Rep. Cori Bush, the far-left Squad member, is under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice for allegedly misusing campaign funds to pay a bodyguard whom she later married.
The department contacted the House on Monday with a subpoena for documents related to the Bush investigation, which was reported by Punchbowl News.
Ms. Bush, a Missouri Democrat and former Black Lives Matter activist who called for defunding the police, spent $756,000 on security since she was first elected to the House in 2020.
Ms. Bush confirmed in a statement Tuesday that the DOJ is reviewing her campaign’s spending on security services and that she’s “fully cooperating in this investigation.”
The nonpartisan Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust petitioned Lisa Stevenson, acting general counsel of the Federal Elections Commission, to investigate whether Ms. Bush “used campaign funds for personal use.”
The congresswoman paid the man she later married $62,000 from her campaign to be her bodyguard, according to FACT.
She married the bodyguard, Cortney Merritts, in a private ceremony in early 2023. In 2022, he was on the payroll of her reelection campaign.
“It appears Rep. Bush’s campaign may have made payments for services that were unnecessary or above fair market value because of her personal relationship with the payee,” FACT Executive Director Kendra Arnold said in the complaint.
“Therefore, we request the FEC investigate whether Rep. Bush converted campaign funds for personal use by paying a salary that was not for bona fide services at fair market value,” she wrote.
“Ultimately, if one or more campaign laws are found to have been broken, we request the FEC hold the respondents accountable.”
Ms. Bush took a defiant tone and lashed out at her opponents.
“I have endured relentless threats to my physical safety and life. 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,” she said. “I have not used any federal tax dollars for personal security services. Any reporting that I have used federal funds for personal security is simply false.”
She added, “In recent months, right-wing organizations have lodged baseless complaints against me, peddling notions that I have misused campaign funds to pay for personal security services. That is simply not true. I have complied with all applicable laws and House rules — and will continue to prioritize the rules that govern us as federal elected officials.”
Ms. Bush called the complaint against her frivolous and part of attacks that have resulted in ongoing investigations.
The FEC and House Committee on Ethics are reviewing the matter along with the DOJ.
Ms. Bush noted that in September the Office of Congressional Ethics voted unanimously to dismiss the case.
In a statement to The Washington Times, Ms. Arnold said, “Among the many troubling facts involved that we strongly felt justified [to apply] an investigation were her close personal relationship, her large payments to others for the same services at the same time, and that her husband reportedly didn’t have a license to provide those services.”
She added, “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.”
— Staff writer Alex Miller contributed to this report.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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