The spouse of former U.S. Representative Cori Bush, a Democrat from Missouri, has been accused of defrauding the federal government by allegedly obtaining $20,000 in pandemic relief funds, as reported by the Justice Department.
Federal prosecutors announced on Thursday that 46-year-old Cortney Merritts, residing in St. Louis, submitted misleading information regarding his purported businesses to obtain loans from the Small Business Administration during 2020 and 2021. He is now facing two counts of wire fraud, according to Fox News.
“Mr. Merritts plans to plead not guilty to the charges,” stated his attorney, Justin Gelfand of Margulis Gelfand DiRuzzo & Lambson. “As with any indictment, this represents only the government’s perspective. We are eager to present our case in federal court in Washington, D.C.”
Authorities allege that Merritts applied multiple times for business loans, falsely claiming to operate a company while misrepresenting both its income and employee count. Prosecutors noted that one of Merritts’ loan applications, submitted in July 2020, was rejected due to its similarity to a previous application he had made.
His indictment follows a year after the Justice Department initiated an investigation into Cori Bush—a former member of the progressive “Squad”—regarding campaign payments made to her husband. Bush faced a primary loss last year amid criticism for her remarks on Israel’s response to the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas.
The “Squad,” to which Bush previously belonged, is an informal coalition of left-leaning lawmakers in Congress, including representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
As early as March 2023, a government watchdog organization requested that the Federal Elections Commission investigate payments made to her husband for private security services, as reported by Fox News at that time.
Bush’s campaign compensated her now-husband, Cortney Merritts, with $60,000 for security services in 2022, despite his lack of a private security license, which is a requirement for such services in the St. Louis area. While Merritts received these payments, Bush’s campaign also allocated $225,281 to PEACE Security and $50,000 to an individual named Nathaniel Davis for personal protection, as reported by Fox News.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust submitted a complaint to Lisa Stevenson, who was the acting general counsel for the FEC at the time, urging the commission to investigate whether “Rep. Cori Bush and her campaign committee may have misused campaign funds for personal purposes.”
The organization expressed concern that “Rep. Bush’s campaign may have made payments for services that were either unnecessary or exceeded fair market value due to her personal relationship with the payee.” They noted that such payments could be classified as either improper payments to a family member or an inappropriate gift.
Consequently, they requested the FEC to examine whether Rep. Bush misappropriated campaign funds for personal use by paying a salary that did not correspond to legitimate services at fair market value. They emphasized that if any campaign laws were violated, the FEC should hold the involved parties accountable.
It is alleged that she made these payments to her husband despite his lack of a license to provide security in St. Louis or within Rep. Bush’s district.
According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s website, “All individuals performing security functions in the City of St. Louis, with the exception of St. Louis Police Officers, must be licensed through the Private Security Section.”
Bush is not the only Democrat facing scrutiny for compensating family members in recent years. California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters has paid her daughter over $1.2 million since 2004, which included additional six-figure payments during the 2022 election cycle.
Karen Waters received $192,300 from her mother’s campaign to sustain her ‘slate mailer’ business from January 2021 to December 2022, according to a review of Federal Election Commission filings by Fox News Digital. This arrangement entails outside campaigns compensating Waters’ campaign to be featured on the slate mailers, also known as endorsement mailers, distributed to constituents in the Los Angeles region, as reported by Fox News.
The outlet further noted that this practice is quite uncommon at the federal level, and Waters seems to be the sole national politician employing it to secure committee funds.
