A Washington-based conservative watchdog group filed a joint complaint Friday with the Federal Election Commission and the Office of Congressional Conduct, accusing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of illegally spending nearly $19,000 in campaign money on a psychiatrist and disguising the payments in official filings as "leadership training and consulting."
The National Legal and Policy Center wants both agencies to investigate Ocasio-Cortez, her congressional campaign committee, and its treasurer, Frank Llewellyn. The group also asked the Office of Congressional Conduct to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee, which can issue subpoenas and impose disciplinary action.
At stake is a straightforward legal prohibition: using congressional campaign funds for personal purposes is against the law. Violators face fines and up to five years in prison. The complaint, first reported by the New York Post, zeroes in on four payments last year from the Democratic socialist's campaign to Dr. Brian Boyle, a Boston-based psychiatrist. Those payments totaled $18,725.
Boyle calls himself an "interventional psychiatrist." He serves as chief psychiatric officer at Stella, a chain of mental health clinics that focuses on what it describes as "novel" therapies. The complaint argues his background offers no evident connection to "leadership training."
Paul Kamenar, counsel for the NLPC, laid out the group's theory bluntly. In the complaint, he wrote:
"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 complaint asks authorities to determine whether the money paid to Boyle "was fraudulently documented in official filings" under the label of leadership training and consulting. The NLPC requested the FEC "impose appropriate penalties and disciplinary sanctions against AOC."
Kamenar told the Post the spending "appears to violate both the FEC and House Ethics rules prohibiting use of such funds for personal purposes." He added a pointed jab: "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."
Ocasio-Cortez's campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
This is not the first time the NLPC has filed campaign-finance complaints involving Ocasio-Cortez's political operation. In 2019, the same group filed an FEC complaint accusing AOC and her then-chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, of using two PACs and LLCs to route large sums of campaign money through private companies. That complaint alleged at least $885,735 tied to Ocasio-Cortez's campaign and PACs was funneled through Chakrabarti's LLC, with the final disposition of some funds allegedly unreported to the FEC.
Tom Anderson, director of the NLPC's Government Integrity Project, said at the time that the alleged violations were far from trivial.
"These are not minor or technical violations. We are talking about real money here. In all my years of studying FEC reports, I've never seen a more ambitious operation to circumvent reporting requirements."
The earlier complaint alleged Brand New Congress PAC and Justice Democrats PAC transferred funds to LLCs controlled by Chakrabarti, with PACs listing payments as "strategic consulting." The Washington Times reported that the use of LLCs enabled skirting campaign spending disclosure because LLCs do not have to report or itemize spending the way PACs and candidate campaigns must. A separate complaint alleged Brand New Congress PAC may have funneled $6,000 in payments to AOC's boyfriend, Riley Roberts, listed as a "marketing consultant."
Ocasio-Cortez denied wrongdoing at the time. Fox News reported that she told the outlet flatly, "There is no violation." Chakrabarti also disputed the allegations, claiming the arrangement had been "transparent about it from the start." The FEC declined to comment, citing legal confidentiality rules.
The new complaint raises a different kind of question. The 2019 allegations centered on disclosure and routing. This one is about the most basic rule in campaign finance: you cannot spend donor money on yourself.
The complaint arrives at a moment when Ocasio-Cortez has been publicly championing psychedelic and drug-therapy research. At a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Thursday, she argued that some "Schedule I" drugs have therapeutic value. She has drawn fire from fellow Democrats on other policy fronts, but her drug-reform push has been a consistent thread.
AOC campaigned in 2018 to end the federal prohibition of marijuana. As a freshman congresswoman in 2019, she introduced an amendment to study psilocybin, ecstasy, and other drugs. She has proposed psychedelic-study legislation at least three times, calling the early research "promising."
Dr. Boyle's employer, Stella, focuses on treatments that include stellate ganglion block therapy. The Post noted that billionaire Bob Parsons, who has battled PTSD since returning from the Vietnam War, has praised the treatment. But the article also noted that ketamine was administered to "Friends" star Matthew Perry in the month leading up to his death.
Ocasio-Cortez previously said she sought therapy after the January 6 Capitol riots, claiming lawmakers effectively "served in war." That personal history makes the NLPC's central question sharper: if Boyle's services were psychiatric therapy for AOC or her staff, calling them "leadership training" on FEC filings isn't just misleading. It could be fraud.
The FEC and the Office of Congressional Conduct now hold the complaint. The OCC can refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee, which holds subpoena power. The FEC can investigate independently and impose fines. If the payments are found to violate the personal-use prohibition, Ocasio-Cortez could face financial penalties, be forced to reimburse the campaign, or, in the most extreme scenario, criminal exposure carrying up to five years in prison.
Newsmax noted that earlier campaign-finance allegations against AOC's operation clashed with her public stance against "dark money" in politics. The same tension runs through this complaint. A congresswoman who built her brand on fighting corruption and demanding transparency now faces questions about whether her own campaign hid the true nature of nearly $19,000 in spending.
The complaint is an allegation, not a verdict. But the facts it rests on, four payments to a psychiatrist, filed under the label "leadership training and consulting", are drawn from Ocasio-Cortez's own campaign disclosures. The NLPC didn't have to dig through shell companies to find them. They were right there in the filings, hiding in plain sight.
Campaign donors give money to elect candidates, not to pay for their personal therapy. If that line means anything, the FEC should make sure it holds.
