Rep. Cori Bush should be acquitted of charges she used campaign funds to hire her husband, the Office of Congressional Ethics Board unanimously recommended.
Bush (R-Mo.) paid her now-husband Cortney Merritts at least $60,000 with campaign funds in 2022, triggering an ethics complaint from conservative groups earlier this year.
The Missouri congresswoman praised the dismissal recommendation as “welcome and long overdue,” while taking aim at “sycophants and right-wing extremists” for pushing for an investigation.
“The political attacks on my campaign are a clear example of how far-right groups will stop at nothing to smear those of us who work unapologetically serving our communities,” Bush said in a defiant statement obtained by The Post. .
“The sycophants and right-wing extremists who make up Donald Trump’s Republican MAGA Insurrection Party want me to spend energy and financial resources defending myself from these distractions. But your deception won’t work.”
Cori Bush received an ethics complaint earlier this year from multiple conservative groups. AP
The progressive Democrat received a letter informing her of the OCE panel’s decision last month, but her campaign confirmed it to The Post on Thursday.
Bush officially married Merritts in February. His campaign made payments to him between January 2022 and December 2022 for security, according to documents presented by the Federal Electoral Commission.
Most of the payments he received came in the form of bimonthly stipends of $2,500 each, with a few exceptions.
His campaign also paid St. Louis company PEACE Security more than $225,000 for protection, according to the filing.
Conservative critics noted that Cortney Merritts was not licensed to provide private security. Twitter / @CortneyMerritt4
The ethics complaints against Bush were filed by the Foundation for Civic Trust and Accountability and the Super PAC Committee to Defeat the President, both conservative groups.
“It appears that Rep. Bush’s campaign may have made payments for services that were unnecessary or above fair market value due to her personal relationship with the recipient,” FACT Executive Director Kendra Arnold wrote in a complaint filed at the beginning of this year.
“If so, these payments would qualify as impermissible payments to a family member or as an impermissible gift.”
Under FEC rules, campaigns can only make payments for “good faith” services; payments to family members are restricted.
Cori Bush and her husband Cortney Merritts.Cortney Merritts/Facebook
Bush, an advocate of the “defund the police” movement, began making payments to Merritts about two weeks after his vehicle was hit by gunfire in January early last year.
Payments to Merritts continued even after the complaints were filed. Her campaign recently sent him $12,500 between July and August, according to the filing.
Merrits did not have a private security license in St. Louis County or the city of St. Louis, which are in Bush’s congressional district, according to FACT.
In 2018, he founded a moving company called Vetted Movers and Couriers and, in a social media post, appeared to pitch his services to then-House Speaker hopeful Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) during his humiliation by the deck in January. of this year.
I’m on Capitol Hill offering to help Kevin McCarthy get his shit out of the Speaker’s office and back into his. 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/KAeGsixAAZ
—Cortney Merritts (@CortneyMerritt4) January 3, 2023
Bush is not the only Democrat facing scrutiny over money sent to family members.
“Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) sparked controversy over a $2.9 million cash flow to a company owned by her husband, Tim Mynett.
Bush has recently attracted controversy due to his calls for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas, as well as his criticism of Israel’s retaliation.
The congresswoman was first elected to the lower house in 2020.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn