In another scandal showing the sort of fraud, waste, and corruption that the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency is up against, one from back in the beginning of 2024 that has faded from the news but remains relevant, given the sort of potential corruption it shows, “Squad” member and former Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush has been investigated for misuse of federal funds.
For reference, the scandal involving former Rep. Bush relates to her security detail. Namely, revelations from early 2024 that she was paying her husband huge amounts of money to allegedly protect her, a contract many say was, like the more recent scandal involving Sen. Whitehouse, meant to funnel money into her husband’s pocket for her benefit. Reports from January of 2024 indicated the DOJ was investigating her for the alleged misuse of funds.
Further, Rep. Bush remained utterly unrepentant. Not only did she spend the final days of January 2024 defending herself and her decision to funnel tens of thousands of dollars to her husband for “security,” but it was revealed in April of 2024, months after the probe began, that she was still paying her husband thousands of dollars for the same thing.
In fact, reporting on that aspect of the scandal on April 18, 2024, the Daily Mail noted that Rep. Bush’s then-most recent FEC filing showed that she had paid her husband a whopping $15,000 in the first quarter of 2024, including payments for the months after January of 2024, when the DOJ investigation into her allegedly wasteful spending began.
It gets even worse: according to the most recent data from the FEC, which goes through December of 2024, when the woke Democrat’s time in office ended, as she lost her primary race, former Rep. Bush continued paying her husband, Cortney Merrits, the usual payment of $5000 even after that April, with the funneling of money continuing all the way through the end of December.
In fact, the last payment, classified as a “wage expense,” as all the payments were after April 3, 2023, was made on December 31, 2024. According to the FEC data, a total of 48 payments were made. All were bi-monthly wage and security payments of $2,500. Here are some of the last payments made from Rep. Bush’s office to Cortney Merritts, as shown by the FEC:
