Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has her fiancé listed as her spouse on legal paperwork, sparking a possible breach of House rules, though her office denies the two are married.
Ocasio-Cortez lists her fiancé, Riley Roberts, as being her spouse, according to legal filings submitted to the House Ethics Committee pertaining to her travel plans to Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Chile, and Italy.
Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez, confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that the pair were not married, raising questions since the House Ethics Committee requires politicians to list their spouse’s financial information. Fiancés and other types of romantic partners are exempt from this rule.
“They are not legally married,” Hitt said. “House Ethics has commonly recognized the term spouse to extend to long-term partners.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she’s married in disclosure forms https://t.co/57CSmO8kcM pic.twitter.com/fyB1Ynk7Zv
— New York Post (@nypost) September 13, 2023
Between Aug. 17 and Aug. 24 of 2022, Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts traveled to Venice, Italy. The trip was sponsored by the Mara Foundation, according to financial travel filings Ocasio-Cortez filled out.
Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts traveled together again in February 2023 to Japan and South Korea. This trip was paid for by the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation.
On a third trip during August 2023, the duo traveled to Brazil and Chile. This trip was sponsored by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Foundation to Promote Open Society, according to the financial disclosure form.
The House Ethics Committee manual describes a spouse as being someone to whom a person is legally married. Individuals are not required to disclose the financial information of people they are separated from or have the intention of separating from.
“If Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is going to refer to Mr. Roberts as her spouse in the context of one kind of ethic disclosure, it would be logical and consistent for her to do so in the context of all ethic disclosures, including annual financial disclosures and periodic transaction reports,” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the senior government affairs manager for the Project on Government Oversight, told the outlet.
IJR reached out to the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, Lauren Hitt, and Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette for a statement but did not receive a response back by the time of publication.
