Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the winner of a Democratic Congressional primary in New York, greets a passerby in New York, Wednesday, June 27, 2018, the morning after she upset U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley in Tuesday’s primary election. | Mark Lennihan, The Associated Press

Saikat Chakrabarti and Corbin Trent, who both worked on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign through Justice Democrats then became staffers in her Capitol Hill office, are “resigning” to work on campaigns during the 2020 election cycle.

Given the ongoing power struggle between AOC’s “Squad” and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the question is whether the resignations were voluntary or a result of behind-the-scenes pressure from Team Pelosi.

Chakrabarti’s resignation was announced first. Trent, who serves as Ocasio-Cortez’s communications director, told The Intercept:

“Saikat has decided to leave the office of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to work with New Consensus to further develop plans for a Green New Deal. We are extraordinarily grateful for his service to advance a bold agenda and improve the lives of the people in NY-14. From his co-founding of Justice Democrats to his work on the Ocasio-Cortez campaign and in the official office, Saikat’s goal has always been to do whatever he can to help the larger progressive movement, and we look forward to continuing working with him to do just that.”

Later in the afternoon, Trent’s departure was announced. Ocasio-Cortez, Millennial that she is, texted a statement to The Intercept saying that Trent will be “shifting to our campaign side so we can work on some ambitious comms projects we’ve been looking forward to working on,” and that she had personally asked him to make the move.

Chakrabarti has been as much of a comms firecracker as his boss, often wading into Twitter fights with political opponents and using the medium in a Trump-like fashion to stir the pot between AOC and Pelosi. Exhibit A:

All these articles want to claim what a legislative mastermind Pelosi is, but I'm seeing way more strategic smarts from freshman members like @AOC, @IlhanMN , @RashidaTlai and @AyannaPressley. Pelosi is just mad that she got outmaneuvered (again) by Republicans.

— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) July 7, 2019

Pelosi claims we can't focus on impeachment because it's a distraction from kitchen table issues. But I'd challenge you to find voters that can name a single thing House Democrats have done for their kitchen table this year. What is this legislative mastermind doing?

— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) July 7, 2019

Friday afternoon, Saikat Chakrabarti found out exactly what this legislative mastermind is doing.

https://twitter.com/peekaso/status/1157394978525655041

Whoops.

With this move, though, Chakrabarti is entirely free to make Pelosi’s life miserable during the 2020 election cycle. Payback’s a b***h. I’m grabbing my popcorn.

Jennifer Van Laar is Deputy Managing Editor of RedState. Follow her on Twitter @jenvanlaar or on Facebook.