Sure, she COULD be. But she won’t. “Bush paid back the funds, and a small penalty, and the case was dropped”. (or similar).
The two admit to her husband Merritts collecting $120,000 from Bush’s campaign coffers. But other reports say he got $ from her campaign coffers plus a $750,000 pile from offhore bank accounts and one in the Ukraine.
Politicians can pay family members from their committees as long as they provide “bona fide” services at fair market value. He pocketed the money as Bush’s campaign simultaneously spent significantly more with St. Louis-based companies such as PEACE Security for private detail. She’s spent over $770,000 on such services.
Meanwhile, Merritts, whose online accounts and posts have indicated he worked at a railroad company for years before starting a moving company, did not have a private security license as of late February 2023. He also did not appear in a Washington, D.C., database of licensed security specialists, Fox News Digital previously reported.
The ordeal triggered at least two complaints from watchdog groups in the following weeks. The first complaint, filed to the FEC in March 2023 by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, is still pending. The ethics committee has since cleared Bush in a second complaint from the Committee to Defeat the President.
Fox News Digital reached out to Bush’s campaign numerous times over the past several years regarding the payments - first, regarding the security payments in general as she pushed to defund the police, then regarding the payments to Merritts after they married - but they did not respond to a single inquiry.