AOC Likely Violated Ethics Rules in Accepting ‘Tax the Rich’ Met Gala Dress, Congressional Watchdog Finds

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) likely broke Congress’s “impermissible gifts” rule by not paying for the rented dress she wore to the 2021 Met Gala until after a probe was opened months later. The designer of her “Tax the Rich” dress, Aurora James, may be subpoenaed in the ongoing review.

The House Ethics Committee released a statement Thursday saying that it is acting on a referral from the Board of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), a non-partisan, independent entity, in reviewing Ocasio-Cortez’s behavior. The decision was made by House Ethics leadership in December.

“The Board recommends that the Committee further review the…allegation concerning Rep. Ocasio-Cortez because there is substantial reason to believe that she accepted impermissible gifts associated with her attendance at the Met Gala in 2021,” the OCE’s report read. The Board made the decision unanimously.

“Rep. Ocasio-Cortez received a series of goods and services which she did not pay for until the OCE opened this review,” read the report, citing her dress, makeup, and hair styling. Ocasio-Cortez famously wore a white dress which featured the words “Tax the Rich” in red letters. The dress was designed by Aurora James.

James founded the fashion label Brother Vellies. She, the fashion label, and a publicist associated with the label named Janna Pea did not cooperate with the OCE review.

According to the OCE, on the day of the Met Gala on September 13, 2021, Aurora James and Brother Vellies provided Ocasio-Cortez with a custom dress, shoes, a handbag, and jewelry as rentals. Pea provided a campaign staffer with a bill for $2,283.93 the next week. However, the bill was inexplicably reduced to $990.76 shortly thereafter. The bill would remain unpaid until days after OCE formally opened its probe in March 2022.

James, the designer, would identify an additional $5,579.99 worth of unpaid goods and services after Ocasio-Cortez’s counsel reached out to her. In May 2022, Ocasio-Cortez made a payment in that amount to Brother Vellies.

As of 2021, James was reportedly in a relationship with Benjamin Bronfman, who has a net worth of $100 million, according to the New York Post. Bronfman’s father, Edgar, has an estimated net worth that is upwards of $2 billion.

“The Board recommends that the Committee on Ethics issue subpoenas to Aurora James, Brother Vellies, and Janna Pea,” read the report.

The report also revealed that a staffer for Ocasio-Cortez paid a $477.73 hair-styling bill two days after the OCE first made contact with the representative’s office about the review. Separately, a collections team repeatedly attempted to secure payment for $344.85 in makeup services rendered, with one invoice noting the payment was extremely overdue. An Ocasio-Cortez staffer tried to pay two days after the OCE first made contact, but the payment was rejected. The staffer finally made payment for the service a few weeks later.

“It is just a deeply regrettable situation. I feel terrible for especially the small businesses that were impacted,” Ocasio-Cortez told OCE investigators.

A counsel for the representative said in a letter to the Ethics Committee that the congresswoman found the delays in payment to be unacceptable, adding that “she has taken several steps to ensure nothing of this nature will ever happen again.”

“However, while regrettable, this matter definitively does not rise to the level of a violation of House Rules or of federal law. Even after OCE’s exhaustive review of the Congresswoman’s personal communications, there is no evidence that she ever intended to avoid these expenses,” the letter continued.