{"id":1981495,"date":"2023-07-24T16:08:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T20:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/squad-democrat-cori-bush-keeps-new-husband-on-payroll-for-private-security\/"},"modified":"2023-07-24T16:11:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T20:11:10","slug":"squad-democrat-cori-bush-keeps-new-husband-on-payroll-for-private-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/squad-democrat-cori-bush-keeps-new-husband-on-payroll-for-private-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic Representative Cori Bush employs spouse for private security."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsquad-democrat-cori-bush-keeps-new-husband-on-payroll-for-private-security%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1981495&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Rep. \u200bCori Bush (D-MO) Pays Husband Thousands in Campaign Funds for Private Security<\/h2>\n<p>According to new\u2063 Federal Election Commission filings, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), a member of \u2064the \u200d&#8221;Squad,&#8221; paid her\u2062 husband thousands of dollars\u200b more in campaign funds for\u2064 private security and\u2064 other matters \u2062during the second\u200c quarter of 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Bush faced a flurry \u200cof ethics complaints in March over her campaign&#8217;s move to keep paying Cortney Merritts, a security professional from St. Louis whom she\u2064 married in early February in a private wedding ceremony. The congresswoman, \u2064between April and \u200dJune, dished out $17,500 to \u200dMerritts for &#8220;wage \u2063expenses&#8221;\u2064 and \u2064&#8221;security services,&#8221; making his total Bush campaign haul $30,000 so far in 2023, filings \u2063show.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s nice of her to remind voters\u2063 that she\u2019s happy stealing donor money to enrich her hubby,&#8221; Dan Backer, a Republican \u2064campaign finance lawyer\u2063 for\u2064 the Committee to Defeat the President, one of the groups that previously filed\u200b an FEC complaint over Bush paying \u200dMerritts, \u200ctold the Washington Examiner.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Merritts and Bush have reportedly been together since before the \u200dcongresswoman assumed office in 2021. Bush, who\u200b in\u2064 recent years has come \u2064under fire from Republicans for her support of the\u200d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blm-protesters-bust-barricade-around-rochester-police-station-block-road-following-incident-with-9-year-old\/\" title=\"BLM Protesters Bust Barricade Around Rochester Police Station, Block Road Following Incident With 9-Year-Old\">left-wing movement<\/a> to defund \u2062the police,\u2064 has cut Merritts regular $2,500 checks\u2062 since January of that year, according to filings.<\/p>\n<p>Backer&#8217;s \u2062group and the Foundation for Accountability\u200c and \u2062Civic Trust, a right-leaning \u200bwatchdog, mentioned in their complaints how Merritts \u200bdid not, as of late February, hold a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cori-bush-married-her-unlicensed-security-guard-while-calling-to-defund-police\/\" title=\"Cori Bush Married Her Unlicensed Security Guard While Calling To Defund Police\">private security license<\/a> in St. Louis County or the city of St. Louis, which comprises Bush&#8217;s\u200c congressional \u2062district. Moreover, Merritts didn&#8217;t appear\u2062 to show up in a database \u200cfor\u200b licensed\u200c security professionals in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022 alone, Bush&#8217;s campaign shelled out $60,000 to Merritts, filings show.\u200d The Committee to Defeat the President alleged in its \u2062prior complaint that the campaign had\u200d been &#8220;falsely reporting the purpose of \u2064the disbursements.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Her criminal act\u2062 \u2014 unlawful in both Washington, D.C., and her\u200b own district \u2014 isn\u2019t just an FEC matter; the Department \u2064of Justice and the Office of Congressional Ethics should also investigate Bush\u2019s utter disregard for the law,&#8221; Backer said. &#8220;That\u2019s why the Committee to Defeat the\u200c President not\u2062 only \u2063filed \u2063a\u2063 more \u2062in-depth FEC \u200bcomplaint, detailing \u200bher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cori-bush-faces-second-campaign-finance-complaint-over-paying-husband-for-security\/\" title=\"Cori Bush faces second campaign finance complaint over paying husband for security\">precise criminal violations<\/a>, but also sent the \u200bdetails to\u2062 the DOJ\u200d and OCE.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Bush campaign&#8217;s security team has employed\u2064 Nathaniel Davis III, \u2064a friend of the congresswoman who has purported to be a 109 trillion-year-old spiritual guru, \u2063according\u200b to the Washington Free Beacon. It has \u2062also paid\u2064 PEACE Security, a St. Louis-based limited liability corporation specializing in &#8220;armed\u200d security&#8221; as well as\u200d surveillance system \u2062sales and installation, according to public records.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Bush joined\u200c several House Democrats \u200dlast week to reintroduce the People\u2019s Response Act, a \u200dbill aiming to\u200c allocate funding to social workers for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/squad-democrat-cori-bush-keeps-new-husband-on-payroll-for-private-security\/\" title=\"Democratic Representative Cori Bush employs spouse for private security.\">emergencies\u200b involving mental health<\/a> rather than law enforcement. Appearing at\u2063 the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ny-gov-cuomo-shunned-experts-embraced-lobbyists-drove-top-health-officials-to-quit-over-pandemic-response-report\/\" title=\"NY Gov. Cuomo Shunned Experts, Embraced Lobbyists, Drove Top Health Officials To Quit Over Pandemic Response: Report\">recent press conference<\/a> on the \u2064measure was\u2063 Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation board member Shalomyah Bowers, \u2063who dubbed Bush &#8220;brilliant.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bowers was accused in a September 2022 lawsuit of \u2062illegally stealing over $10 million\u200c from donors of\u200d the Black Lives Matter Global Network \u200bFoundation, which that same year disclosed spending\u2064 $1.7 million on \u200b&#8221;professional security services.&#8221; The lawsuit cited state and federal\u200d investigations into the foundation that spawned as a direct result of multiple Washington Examiner stories\u2062 on \u2062its financial transparency lapses.<\/p>\n<p>Bush&#8217;s\u2063 continued \u200dcampaign payments for security come after the &#8220;Squad&#8221; member asserted herself as one of\u200b the\u2062 top supporters of stripping\u200c police of resources after the murder of George \u2064Floyd in 2020.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">CLICK HERE TO READ\u200c MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The thing about defund the police is we have\u2064 to tell the entire narrative,&#8221; Bush said\u2064 in 2022 in her defense \u200cof the defund the police \u2064movement.\u200c &#8220;We can\u2019t get caught up on the \u2063words. People spend more time focusing on the word \u2064\u2018defund\u2019\u2063 than they spend on caring and addressing the\u200c problem of police in this country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Bush campaign did not return a\u200b request\u200b for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), a &#8220;Squad&#8221; member, used campaign funds to pay her husband for private security and other expenses in Q2 2023, as per Federal Election Commission filings. In March, Bush faced ethics complaints for continuing to pay Cortney, sparking controversy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1981496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1981495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1981495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1981496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1981495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1981495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1981495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}