‘Squad’ Rep. Cori Bush’s campaign shelled out $17,500 to husband last quarter

“Squad” member Rep. Cori Bush’s campaign payments to her husband Cortney Merritts — which have thrust her into the Justice Department’s crosshairs — continued as recently as December, newly released documents show.

Bush’s (D-Mo.) campaign compensated Merritts an additional $17,500 across seven different payments for “wage expense” during the fourth quarter of 2023, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.

The new money comes on top of the roughly $105,209 disbursements to Merritts doled out by the Bush campaign over the past two years, bringing the grand total up to about $122,710.

As of Dec. 31, 2023, Bush’s campaign had about $215,571 cash on hand, per FEC records.

Bush, 47, has been an outspoken proponent of the so-called “defund the police” movement while defending her campaign spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on private security.

On Tuesday, Bush confirmed that the DOJ “is reviewing my campaign’s spending on security services.” The revelation came after the House sergeant at arms sent a notice informing Congress that it had received a federal subpoena, without providing any more details.

Over the last two years, Bush’s payments to Merritts, whom she married in February 2023, were typically listed as “security services” or “wage expense” with a few smaller reimbursements for miscellaneous items such as “gas expense.”

Merritts’ past social media posts, which appear to have since been scrubbed, showed him traveling with her at least as far back as early 2021.

Bush insisted this week that she “retained my husband as part of my security team to provide security services because he has had extensive experience in this area, and is able to provide the necessary services at or below a fair market rate.”

Fox News Digital reported last year that Merritts had not had been licensed by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to perform private security since 2012.

Multiple conservative watchdogs scrutinized the Bush campaign payments to her husband, with the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust filing an ethics complaint in March.

Bush confirmed this week that she is also facing a probe from the FEC and the House Committee on Ethics over the matter.

The congresswoman’s campaign also paid out $380,948 to a St. Louis-based firm called PEACE Security from 2019 into June 2023, $73,807 to RS&T Security Consulting in 2021, and $164,838 to a man named Nathaniel Davis between 2020 and June 2023.

That adds up to more than $740,000 between Merritts and the private firms.

Most of those payments were listed as “Security Services” with a few miscellaneous expenditures such as gasoline and transportation costs included.

Since last year, her campaign shifted the language used to describe the disbursements to Merritts from “Security Services” to “Wage Expense.”

“Unfortunately, after our complaint was filed, Rep. Bush changed the language on her disclosure describing the continuing payments to her husband to something amorphous and vague, ‘wage payments,’ which at a minimum is contrary to the purpose of the law to clearly describe the purposes of campaign disbursements,” FACT Executive Director Kendra Arnold said in a statement.

“Our hope, as it always is with our complaints, is that a thorough and fair investigation reveals the truth of the matter and whether any legal violations have occurred.”

Bush has repeatedly claimed the high-dollar security spending is necessary due to threats against her.

“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. I have not used any federal tax dollars for personal security services,” she said this week.

Last fall, the Board of the Office of Congressional Ethics unanimously recommended that Bush should be cleared of an ethics complaint over the disbursements to her husband.

In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in May 2020, which sparked a wave of national protests and a reckoning on race, Bush backed efforts to “defund the police.”

“I’m going to make sure I have security because I know I have had attempts on my life and I have too much work to do,” she told CBS News in August 2021. “So, if I end up spending $200,000, if I spend … 10 more dollars on it, you know what? I get to be here to do the work.”

“So, suck it up, and defunding the police has to happen,” Bush added. “We need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets because we’re trying to save lives.”

Bush’s campaign for comment did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Democrat is running for a third House term in 2024, but is facing a primary challenge from St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell.