Zack Exley is a former senior adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and co-founder of the left-wing political committees Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress. ²

Exley has a long history in Democratic political activism: Exley’s author biography at the Huffington Post credits him with creating the first political parody website in existence after he bought GWBush.com in 1998. ¹¹ It began as a petition website, but soon expanded and split into two associated organizations for tax reasons: MoveOn Civic Action, the group’s 501(c)(4) lobbying arm, and MoveOn Political Action, the group’s PAC.

Exley and MoveOn.org advised former Vermont Governor Howard Dean (D) in his 2004 presidential campaign and created what it billed the “first internet presidential primary” in which 317,000 members of MoveOn.org voted. Howard Dean won 44% of the vote. ¹⁹ It was one of the two organizations that created the radical environmentalist Green New Deal²³

It is unclear how much, if any, of the money received by Chakrabarti’s firm, was used to promote Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign, however; former FEC commissioner Brad Smith told the Daily Caller News Foundation if “a complaint were filed, I would think it would trigger a serious investigation,” which if the accusations are found to be true, Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti “may have engaged in multiple violations of federal campaign finance law.” https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/02/04/the-insurgents-behind-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-224542.