Rep. Cori Bush husband was paid $60K for security without license: report

Far-left Rep. Cori Bush’s new husband, Cortney Merritts, does not have a private security license — despite being paid $60,000 last year by her campaign to provide protection.

Bush (D-Mo.), a “Defund the Police” champion and member of the progressive “Squad,” secretly married Merritts earlier this month after her campaign paid him $5,000 per month in 2022 to provide “security services,” according to Federal Election Commission records. 

But according to Fox News Digital, Merritts raked in the payday without holding a private security license, which is required by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

The outlet filed a public records request seeking information on the status of Merritts’ security license on Monday, after local station KSDK reported that he and Bush had tied the knot. 

A Sunshine Law administrator informed Fox News Digital that there were “no response records” related to the request and Merritts lacks a current license. 

Asked whether Merritts ever had a private security license, the administrator said the “last security license issued to that individual expired in 2012.”

The records search takes in both the city and county of St. Louis, which cover Bush’s congressional district, the report said. 

The SLMPD website states: “With the exception of St. Louis Police Officers, all persons performing a security function in the City of St. Louis must be licensed to do so through the Private Security Section,” a regulation that also applies to St. Louis County.

Applicants can receive licenses to be a watchman, courier, or security officer — the last of whom may be granted “certain police powers to protect life or property on or in designated premises,” and may carry a firearm, if qualified.

Merritts also does not appear in a database of licensed security professionals in the Washington, DC, area, Fox News Digital also reported, citing the District’s Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection. 

In addition to getting biweekly $2,500 checks from Cori Bush for Congress, Merritts was also reimbursed $2,359.59 for “gas and travel expenses” by the campaign.

Over the same period, Cori Bush for Congress also paid PEACE Security — a St. Louis-based company that provides clients with “security operators” from military or law enforcement backgrounds — a total of $225,281.14, according to FEC records.

While federal regulations ban the use of campaign funds for personal use — and House ethics rules bar using that money “to enhance a Member’s lifestyle, or to pay a Member’s personal obligations,” some leeway is made for members of Congress to pay family members for performing a “bona fide service.”​​

Bush’s office said in a statement Monday that Merritts was not employed by them, saying: “Our team has come to know and appreciate Mr. Merritts as a loving and caring Congressional spouse​.”