committee in December 2022 opened an investigation into the Met Gala situation.
Contrary to Hitt’s comment, the House Ethics Committee strictly classifies a spouse as “someone to whom you are legally married,” according to documents. The panel oversees the official code of conduct governing how members act in Congress.
The Office of Congressional Ethics has said that long-term partners of lawmakers are “synonymous with a spouse,” though the body’s power is limited by the House Ethics Committee. OCE only makes recommendations to the ethics panel as far as enforcement, and its decisions about members are not legally binding.
Ocasio-Cortez, 33, made public her engagement to Roberts in May of last year, and said, “We’re taking some space to savor this time before diving into planning” when asked about wedding plans by Insider. If the pair is actually married, Ocasio-Cortez should have reported his salary on her 2022 financial disclosure, according to Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust.
“There is no exception to this rule,” she told the Washington Free Beacon.
Lawmakers who have made willful misrepresentations in official filings could be subject to civil penalties totaling as much as $50,000, according to the House Ethics Committee, which also details how certain extreme instances could result in someone facing up to five years in prison.
Ocasio-Cortez listed Roberts as a spouse on her post-travel disclosure form to the ethics panel over her February trip to Japan and South Korea, which was sponsored by the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation. The lawmaker also dubbed Roberts her “spouse” on filings for her August trip to South America, which was funded with the help of George Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society.
For both of these trips, Roberts reportedly tagged along with Ocasio-Cortez on his own dime.
Revelations of the disclosures matter come as Ocasio-Cortez continues to pride herself as a champion of ethics. In April, she helped introduce a bipartisan measure that would prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks.
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The congresswoman in August demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland investigate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas over the conservative justice “failing to report significant gifts he received from Harlan Crow and other billionaires,” calling the matter a “blatant disregard for judicial ethics.” Conservatives have argued that Thomas didn’t have to report many of the apparent gifts, since there were no laws on the books requiring disclosure.
The House Ethics Committee and Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not reply to requests for comment.
