Former Rep. Cori Bush’s Husband Indicted for Wire Fraud Over COVID Relief Funds

St. Louis, MO – March 21, 2025 – Cortney Merritts, the husband of former U.S. Representative Cori Bush, has been indicted on federal charges of wire fraud, accused of submitting fraudulent applications to secure more than $20,000 in COVID-19 relief funds intended for struggling small businesses. The charges, announced by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday, March 20, 2025, allege that Merritts exploited two key pandemic-era programs—the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program—by falsifying business records and misrepresenting financial details. This legal development follows a separate investigation into Bush herself, who allegedly paid Merritts $150,000 from her campaign funds to serve as her personal bodyguard, raising questions about the couple’s financial dealings during her tenure in Congress.

The indictment, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., paints a picture of calculated deception. According to the DOJ, Merritts, 46, submitted sham applications to the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2020 and 2021, falsely claiming details about businesses he purportedly operated. The Washington Free Beacon reports, “Cortney Merritts, who secretly married Bush in 2023, falsified details about his purported businesses in order to obtain more than $20,000 in loans from the Small Business Administration in 2020 and 2021.” These funds, intended to help businesses weather the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, were allegedly diverted by Merritts for his “personal benefit and enjoyment,” rather than legitimate business expenses, prosecutors say.

The DOJ’s press release details two primary instances of alleged fraud. On July 7, 2020, Merritts received an $8,500 EIDL loan for a moving business he operated under the name Vetted Couriers. In his application, he certified that the company employed six people and had generated $32,000 in gross revenue in the prior year. However, prosecutors allege these claims were fabricated. The following day, July 8, 2020, Merritts submitted another EIDL application for a sole proprietorship he called “Courtney Merritts,” claiming it employed ten people and generated $53,000 in revenue between January 2019 and January 2020. The SBA rejected this second application after noting its near-identical nature to the first, but Merritts still secured the initial $8,500.

Nearly a year later, on April 22, 2021, Merritts applied for a PPP loan under the same “Cortney Merritts” sole proprietorship. This time, he claimed the business was established in 2020 and had earned $128,000 in gross income that year. The application was approved, netting him a $20,832 loan, which was later forgiven by the SBA—including $254 in interest—based on Merritts’ allegedly fraudulent assertion that the funds were used for payroll costs. “Merritts used the proceeds for his personal benefit and enjoyment,” the DOJ stated in its release, though specific details of how the money was spent were not disclosed in the indictment.

Edward Martin Jr., the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and a nominee of President Donald Trump to serve permanently in that role, signed the indictment. The investigation, however, began under the Biden administration, indicating a continuity of oversight across political shifts. The SBA Office of Inspector General and the FBI’s Washington Field Office are leading the probe, underscoring the federal government’s ongoing efforts to combat fraud in pandemic relief programs.

Merritts, through his attorney Justin Gelfand, has signaled his intent to fight the charges. “Mr. Merritts intends to plead not guilty to the charges,” Gelfand told The Washington Post. “As with any indictment, this is only the government’s version of the story. We look forward to litigating this case in federal court in Washington, D.C.” This stance sets the stage for a legal battle that could further illuminate the circumstances surrounding Merritts’ applications and the couple’s financial arrangements.

The indictment does not implicate former Rep. Cori Bush directly in the alleged fraud, and she has not been charged with any wrongdoing in this specific case. However, the timing and context of Merritts’ charges draw attention to a separate DOJ investigation into Bush’s campaign finances, which emerged in early 2024. That probe centers on allegations that Bush misused campaign funds by paying Merritts $150,000 for security services—payments that continued even after the investigation was made public. Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that between January 2022 and September 2023, Bush’s campaign paid Merritts a total of $105,209.59, with additional payments reported later, bringing his total compensation closer to the $150,000 figure cited in various outlets.

Bush, a progressive Democrat and former member of the congressional “Squad,” represented Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, encompassing St. Louis, from 2021 until January 2025. She lost her seat in the 2024 Democratic primary to Wesley Bell, a more moderate candidate backed by pro-Israel groups, ending a tenure marked by both activism and controversy. Her decision to hire Merritts as a bodyguard, despite his lack of a private security license in either St. Louis or Washington, D.C., drew scrutiny from watchdog groups and political opponents. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) filed a complaint in 2023 alleging that Bush’s payments to Merritts violated federal election law, though the Office of Congressional Ethics dismissed a similar complaint later that year.

Bush’s use of campaign funds for security has been a lightning rod for criticism, particularly given her vocal advocacy for defunding police departments. FEC data indicates her campaign spent over $750,000 on private security services since 2019, a figure she has justified by citing threats to her life. In a 2024 statement addressing the DOJ investigation into her security spending, Bush said, “I retained my husband as part of my security team to provide security services because he has extensive experience in this area, and is able to provide the necessary services at or below a fair market rate.” She dismissed the allegations as “frivolous,” emphasizing her need for protection amid her high-profile activism, which gained prominence after the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

The overlap between the two investigations—into Merritts’ alleged fraud and Bush’s campaign payments—raises questions about potential connections, though no evidence has publicly surfaced linking the two. The Washington Post reported in January 2024 that the DOJ had contacted multiple former Bush staffers as part of its probe into her security expenditures, but the current status of that investigation remains unclear. Bush’s campaign continued paying Merritts $2,500 bi-weekly for “wages” rather than “security” after their February 2023 marriage, a shift in categorization that did little to quell public speculation.

Merritts’ indictment adds to a growing list of cases targeting misuse of COVID-19 relief funds. The SBA’s Inspector General estimated in a 2022 report that up to 70,000 PPP and EIDL loans may have involved fraud, representing billions of dollars in potentially misallocated taxpayer money. Merritts’ alleged actions, while relatively small in scale, exemplify the challenges federal agencies face in policing such programs, particularly during the chaotic early months of the pandemic when oversight was stretched thin.

For Bush, the legal troubles of her husband compound the political fallout from her primary loss and the lingering questions about her campaign finances. Her tenure in Congress was defined by her unapologetic progressivism—she famously refused to label Hamas a terrorist group and voted against a resolution barring its members from entering the U.S.—but also by controversies that critics argue undermined her credibility. The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative outlet, noted that Bush “blamed the Jews” for her 2024 primary defeat, a claim tied to her criticism of pro-Israel lobbying groups like AIPAC, which supported her opponent.

As Merritts prepares to defend himself in court, the case could cast a long shadow over Bush’s post-congressional career. While she has not commented publicly on the indictment as of March 21, 2025, her past statements suggest she will frame any scrutiny of her family as an extension of political attacks against her. For now, the focus remains on Merritts, whose alleged actions—combined with his role in Bush’s security detail—paint a complex picture of personal and political entanglement.

17GEN4.com