![\"Mamdani](\"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_4-6.png\")
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A campaign finance watchdog has filed two criminal referrals against Zohran Mamdani, the leading candidate for mayor of New York City. They accused the leftist socialist of taking illicit donations from overseas contributors.<\/p>\n
The Coolidge Reagan Foundation\u00a0sent\u00a0the recommendations to the Department of Justice\u2019s Criminal Division and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg\u2019s office on Tuesday. They say that Mamdani may have broken the Federal Election Campaign Act and the New York Election Code.<\/p>\n
The recommendations were made after The Post reported earlier this month that Mamdani\u2019s campaign got about $13,000 in donations from at least 170 people who live outside the US, including one from his mother-in-law in Dubai.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not isolated incidents or clerical errors,\u201d Dan Backer, a national campaign finance expert and president of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a sustained pattern of foreign money flowing into a New York City mayoral race which is a clear violation of both federal law and New York City campaign finance rules,\u201d Backer added. \u201cMamdani\u2019s campaign was on notice for months that it was accepting illegal foreign contributions, and yet it did nothing meaningful to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Coolidge Reagan Foundation has already filed complaints against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Hillary Clinton\u2019s presidential campaign, and the Democratic National Committee.<\/p>\n
They told Bragg and the DOJ to look into and arrest Mamdani for the campaign cash that may have come from Australia, Turkey, France, Canada, Germany, and other countries.<\/p>\n
The group said that Mamdani\u2019s campaign had shown a \u201csystematic failure to comply\u201d with the rules about campaign money.<\/p>\n
The Federal Election Campaign Act says that it is against the law to \u201caccept or receive\u201d donations from people who are not US citizens in any federal, state, or local election.<\/p>\n
People who knowingly accept donations from other countries could face big fines and jail time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe law is crystal clear that foreign nationals may not participate in American elections, and that includes making contributions,\u201d Backer continued. \u201cYet Mamdani\u2019s campaign repeatedly accepted donations from individuals abroad, some even tied to regions and individuals openly sympathetic to hostile actors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether through negligence or intent, this conduct undermines the integrity of the democratic process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani\u2019s campaign for mayor of New York City sent back about $9,000 in donations from people outside the US.<\/p>\n
Federal law says that campaigns for federal office can\u2019t take money from people outside the US. Candidates who get money from people outside the US must give it back, and they could face huge fines and even jail time if they know they are getting money from foreigners.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0National News Desk\u00a0said earlier this month that Mamdani\u2019s campaign had supposedly gotten $13,000 in donations from 170 people living outside the US. Mamdani\u2019s team argued that $4,000 of the foreign funds came from Americans residing abroad, which made those donations legitimate.<\/p>\n
The New York City Campaign Finance Board says that between September 8 and October 20, Mamdani\u2019s campaign got back almost $4,000 from 67 donors from outside the US.<\/p>\n
This included a $2,100 donation from Dubai-based investor Ada Diaz Ahmed. The campaign has still been getting donations from people outside the US. In October, three people from the UK, Australia, and Germany gave $130.<\/p>\n
Campaign Finance Board spokesman Daniel Kurzyna said these donations should have been flagged by the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the city\u2019s campaign finance portal allowed foreign donations to be processed, that is a system issue the Campaign Finance Board must address, and any improper contributions will be returned,\u201d CFB spokesman Daniel Kurzyna said in a statement to the media.<\/p>\n
Mamdani\u2019s team and campaign have stated they are looking into the matter and will comply with all laws.<\/p>\n
Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is under investigation for allegedly employing an undocumented immigrant and assisting others in evading Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s being looked at, can\u2019t comment past that. I\u2019m aware of it, we\u2019ve asked ICE to drill in on that case,\u201d Homan told political commentator Benny Johnson in a recent interview. He added that he couldn\u2019t comment on the case because it was still under active investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as you know her educating people on how to evade ICE arrests, she\u2019s really educating them on how to be prosecuted\u2026when you knowingly hinder your removal, that\u2019s a crime,\u201d Homan added during the interview.<\/p>\n
Johnson then asked how it was possible for a member of Congress to employ an illegal alien, to which Homan responded: \u201cIt is not possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diego de la Vega, a former deputy communications director for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), moved to Colombia in March after 23 years in New York City. Born in Ecuador, he came to the U.S. at age 7 on a visitor\u2019s visa and remained after overstaying, becoming undocumented.<\/p>\n
The punishment for harboring an illegal alien is punishable by a large fine and years in prison, according to the Justice Dept.<\/p>\n
Homan urged the Justice Department to investigate Ocasio-Cortez after she hosted a February \u201cKnow Your Rights\u201d webinar advising constituents on how to respond to ICE.<\/p>\n
That same month, she wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi seeking clarification on whether she was under investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI write to request clarity on whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) has yielded to political pressure and attempts to weaponize the agency against elected officials whose speech they disagree with,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past two weeks, \u2018Border Czar\u2019 Tom Homan has gone on multiple forums threatening political prosecution against me, citing resources I distributed informing my constituents and the American public of their constitutional and legal rights,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Ocasio-Cortez also said Homan\u2019s \u201cattempts to use your agency to politically intimidate duly elected officials are a textbook threat to the right to free speech in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the summer, Ocasio-Cortez was found to have broken House ethics rules by accepting more than $3,700 in gifts for her appearance at the 2021 Met Gala \u2014 including the now-infamous \u201cTax The Rich\u201d dress \u2014 but paid less than $1,000 for the items.<\/p>\n
The House Ethics Committee found that the New York Democrat failed to follow House rules on gifts and improperly gave her boyfriend, Riley Roberts, a free ticket to the exclusive $35,000-per-head event, The New York Post\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the panel stopped short of issuing any formal sanctions.<\/p>\n
According to the committee, the fair-market value of the rented Brother Vellies dress, shoes, jewelry, handbag, and hairpiece totaled $3,724.04.<\/p>\n
Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s campaign delayed payments for months and eventually paid just $990.76 \u2014 most of it from her own pocket.<\/p>\n
Her staff also disputed some of the invoices and tried to reduce costs by comparing the couture gown to cheaper rentals online.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepresentative Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s attempt to apply a retail rental cost to a handmade couture gown was unrealistic,\u201d the committee\u2019s report said.<\/p>\n
The report noted that most vendors weren\u2019t paid until after they made repeated attempts to collect \u2014 some even threatened legal action.<\/p>\n
That led to subpoenas from the committee and a more than three-year investigation.<\/p>\n
While the panel said it found no evidence Ocasio-Cortez \u201cintentionally\u201d underpaid for the goods, it did place blame on her former staffers, including ex-campaign manager Rebecca Rodriguez.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez was caught trying to negotiate down the cost of the dress \u2014 from $1,300 to $300 \u2014 and left a $477 hairstylist bill unpaid for nearly six months.<\/p>\n
The hairstylist eventually threatened to report the congresswoman\u2019s campaign to the New York Department of Labor.<\/p>\n
The Ethics Committee said no punishment would be necessary \u2014 as long as Ocasio-Cortez donates $250 to cover her boyfriend\u2019s dinner at the event and pays an additional $2,733.28 to the designer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A campaign finance watchdog has filed two criminal referrals against Zohran Mamdani, the leading candidate for mayor of New York City. They accused the leftist socialist of taking illicit donations from overseas…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}