Far-left “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) violated federal election and House ethics rules by misusing nearly $19,000 in campaign cash last year on a shrink who specializes in controversial ketamine therapy, a bombshell new complaint claims.
DC-based National Legal and Policy Center filed a joint complaint Friday with the Federal Elections Commission and the Office of Congressional Conduct, demanding both enforcement agencies probe Ocasio-Cortez, her congressional campaign committee and its treasurer, Frank Llewellyn.
The government watchdog group want authorities to determine whether the money paid to Boston-based Dr. Brian Boyle was fraudulently documented in official filings as “leadership training and consulting.”
The complaint was filed in response to an exclusive Post story last week that revealed the suspicious shrink spending.
“There is reason to believe that AOC’s use of campaign funds to pay for a psychiatrist who has no experience in ‘leadership training’ was not for a ‘bona fide campaign or political purpose,’ but rather for personal psychiatric therapy for AOC or her campaign staff,” the group’s counsel Paul Kamenar, wrote in the complaint.
Using congressional campaign funds for personal use is prohibited by law, and violators face fines and up to five years in prison. They could also be forced to reimburse their campaign fund out of pocket for any misspent money.
The NLPC requested the commission “impose appropriate penalties and disciplinary sanctions against AOC.”
The group also asked the Office of Congressional Conduct, or OCC, to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee, which unlike the OCC, can issue subpoenas to witnesses and impose disciplinary action against the socialist lawmaker.
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AOC has previously talked about her own mental health, claiming she was in therapy following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, when she said lawmakers effectively “served in war.”
Boyle — the chief psychiatric officer at Stella, a chain of mental health clinics focusing on “novel” therapies popular with Hollywood and Wall Street – received four payments from the socialist pol’s campaign last year totaling $18,725.
The expenses were marked as “leadership training and consulting.”
However, it’s unclear what the sessions consisted of or who participated. Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
“AOC’s spending almost $19,000 in campaign funds for a shrink appears to violate both the FEC and House Ethics rules prohibiting use of such funds for personal purposes,” Kamenar told The Post.
“While AOC has been in therapy in the past, she should spend her own money if she needs psychiatric treatment from Dr. Brian Boyle, whose specialty includes narcissistic personality disorder.”
Boyle, a Harvard-trained doctor, calls himself an “interventional psychiatrist” and specializes in unorthodox methods for treatment-resistant depression, PTSD and anxiety.
He’s also considered a “leading authority” on ketamine, the controversial horse tranquilizer given to “Friends” star Matthew Perry in the month leading up to his tragic death.
Boyle’s clinic also offers other treatments popular with the 1 Percent, like stellate ganglion block, an anesthetic injected into a nerve cluster in the neck to calm the body’s fight-or-flight response. Billionaires like Bob Parsons, who’s battled PTSD since returning from the Vietnam War, have raved about the treatment.
AOC herself is no stranger to touting the benefits of drugs for therapy.
The “Squad” rep, who campaigned to end the federal prohibition of marijuana in 2018, has three times proposed legislation to make it easier to study magic mushrooms and other psychedelics.
As a freshman congresswoman in 2019, she introduced an amendment to allow the feds to spend taxpayer money on studying the medical potential of psilocybin, ecstasy and other drugs to treat mental illnesses, calling the early research “promising.”
During a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Thursday, AOC argued that some so-called “Schedule I” drugs like LSD and ecstasy – which have a high potential for abuse but no currently accepted medical use – actually have some therapeutic value.
