Ex-Democrat Rep Cori Bush’s Spouse Indicted for COVID Fraud

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that Cortney Merritts of St. Louis, Missouri, has been indicted on two counts of wire fraud for allegedly submitting false applications to obtain federal COVID-19 relief funds.

JUST IN: former Rep. Cori Bush’s husband was just charged by the DOJ with wire fraud. pic.twitter.com/ovXAfYUdAT

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) March 20, 2025

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Merritts is the husband of former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who represented Missouri’s 1st Congressional District until she lost her primary in August 2024 to Rep. Wesley Bell, a pro-Israel Democrat. Bush, a member of the progressive “Squad,” had served in Congress since 2021.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Merritts submitted multiple fraudulent applications to the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2020 and 2021 under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

The DOJ alleges that Merritts collected over $20,000 in government funds by misrepresenting the number of employees and income generated by his businesses.

On July 7, 2020, Merritts submitted an application to the SBA for an $8,500 EIDL loan, claiming to operate a business called Vetted Couriers.

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In that application, he certified that the business employed six people and had gross revenue of $32,000 from January 30, 2019, to January 30, 2020.

One day later, on July 8, 2020, Merritts submitted another EIDL loan application under the name “Courtney Merritts.”

In that second application, he claimed to operate a sole proprietorship with 10 employees and reported $53,000 in gross revenue during the same time period.

He also requested an advance of up to $10,000 based on the inflated employee count. However, the SBA denied the second request after identifying that the applications were nearly identical.

The DOJ also stated that Merritts submitted an application for a PPP loan on April 22, 2021, under the name “Cortney Merritts.”

He claimed that the business had been created in 2020 and had generated $128,000 in gross income that year.

Based on this representation, he was awarded a PPP loan of $20,832.

Merritts later applied for loan forgiveness, falsely claiming that the business employed 10 people and that the full amount of the loan, including $254.03 in interest, had been used for payroll expenses.

The loan was subsequently forgiven by the SBA based on these representations.

The indictment states that Merritts used the funds for personal benefit.

U.S. Attorney Ed Martin announced the charges on Thursday, alongside Special Agent in Charge Amaleka McCall Brathwaite of the SBA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Eastern Region and FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Ryan of the Washington Field Office’s Criminal and Cyber Division.

The investigation is being handled by the SBA OIG and the FBI Washington Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Rami Sibay are prosecuting the case.

JUST IN: Former Rep. Cori Bush’s husband indicted for wire fraud, accused of submitting false applications to receive COVID relief funds.

Shocker!

The development comes following a separate investigation where Bush is accused of paying her husband $150,000 to serve as her… pic.twitter.com/eVypHMLg2F

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 20, 2025

While the press release does not mention Cori Bush by name, the former congresswoman has faced separate scrutiny from the DOJ.

In early 2024, the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Justice confirmed that Bush was under investigation for alleged misuse of campaign funds related to personal security services.

Cortney Merritts had been hired as Bush’s bodyguard and was paid through her campaign.

However, according to reports, he did not possess a license to perform security services.

Despite the ongoing DOJ investigation, reports indicated that Bush’s campaign continued to pay Merritts for security work months after the investigation was made public.

The case against Merritts marks the latest legal development surrounding public figures connected to the disbursement and use of federal COVID relief funds.

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