The House Ethics Committee has ordered Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to pay $2,983.28 after breaking some rules during her attendance at the 2021 Met Gala.
The House Ethics report found that Ocasio-Cortez “failed to fully comply with the Gift Rule by impermissibly accepting a gift of free admission to the 2021 Met Gala for her partner and by failing to pay full fair market value for some of the items worn to the event.”
The report said no evidence was found that Ocasio-Cortez, who wore a dress screaming “Tax the Rich” to the event, schemed to get around the rules.
However, it said, “the Committee did find evidence suggesting that the designer may have lowered costs in response to statements from Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s staff, and that payments to vendors were significantly delayed and, in several cases, did not occur until after OCC initiated its investigation.” OCC is the Office of Congressional Conduct.
🚨JUST IN🚨
AOC agrees to pay after a complaint was filed with the House Ethics Committee for her costly ‘Tax the Rich’ Met Gala dress. pic.twitter.com/wUl6hpNMWo
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) July 25, 2025
The report said, “Most payments occurred after OCC initiated its review, ‘[b]ut for’ which, OCC stated ‘it appears that [she] may not have paid for several thousands of dollars’ worth of goods and services provided to her.’”
The report noted that Ocasio-Cortez said she was unfamiliar with the details of how bills for the costs for which she was liable were to be paid.
The report noted that although the lawmaker’s staff did some calculations to apply a fair market value to the items that adorned Ocasio-Cortex, their “efforts failed to account for the true cost of such unique goods, particularly considering that they were custom-made for the congresswoman and likely had no further use after the event.”
Do you think Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will run for president?
NEW: The fair-market value of AOC’s glamorous getup for the 2021 Met gala amounted to $3,724.04, per House Ethics Committee report released Friday.
Her campaign stiffed the vendors and only paid $990.76, while giving her then-beau Riley Roberts free admission. pic.twitter.com/3WB8MiduS9
— Josh Christenson (@jchristenson_) July 25, 2025
While saying there was no reason Ocasio-Cortez should have declined the gifts and services that were showered upon her, the report said “it was unrealistic for her team to communicate a general desire to keep costs down and then develop a price based on inapt comparators and loose quotes from the designer.”
“While the congresswoman’s ethical obligations do not require her to verify the accuracy of every invoice she receives, they do require her to reject or repay all improper gifts, regardless of whether she solicited them,” the report said.
In conclusion, the 31-page report said “Ocasio-Cortez’s conduct was inconsistent with House Rules, laws, and other standards of conduct with respect to her acceptance of certain goods and services associated with her attendance at the 2021 Met Gala, and her delay in making appropriate payment for their receipt.”
“While the Committee did not find that Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s violations were knowing and willful, she nonetheless received impermissible gifts and must bear responsibility for the other conduct that occurred with respect to the delays in payment,” the report said.
Mike Casca, Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, said she will pay what she was ordered to pay, according to Business Insider.
“The Congresswoman appreciates the Committee finding that she made efforts to ensure her compliance with House Rules and sought to act consistently with her ethical requirements as a Member of the House,” Casca said.
“She accepts the ruling and will remedy the remaining amounts, as she’s done at each step in this process,” he added.
Members of Congress haul in salaries of $174,000, a year, according to Congress.gov, which means Ocasio-Cortez’s slap on the wrist is 1.7 percent of her annual pay, or less than her gross pay for one week.
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