AOC hit with ethics violation after saying fiancé both is and isn’t her ‘spouse’ in government filings
Republicans on the House Ethics Committee have reprimanded New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she reportedly said in government filings that her fiancé, Riley Roberts, both is and isn’t her “spouse.”
In its July 2025 report, the ethics committee criticized Ocasio-Cortez for listing Roberts as her “spouse” on federal documents that she filed before attending the 2021 Met Gala. Roberts and Ocasio-Cortez are not yet legally married.
“The Committee also found evidence that Representative Ocasio-Cortez listed Mr. Roberts as her ‘spouse’ on paperwork filed with the House relating to privately sponsored travel, although the two were not legally married at the time of the gifted travel,” the report states.
Similarly, the ethics panel stated that Roberts was listed as a spouse on the documents to attend the gala, but that he wasn’t listed as a spouse in Ocasio-Cortez’s financial filings, The Daily Mail noted. If he had been listed as a spouse, he would have been forced to disclose stock and other financial holdings.
“The Committee further notes that at the same time Representative Ocasio-Cortez was seeking to take advantage of exceptions to the Gift Rule only applicable to spouses and/or certain relatives, she was not disclosing Mr. Roberts’s financial interests as is required of Members who are legally married,” the report adds.
Last month, Ocasio-Cortez was ordered to pay back thousands of dollars after the ethics panel determined that she had not been paying market rates in connection with her appearance at the Met Gala in 2021. The panel found that the 35-year-old had underpaid for her dress, which said “tax the rich” across the back, as well as for jewelry and accessories.
In the July 2025 report, the committee states the investigation will be closed after Ocasio-Cortez has paid another $2,700 to vendors for clothing and accessories. The panel said the congresswoman has been cooperating with the investigation.
The committee also criticized that Met Gala organizer and Vogue editor Anna Wintour personally invited Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts to the event.
Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts met while they were both studying at Boston University and have been engaged since April 2022, The Mail noted.
A lawyer for Ocasio-Cortez, David Mitrani, argued in the filings that Roberts is not subject to the financial disclosure rules as he’s “not considered a spouse.”
The committee states that Roberts still enjoyed some of the benefits of being a spouse, such as receiving a spouse’s congressional pin, which allowed him to access certain restricted parts of the congressional complex.
“Mr. Roberts and the Congresswoman have been together since 2014, and have lived together since 2016,” the committee states. “Mr. Roberts has had a spouse pin since the Congresswoman entered Congress in 2019.”
“It is clear that the term ‘spouse’ – as utilized in this former rule and as seemingly accepted by the Committee by expanding ‘spouse or dependent’ to any guest – was intended to allow a Member of Congress to bring the individual that they’ve decided to share their lives with to a charity event, regardless of whether they had taken steps to bring the law or religion into their relationship,” it adds.
