Twitchy reported earlier on Luke Thompson and his continuing investigation into why Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s boyfriend has an official House email address, and he’s now claiming that a liberal Super PAC paid her boyfriend $6,000 during the campaign at a time when it was deeply in debt.

We didn’t expect the mainstream media to jump on the story and start asking questions — the Washington Post noted that right-wing trolls were bound to target Ocasio-Cortez’s love life because they’re obsessed with her — but the Washington Examiner has pounced on the story and given some much-needed exposure.

Becket Adams writes:

During the 2018 election, her campaign funneled payments to Brand New Congress PAC, which in turn funneled payments to Brand New Congress LLC, which then made payments to her boyfriend, Riley Roberts, meaning the then-candidate effectively funneled money back to herself, according to Federal Election Commission filings compiled this week by GOP operative Luke Thompson. As if that weren’t shady and ethically dubious enough, Brand New Congress PAC, which carried Ocasio-Cortez’s fledgling campaign to victory, was co-founded by her current chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, who served formerly as her campaign chairman.

Adams noted that her office did not respond to a request for comment, but Ocasio-Cortez did eventually address Thompson’s charges via Twitter:

The conspiracy machine is in full effect & it’s been disappointing to watch professionals get duped + amplify unvetted Medium posts as truth, treating journalism like it’s a high school Livejournal rumor mill or something. No, I don’t shadily pay my boyfriend. Come on & VET. ⬇️ https://t.co/EY28Elj6aG — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 21, 2019

Took you twelve hours to come up with this? https://t.co/6legiEumX3 — Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 21, 2019

Now that’s clapback.

So it wasn’t shady. But you did pay your boyfriend? https://t.co/kUqIfWpFFe — RBe (@RBPundit) February 21, 2019

Correct. She pays her boyfriend (typical leftist beta male orbiter) with no shame. https://t.co/HZCffZ3Wrx — Jason Willoughby ? (@jpwilloughby) February 21, 2019

So, it's all a conspiracy!! Quite the interesting defense from AOC. https://t.co/6aZx4sbzbg — Nina Bookout (@NDBook96) February 21, 2019

The FEC documents vet the story. Basically she is pulling a Trump. https://t.co/b8W43W3xZx — Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) February 21, 2019

It is public information. Explain ! https://t.co/n1tSGaity9 — Elaine ?? (@waningrose) February 21, 2019

This is the FAQ gaslighting, part II. https://t.co/ZCXXDVFJwM — Lee Doren (@LDoren) February 21, 2019

Kinda the same way you amplified unvetted stories about the kids from CovCath and Jussie Smollett eh? Idiot. https://t.co/Fzcm8I8zvh — Tony Lewis (@BigBaldSexy) February 21, 2019

Was equally disappointing to see professionals accept unvetted statements from @aoc as truth. Guess we’ll find out which version is true if the pros start actually doing the job and reporting. https://t.co/Jwr9INKmFT — Jon Schroeder (@jonschr) February 21, 2019

We’re old enough to remember Gary Hart inviting the press to follow him around, and we all know how well that went for him. And now Ocasio-Cortez is inviting the press to vet the story — but will they, or is this tweet good enough?

Luke I’ve read your article line by line and it is fit to serve as a charging document on an indictment. There’s a money laundering charge there if @AOC was receiving money from her campaign via NewCongress’ payments to her BF. Keep up the hard work on this. — _EchoSix (@_EchoSix) February 21, 2019

It’s like a high school relationship, except the boyfriend is getting paid. — @CoopCooper (@RealCoopCooper) February 21, 2019

Got to talk to all the lawyers first… — Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) February 21, 2019

Member of Congress attacking the free press. https://t.co/N0mQsnPjdu — Jim Acoosta (@cnn_acosta) February 21, 2019

@AOC is the flipside of the Trump coin. She's, a young, hip & attractive Marxist wanna-be, yet just as thin-skinned when it comes to criticism in the Twitter-verse. She may be able to conjugate a better sentence, but she seems just as incapable of ignoring her detractors. https://t.co/xRwO7Pa0K7 — Hessian (@hessian) February 21, 2019

I swear this tweet could be from Trump — Darren (@DarrenHWBoy) February 21, 2019

All this business about her boyfriend is a witch hunt! A witch hunt!

Related: