Over the course of what is approaching four years, “Squad” Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), a proponent of defunding the police, has spent north of $750,000 from her campaign committee on security services.

Now, these staggering payments are at the heart of a Justice Department investigation into whether Bush, who also used $1,400 combined in 2021 from her taxpayer-backed congressional stipend for personal security, may have criminally misused certain funds, the congresswoman confirmed Tuesday. And to legal experts, as well as watchdog groups long dissatisfied with the government for purportedly not enforcing regulations, Bush appears to have violated federal law by funneling at least $100,000 to Cortney Merritts, the Democrat’s security guard whom she married last year.