Husband of former ‘Squad’ Rep. Cori Bush charged with wire fraud

The husband of former U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat, has been charged with defrauding the government after allegedly accepting $20,000 in payments from the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection and Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs, the Justice Department said. 

Cortney Merritts, 46, of St. Louis, falsified details about his purported businesses to obtain loans from the Small Business Administration in 2020 and 2021, federal prosecutors said Thursday. 

He was charged with two counts of wire fraud.

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“Mr. Merritts intends to plead not guilty to the charges,” Merritts’ lawyer, Justin Gelfand of Margulis Gelfand DiRuzzo & Lambson, said in a statement. “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.”

Merritts repeatedly applied for business loans for a company he said he operated while also allegedly misrepresenting his revenue and number of people he employed, authorities said.

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One July 2020 application for a loan was rejected because it was nearly identical to one he submitted previously, prosecutors said. 

Merritts was indicted a year after the Justice Department opened an investigation into Bush, a former member of the “Squad,” over campaign payments to her husband. 

Bush was defeated in a primary last year amid controversy over her criticism of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on its citizens by Hamas terrorists. 

The so-called “Squad” Bush formerly belonged to is an informal group of progressive lawmakers in Congress that includes representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.