On Thursday, the Trump administration Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that they had indicted Cortney Merritts of St. Louis, Missouri with two counts of wire fraud. The defendant is actually the husband of former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), a member of the far-left Squad who lost her primary last August to a pro-Israel Democrat, now Rep. Wesley Bell.
According to a press release from the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, Merritts allegedly filed fraudulent applications with the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2020 and 2021. This "allowed him to collect more than $20,000 in government funds under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)."
As the press release further explained:
According to the indictment, on July 7, 2020, Merritts received an $8,500 EIDL loan from the SBA for a moving business he operated that he called Vetted Couriers. In the application he submitted for Vetted Couriers, Merritts certified that his business had six employees and had generated $32,000 in gross revenue between January 30, 2019 and January 30, 2020.
On July 8, 2020, Merritts submitted another application to the SBA for an EIDL loan in the name of a sole proprietorship he called “Courtney Merritts.” In this EIDL application, Merritts fraudulently claimed to have a business that employed ten people and generated $53,000 in gross revenue between January 30, 2019 and January 30, 2020. In addition to an EIDL loan, Merritts also requested an EIDL advance of up to $10,000 based on his false claim that he had 10 employees. The SBA rejected Merritts’ attempt to obtain additional EIDL funds after determining that his July 2020 application was nearly identical to the prior one he submitted.
The indictment further alleges that on April 22, 2021, Merritts applied for a PPP loan in the name of a sole proprietorship he called “Cortney Merritts.” Merritts fraudulently claimed in this application that he had created this business in 2020 and that it had generated $128,000 in gross income that year. Based on Merritts’ representations about his gross income, Merritts received a $20,832 PPP loan. Merritts used the proceeds for his personal benefit and enjoyment. In July 2022, Merritts submitted a loan forgiveness application in which he falsely claimed that this business had 10 employees at the time of the PPP loan, and that he spent the $20,832 on payroll costs. Based on Merritts’ alleged fraudulent representations, the SBA forgave the PPP loan in the amount of $20,832 and the $254.03 in interest.
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U.S. Attorney Ed Martin announced the indictment on Thursday, along with Special Agent in Charge Amaleka McCall Brathwaite of the Eastern Region for the SBA Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Ryan of the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division. The case is being investigated by the SBA OIG and the FBI Washington Field Office, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Rami Sibay acting as prosecutors, the press release also noted.
To be clear, the former congresswoman herself is not mentioned in the press release. She has, however, experienced her own issues with the DOJ. Early last year, the DOJ under the Biden-Harris administration announced that Bush was the subject of a criminal probe for allegedly misusing funds for security services. Merritts served as Bush's bodyguard, paid for by her campaign. Even months after such an announcement about the allegations, Townhall reported multiple times that Bush was still paying Merritts for security. Merritts was paid despite how he did not have a security license.
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