Justice Department Launches Investigation Into “Squad” Member Cori Bush
Jose Nino
|
In a statement published on January 30, 2024, Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush announced that the Justice Department is launching an investigation to determine if her campaign improperly paid her husband to contract with personal security.
Bush revealed that federal prosecutors are looking over her spending records on security services. Further, she stated that she is cooperating with that investigation and rejected allegations that she is improperly spending campaign money.
Bush was first elected in 2020 and has teamed up with “The Squad” — a vocal faction of leftist in the House. She married security guard Cortney Merritts in 2023. Back in March, a non-governmental ethics watchdog called attention to payments made to Merritts as part of its effort to get the Federal Election Commission to investigate if the money was improperly spent. Under federal law, candidates are limited in how they can spend campaign money, in addition to being restricted in their gift giving and disbursement of payments to family members. In the complaint, the NGO in question, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, alleged that some of the money the Bush campaign spent in 2022 on security services went to Merritts. The NGO specifically pointed out that he didn’t possess a St. Louis private security license that is needed to carry out this work.
The organization wanted the FEC to carry out an investigation to determine if Merritts did security work at fair market value in that timeframe. Bush was featured in its list of “top ethics violators of 2023,” which was exclusively made up of Democrat elected officials.
Bush said Tuesday that she has followed federal law on campaign spending and House guidelines. She said she hired her husband 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.”
Bush revealed that she has worked with two separate congressional entities that handle ethics issues and have reviewed the matter. She claimed that the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics finished its investigation in the fall of 2023 without a discovery of foul play and that a probe by the House Committee on Ethics was still going on.
Bush described the investigation as political, declaring that the complaints initially came from right-wing organizations that have made dubious accusations about her.
“I am under no illusion that these right-wing organizations will stop politicizing and pursuing efforts to attack me and the work that the people of St. Louis sent me to Congress to do: to lead boldly, to legislate change my constituents can feel, and to save lives,” she said to reporters on January 30.
The Squad has constantly butted heads with Democratic leadership on a host of issues ranging from law enforcement ot immigration. In recent times, Bush and her Squad compatriots have generated controversy for their criticism of Israel in the wake of the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
After Bush pushed for “immediate de-escalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine”, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, kicked off a high-profile primary campaign against Bush instead.
The Democratic Party, despite being united in its hatred of white, European Americans, still has some degree of factionalism in its ranks. The Israel question remains a major dividing line between the more neoliberal, Boomer generation of Democrats and their Millennial woke counterparts.
This will be one of the more interesting intra-party fights to watch in the ensuing decade.
Share: