Rep. Cori Bush, who is currently facing the possibility of a Justice Department probe into her expenditures on private security during her campaign and her husband, also received an additional $17,500 through her committee in recent months. new documents indicate.
The Missouri Democratic’s latest filings filed with the Federal Election Commission late Wednesday evening, show that her campaign paid seven additional installments of $2500 each for her spouse Cortney Merritts between October 1 until December 31.
The new payments continued the regular flow of checks made to her husband for the past two years. Following Bush and Merritts were married the month of February in 2023 her office announced they were married before she was elected in 2021.
Merritts initially collected money for security services from January 2022. But Bush’s committee changed their name in the form of “wage expenses” in April 2023. They continued to cause headaches for the campaign.
Merritts has gotten $120,000 from the Bush campaign’s coffers. Family members of politicians can be paid on their committees, so long as they offer “bona fide” services at the fair market value. He raked in the cash while his campaign also increased its spending with St. Louis-based firms like PEACE Security, which provides security for personal details. She’s spent more than $770,000 for such services.
In the meantime, Merritts, whose online accounts and posts indicate that he worked for an old railroad company before establishing a moving business however, was not licensed with a private security permit as of the end of February 2023. The company also didn’t have him in the Washington, D.C., database of security professionals licensed, Fox News Digital previously published.
The incident led to at least two lawsuits from the watchdog organizations over the next several weeks. First, the complaint submitted with the FEC in March 2023 by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust remains pending. The ethics committee has approved Bush in a separate complaint of the Committee to Refuse the President.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Bush campaign several times over the last several years with regards to the payments. Initially concerning the security payment generally as she tried to cut off funding for police as well as the payment to Merritts following their marriage but they failed to respond to one single question.
In light of the fact that this was happening, Fox News Digital confronted Merritts in October after they left at a D.C. fundraiser for California Democrat candidate Derek Marshall. In the course of the conversation, Merritts appeared to backtrack about his role in the campaign after claiming to the videographer that there was no video camera.
“I have a question for you,” the videographer stated. “What’s your role on the campaign right now?”
“I don’t have a role in the campaign, man,” Merritts replied.
“You don’t have a role at all?” the videographer replied. “They were reporting you had wages on the campaign for security, and then it was a general wage. I was just wondering what you’ve been doing on the campaign?”
“Yeah, I mean you can Google what it is,” Merritts said. “You can also Google what happened with the FEC report came back 5-0, that it was all completely above board.”
“So you’re not doing any more work with her campaign?” the videographer replied.
“Am I doing work with the campaign?” Merrits said. “Obviously, I am. I’m still [inaudible], right?”
“You’re still a part of it?” the videographer inquired.
“Am I still employed with it? Yes, so obviously, I’m going to work with it,” Merritts stated. “What’s this whole ‘gotcha’ s —? I’m not a politician, man, so ask me a question, man-to-man, and I’ll answer. So what’s your question?”
“That was it, about the campaign,” the videographer replied.
“I’m still in the campaign; I still do security with the campaign. Have a good night, man. Be safe,” Merritts declared before getting into the vehicle with Bush.
This month, Bush announced that the Justice Department is looking into her spending on security and stated that her office was “fully cooperating.”
“Since before I was sworn into office, I have endured relentless threats to my physical safety and life,” Bush declared in a statement released on Tuesday. “As a rank-and-file member of Congress, I am not entitled to personal protection by the House, and instead have used campaign funds as permissible to retain security services.”
“These frivolous complaints have resulted in a number of investigations, some of which are still ongoing,” Bush stated. “The Federal Election Commission and the House Committee on Ethics are currently reviewing the matter, as is the Department of Justice. We are fully cooperating in all of these pending investigations.”