{"id":2296208,"date":"2024-07-16T12:23:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T16:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/squad-democrat-cori-bush-keeps-husband-on-payroll-with-wage-expense-payments-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-07-16T12:26:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T16:26:35","slug":"democratic-squad-member-cori-bush-pays-husband-with-wage-expense-payments-washington-examiner-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democratic-squad-member-cori-bush-pays-husband-with-wage-expense-payments-washington-examiner-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic Squad member Cori Bush pays husband with &#8216;wage expense&#8217; payments &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/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%2Fdemocratic-squad-member-cori-bush-pays-husband-with-wage-expense-payments-washington-examiner-2%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=2296208&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--><p>The article discusses how Representative Cori Bush from Missouri has \u2063made \u2063multiple payments to her husband, who also serves as her longtime security \u2062guard, \u2064from her campaign funds. The \u200dpayments, totaling more than $137,000 since 2022, have raised concerns, especially after the Justice\u2062 Department opened an investigation into her spending on private security. Despite facing scrutiny and FEC complaints, Bush continues to make payments to her husband, now categorized as a \u2062&#8221;wage expense&#8221;. The article also mentions additional \u2064payments made to other security personnel by Bush&#8217;s campaign. The situation has stirred controversy and questions regarding the use of campaign funds for personal expenses.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><a class=\"tdb-logo-a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" title=\"Washington Examiner\"><span class=\"tdb-logo-img-wrap\"><\/span><span class=\"tdb-logo-text-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-logo-text-title\">Washington Examiner<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">\n<div class=\"tdb-search-form-inner\"><input class=\"tdb-head-search-form-input\" placeholder=\" \" type=\"text\" value name=\"s\" autocomplete=\"off\"><button class=\"wpb_button wpb_btn-inverse btn tdb-head-search-form-btn\" title=\"Search\" type=\"submit\"><span>Search<\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><a class=\"tdb-logo-a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" title=\"Washington Examiner\"><span class=\"tdb-logo-img-wrap\"><\/span><span class=\"tdb-logo-text-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-logo-text-title\">Washington Examiner<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">&lsquo;Squad&rsquo; Democrat Cori Bush keeps husband on payroll with &lsquo;wage expense&rsquo; payments<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span> <a class=\"tdb-author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/author\/gabe-kaminsky\/\">Gabe Kaminsky<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2024-07-16T12:05:43-04:00\">July 16, 2024 12:05 pm<\/time><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1701218\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>&ldquo;Squad&rdquo; Rep.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/cori-bush\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cori Bush<\/a>&nbsp;(D-MO) recently cut more checks from her&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/campaign\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">campaign<\/a>&nbsp;to her husband and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democratic-squad-member-cori-bush-pays-husband-with-wage-expense-payments-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Democratic Squad member Cori Bush pays husband with &#039;wage expense&#039; payments - Washington Examiner\">longtime security guard &#038;mdash<\/a>; payments that came after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/justice-department\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Justice Department\">Justice Department<\/a> opened an investigation into her major spending on private security.<\/p>\n<p>Bush dished out $15,000 between April and June to Cortney Merritts for a &ldquo;wage expense,&rdquo; adding on to the more than $137,000 she has paid her husband since 2022, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/2828497\/how-cori-bushs-private-security-payments-prompted-a-criminal-investigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>new payments come months<\/a> after Bush noted she is &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democratic-representative-cori-bush-employs-her-husband-and-pays-him-through-wage-expense-payments-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Democratic Representative Cori Bush employs her husband and pays him through &#039;wage expense&#039; payments - Washington Examiner\">fully cooperating&#038;rdquo<\/a>; with a DOJ investigation into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2830591\/democrat-cori-bush-paid-husband-thousands-federal-investigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>private security<\/a> disbursements, which are north of $750,000 combined, documents show.<\/p>\n<p>The new filings show that Bush separately spent $16,720 on security services, paying two men named Joseph Walter and Joel Beard. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cori Bush pays husband another 15K from campaign despite DOJ investigation, per new filings <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5uKMUjDCdl\">pic.twitter.com\/5uKMUjDCdl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gekaminsky\/status\/1813062243895910511?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 16, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/1891362\/rep-cori-bush-married-security-guard-the-love-of-her-life-chief-of-staff-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Bush married Merritts<\/a>, her security guard, in a private ceremony in St. Louis last year.<\/p>\n<p>By that time, the security guard had already received more than $62,000 from January 2022 to January 2023 from Bush&rsquo;s campaign for &ldquo;security services,&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/after-taking-millions-from-corporate-pacs-maloney-wants-big-corporate-money-out-of-politics\/\" title=\"After Taking Millions from Corporate PACs, Maloney Wants \u2018Big Corporate Money Out of Politics\u2019\">campaign finance records show<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But the Bush campaign subsequently began to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democratic-squad-member-cori-bush-pays-husband-with-wage-expense-payments-washington-examiner-3\/\" title=\"\u2018Squad\u2019 Democrat Cori Bush keeps husband on payroll with \u2018wage expense\u2019 payments - Washington Examiner\">describe campaign payments<\/a> to Merritts as a &ldquo;wage expense&rdquo; as scrutiny grew over the alleged enrichment of her husband. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/834771\/cori-bush-faces-second-campaign-finance-complaint-over-paying-husband-for-security\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Bush faced FEC complaints<\/a> from conservative <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/91846\/cori-bush-faces-ethics-complaint-after-using-campaign-funds-to-pay-husband-for-security-services\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>groups<\/a>, which argued she had been &ldquo;falsely reporting the purpose of disbursements,&rdquo; which one group, the conservative Committee to Defeat the President, said was a &ldquo;criminal act&rdquo; that should be referred to the DOJ.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It appears Rep. Bush&rsquo;s campaign may have made payments for services that were unnecessary or above fair market value because of her personal relationship with the payee,&rdquo; the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a separate group, wrote in an FEC complaint last year. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If so, these payments would qualify as either impermissible payments to a family member or an impermissible gift,&rdquo; the watchdog argued.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bush faces a tough reelection this year and trails her Democratic primary challenger, St. Louis prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell, by 23 percentage points, according to a new <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/07\/14\/us-news\/squad-under-siege-as-rep-cori-bush-trails-democratic-challenger-by-23-percentage-points-poll\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>poll<\/a> conducted by McLaughlin &amp; Associates for the CCA Action Fund.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> reached out to Bush and Merritts for comment.<\/p>\n<p> <script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1701218\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1701218\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><a class=\"tdb-logo-a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" title=\"Washington Examiner\"><span class=\"tdb-logo-img-wrap\"><\/span><span class=\"tdb-logo-text-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-logo-text-title\">Washington Examiner<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cori Bush, a member of the &#8220;Squad&#8221; and a Democrat from Missouri, continues to pay her husband from her campaign funds despite being under investigation by the Department of Justice for her spending on private security. She recently paid her husband $15,000 for a &#8220;wage expense,&#8221; adding to the over $137,000 she has paid him since 2022. This comes after she stated she is cooperating with the DOJ investigation into her private security spending, which totals over $750,000. Additionally, she also paid two other men for security services. Critics have accused Bush of falsely reporting the purpose of these payments and potentially making unnecessary payments due to her personal relationship with the recipients. Bush is facing a tough reelection and trails her primary challenger by 23 percentage points. The Washington Examiner reached out to Bush and her husband for comment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":381,"featured_media":2296209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/AP24191603262892-scaled-1024x683.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[33724,35211,5866,35212,32076],"class_list":["post-2296208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-cori-bush","tag-democratic-squad-member","tag-husband","tag-wage-expense-payments","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/AP24191603262892-scaled-1024x683.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296208","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\/381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2296208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2296209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2296208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2296208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2296208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}