A former aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is now a senior official within the New York State Communist Party.
Records, first reported on by The New York Post, show 33-year-old Justine Medina worked for Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign for much of 2020, earning around $35,000.
After working for the congresswoman, Medina was named "Co-chair of the New York Communist League" by the People’s World, a publication of the Communist Party.
The publication now lists Medina as serving on the Executive Committee of the New York State Communist Party who is also active in the Amazon Labor Union at JFK8.
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As an aide to Ocasio-Cortez, Medina said she was responsible for "organizing and writing policy language with Anti-War Veterans & the Peace Movement."
Medina’s years-old tweets highlighted by The Post show her unapologetically proclaiming her alignment with communism.
"[W]ell, I *am* a Communist, but work for AOC & helped start Queens DSA’s Electoral WG, so I def see utility in working on the Dem ballot line!" Medina tweeted in October 2020.
In another tweet, she described communism as being about "equality, democracy, peace, the advancement of workers, the oppressed and humanity in general."
She ominously added that the path to communism will be "unkind" to those who "block progress."
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"[B]ut communism is good and shouldn’t scare you," she said.
Medina later appeared to capitalize on The Post article.
"Friends, I have an announcement to make," she quoted in a re-post of The Post.
In response to a reply questioning whether she adhered to the Maoist or Leninist variety of Communism, Medina said she subscribed to "Marxist-Leninist-Robesonist" thought, a reference to Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Maximilien Robespierre. Robespierre led the French Revolution and was the architect of its bloody Reign of Terror until it turned on him and beheaded him.
While modern-day adherents of communism have tried to water it down, the ideology has been the driving force behind many political movements throughout the 20th century, killing upwards of 100 million people. The Soviet Union's communist dictator Joseph Stalin starved millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s. China's communist dictator Mao Zedong led the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward, the death toll from which is estimated to have been above 40 million. Cambodia's Khmer Rouge communist leader, Pol Pot, imposed brutal programs during his brief rule in the 1970s that are estimated to have killed about one-fourth of his own country's population.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Medina and Ocasio-Cortez’s office for additional comment.
