The Brother Vellies dress was strapless and had a tulle mermaid-style skirt.
“Tax the rich” was written on the back in large red type.
In March 2023, the Office of Congressional Ethics found that Ocasio-Cortez’s staff didn’t pay for the rented dress, makeup, or hairstyling until February 2022, two days after the ethics agency reached out about the lack of payments, Business Insider’s Rebecca Cohen and Madison Hall reported.
In a statement, Ocasio-Cortez’s lawyer said the Democratic congresswoman “finds these [payment] delays unacceptable, and 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 statement continued.