Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) is being investigated over her attendance at the Met Gala in recent years.
In June, the Board of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) created its report related to the allegations made against Maloney and her attendance at the 2021 Met gala.
The board found that “there is substantial reason to believe that [Maloney] solicited or accepted impermissible gifts associated with her attendance at the Met Gala.” The board recommended that the House of Representatives’ Committee on Ethics continue to look into the allegation that she “may have solicited or accepted impermissible gifts associated with her attendance at the Met Gala.”
The Committee on Ethics put out a press release on Monday, explaining that it will continue to review the subject. It also released the OCE’s Report and Findings.
The board’s findings detail that even though Maloney told the OCE that she had always been invited to the Met Gala, and had never asked to be invited, that wasn’t true. In 2016, she called a former president of the Met to ask to be invited. The former president said Maloney was “unhappy to say the least that she is not receiving an invitation to the party of the year,” adding how Maloney “went on about how much she does for The Met.”
Maloney has also taken steps to get federal funds and grants for the Met. One of the witnesses explained how Maloney has helped the Met saying,“…all of them [government officials], as I like to say, have been our champions and have really articulated what we do here in terms of education and community outreach with their various colleagues at those levels of government. For us it has been invaluable just like being, I like to say, a cheerleader for the museum.”
When questioned, Maloney doubled down and said she did not remember ever calling people at the Met over whether or not she was invited to the gala.
Further evidence showed that Maloney might have asked to be invited to the Met Gala in 2020, as well, which was canceled due to the pandemic.
The OCE discovered that Maloney was invited to the Met Gala every year after her 2016 request. White House regulations allow Members of Congress to go to charitable events only if they “accept unsolicited offers of free attendance,” according to the report.
“Representative Maloney is confident that the House Ethics Committee will dismiss this matter,” a spokesperson for Maloney told The Daily Wire. “Although the Committee has not made any determination a violation occurred, she is disappointed by the unproven and disputed allegations in the report issued by Office of Congressional Ethics and strongly disagrees with its referral.”
Maloney is leaving office in January after she lost her primary to Representative Jerry Nadler for the twelfth congressional district in New York that was recently re-drawn.
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