AOC demands Tulsi Gabbard apology for Ilhan Omar ‘voter fraud’ video

Project Veritas accused of offering $10,000 for false claims against Minnesota politician

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has hit out at Tulsi Gabbard for sharing social media video accusing Ilhan Omar of ‘ballot harvesting.' (Getty Images)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has hit out at Tulsi Gabbard for sharing a social media video accusing Ilhan Omar of voter fraud

Ms Ocasio-Cortez called on fellow Democratic congresswoman Ms Gabbard to apologise for promoting the video released by right-wing media outfit Project Veritas.

In the video Liban Osman, the brother of Minneapolis city council member Jamal Osman, appeared to claim he had participated in fraudulent “ballot harvesting” for congresswoman Omar.

Mr Osman has since said the group edited the video to remove context and that they had offered $10,000 to say he was harvesting votes.

The practice involves a third party collecting ballots and delivering them to election officials to be counted.

Ms Gabbard had cited the video on Twitter as a “further evidence of the need to ban ballot harvesting.”

“You, along with everyone else who amplified this fraudulent story, owe Rep Omar a public apology,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

Ms Omar took to social media to thank her Democratic colleague for the support.

“Thank you Alex, lack of integrity from these folks is astonishing,” she Tweeted.

Project Veritas has denied allegations it tried to bribe Mr Osman.

The group, which is run by James O’Keefe, has frequently been accused of misleadingly editing videos.

And in 2017 the Washington Post claimed a woman had approached them making false allegations against the Alabama Republican candidate for senate, Roy Moore, as part of a sting operation meant to discredit the newspaper.