Welcome to Pay Dirt—exclusive reporting and research from The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay on corruption, campaign finance, and influence-peddling in the nation’s capital. For Beast Inside members only.
A prominent conservative attorney and activist is going after Democratic rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and it’s turning into a fundraising boon—for both of them.
Dan Backer is the founder and president of the Coolidge-Reagan Foundation, and in that capacity he filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics last week alleging that AOC, as the freshman New York congresswoman is known, violated House rules by securing an official email address for her boyfriend.