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Speaker 1: Armstrong and Getty Show. So while he's talking collusion, inclusion, inclusion,
Speaker 1: I think in oversight we should be talking about taxes, taxis, taxes,
Speaker 1: and his bank account, his bank account, his bank account.
Speaker 1: There you go, AOC. While while Mueller's talking about collusion, collusion, inclusion,
Speaker 1: we should be talking taxes, taxes, taxes, and uh so
Speaker 1: the declusion things just over. That's that's, that's, that's done.
Speaker 1: It's onto the A. But AOC is one of the
Speaker 1: people leading the charge. Lovely well, he's hot. Campaign finance
Speaker 1: crimes are a big deal. She better wake up and
Speaker 1: smell the charges. There is an accusation that her chief
Speaker 1: of staff illegally moved almost a million dollars in campaign
Speaker 1: contributions in a weird off. The book's way and a
Speaker 1: lot of goodman is Uh writing about it for The
Speaker 1: Washington Examiner alt a and investigative political reporter. Welcome, how
Speaker 1: are you? I'm great? How are you doing well? Good?
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for spending a couple of minutes
Speaker 1: with us today, So it tell us what he's being alleged.
Speaker 1: So yesterday, the National legaland Policy Center, which is a
Speaker 1: government watch dog group, they failed an SEC complaint against
Speaker 1: Comngresswoman Okaza Cortes and her chief of staff should I
Speaker 1: cut Chakra Party, uh, And the complaint alleged that the
Speaker 1: group campaign finance laws by failing to properly disclosed payment.
Speaker 1: And this was an arranged meant that you know. As
Speaker 1: part of this arrangement, Chackoberti appears to have funneled over
Speaker 1: a million dollars from two federal packs that he set
Speaker 1: up into two private companies that he controlled. And he
Speaker 1: packs said that the money was being used for campaign work,
Speaker 1: But there is really no way of knowing how it
Speaker 1: was actually spent because corporations don't have to disclose what
Speaker 1: they're spending money on. On like packs. So he formed
Speaker 1: a couple of packs. They raised a bunch of money,
Speaker 1: and then they paid almost a million dollars to a
Speaker 1: private company that he happened on. Yes, they raised about
Speaker 1: three point three million dollars during this time period. UM.
Speaker 1: Mainly small donors. UM. These are you know, progressive activist
Speaker 1: types who gave twenty dollars, thirty dollars, you know, a
Speaker 1: small small money announced UM. And that was a lot
Speaker 1: of money to raise about a million dollars of that
Speaker 1: money was then sent to to corporation that her chief
Speaker 1: is well now now she's staff. He was not her
Speaker 1: chief of staff at the time. UM. But that chapter
Speaker 1: party controlled and we don't really know what happened that money.
Speaker 1: It was. It was disclosed in the SEC filings as
Speaker 1: payments for strategic consulting. UM. But if they're paying enough
Speaker 1: Stormy Daniels to any chance of that, everybody's paying off
Speaker 1: Stormy Daniels. UM. So that was a key detail. You
Speaker 1: just to mention there that Uh, he wasn't chief of
Speaker 1: staff when this happened for AOC, but he is now. Yes,
Speaker 1: a problem for him. That sounds like that's a problem
Speaker 1: for him. It's a small problem for her. And that
Speaker 1: turns out I just hired a person that's a crook,
Speaker 1: but he didn't do that to benefit her. Then if
Speaker 1: it happened before he was even well, it's it's interesting
Speaker 1: and certainly we don't know how much you know, she
Speaker 1: was aware of this, but one of these packs, um,
Speaker 1: she was actually a board number of It was actually
Speaker 1: just the two of them that was okay, do Cortez
Speaker 1: and Chaker Party were the two board members of the
Speaker 1: Justice Democrats attack and that was well you know this,
Speaker 1: well this is happening. So it's again unclear what she knew,
Speaker 1: but this is something that the SEC can take a
Speaker 1: look at. And then early in the campaign when they
Speaker 1: didn't have much money her her boyfriend was on the
Speaker 1: payroll and got paid thousands of dollars for it's not
Speaker 1: clear what um, and they'll look into that. But so
Speaker 1: I I read your piece in this excellent I was
Speaker 1: clicking around and Fox News covered this and they quoted
Speaker 1: a handful of people, Um, some of the more conservative
Speaker 1: leaning are saying it's it's clearly illegal and a problem.
Speaker 1: But then they asked other people like the former FEC
Speaker 1: Associate General Council Um and he said it was a
Speaker 1: total mystery why you would establish an LLC rather than
Speaker 1: simply create a normal venture like a consulting business and
Speaker 1: do it on the books, and um, yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: that's what people will do all the time in Washington.
Speaker 1: You know. You start a consulting firm and you work
Speaker 1: for campaigns and they pay you, and that's that's how
Speaker 1: it works, right, So it's a little odd to do
Speaker 1: it where you're starting a pack and then raising money
Speaker 1: through that and then starting a company and paying that
Speaker 1: company for consultant. Has there any chance that any of
Speaker 1: this fits into the explanation Trump like that she had
Speaker 1: no belief she was going to win. I mean, never
Speaker 1: never even crossed her mind that she was gonna win.
Speaker 1: So well, I did, the money was being handled, wasn't
Speaker 1: being paid attention to? Yeah, I mean I do think
Speaker 1: that it did kind of as a surprise to some people.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, I think that we'll just have
Speaker 1: to see whence the SEC starts looking into this, because honestly,
Speaker 1: we just don't know. And that's what that's what was
Speaker 1: I think. So, you know, surprising to campaign finance attorneys
Speaker 1: who I spoke to about this, and people who have
Speaker 1: worked at the SEC because they're like, this is just
Speaker 1: so odd. It's just a really weird arrangement, and we
Speaker 1: have it's totally opaque, and you know, so she has
Speaker 1: made dark money and her opposition to dark money at
Speaker 1: big issues. So it's also there's also that, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the ultimate you know, dark money machine.
Speaker 1: When you're using a corporation, um, you know, putting campaign
Speaker 1: funds into a corporation, so we can't see what you're
Speaker 1: spending that right. I only have one more question for you,
Speaker 1: So what sort of stuff do you usually usually investigate?
Speaker 1: We're looking for a new person that we go to
Speaker 1: regularly from the Washington Examiner, and we're thinking you might
Speaker 1: be the person. What sort of stuff you usually writing about? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I do? I do. I do politics? Um, yeah, money,
Speaker 1: money in politics, issues and the presidential campaigns as well.
Speaker 1: What's your favorite sports team? We'd like to get to
Speaker 1: know you a little bit. What's your favorite sports team
Speaker 1: you're putting? I don't have one. What's your favorite TV?
Speaker 1: Go go Hillary Clinton on US? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know what my my favorite TV show? I guess
Speaker 1: I really like The Haunting at Hill House. I know,
Speaker 1: that came out a little while ago, and that's like
Speaker 1: that that was I that acceptable answer. Seawan, our TV
Speaker 1: guy says that's unacceptable. Well done a lot of I
Speaker 1: think that was one of the best in a while.
Speaker 1: Well at his number four thirty on my list of things,
Speaker 1: I absolutely must watch a lot of Goodman's an investigative
Speaker 1: reporter for the Washington Examiner. Really great to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, all right, we'll talk again, so listen. I
Speaker 1: wanted to get to this quote. Former FEC Associate General
Speaker 1: Council for Policy Adav note Um, who is not a
Speaker 1: partisan guy, said it was a total mystery to him,
Speaker 1: my Chakra party had established an LLC seemingly to take
Speaker 1: money from the pack rather than simply create a normal
Speaker 1: venture like a consulting business. Certainly it's possible to use
Speaker 1: an LC or other kind of and then he goes
Speaker 1: through a bunch of different ways you could do it.
Speaker 1: He said, what's so weird about this situation is that
Speaker 1: the pack that disturbed dispersed so much of its money
Speaker 1: to want entity that was so clearly be affiliated with
Speaker 1: the pack. Usually that's a sign of what's known as
Speaker 1: a scam pack um. He but then he says, on
Speaker 1: the other hand, it might be innocent because this would
Speaker 1: be such an obvious way to to commit it. Nobody
Speaker 1: would be dumb enough to do it then to get
Speaker 1: to the court I really wanted to give you. On
Speaker 1: the other hand, their explanations don't make a lot of
Speaker 1: sense on their face. I read their explanation multiple times
Speaker 1: and I still don't understand it. If you started wanted
Speaker 1: to start a business to provide services to campaigns, many
Speaker 1: of those are organized as ll season. He's all your services,
Speaker 1: so he says, he just he can't even understand what
Speaker 1: they're trying to say they were doing. So who knows
Speaker 1: this Docter Pardi guy is a Silicon Valley gazillionaire, super
Speaker 1: progressive financier of progressive campaigns. He ought to have some
Speaker 1: idea what he's doing. He is not a babe in
Speaker 1: the woods. When you're ready to ride Metro, we want
Speaker 1: you to know we're ready for you. Here are just
Speaker 1: a few of the people at Metro to tell you
Speaker 1: how they're doing our part to keep writers say like
Speaker 1: we're cleaning like never before. Half feel a great clean.
Speaker 1: You've found half sound of signs of stations all over
Speaker 1: the Metro, no mass, no Metro need one. We have
Speaker 1: a few extras at Metro. We're doing our part to
Speaker 1: keep the DC area moving. Find out more at well
Speaker 1: mata dot com, slash doing our part