The husband of former St. Louis-area Democratic Congresswoman Cori Bush has avoided a conviction on charges he defrauded a pandemic-era small business relief program.
Attorneys for Cortney Merritts said Friday that a federal jury in Washington, D.C. could not reach a unanimous verdict after three days of deliberations, but members had been leaning toward a not-guilty verdict.
“We are grateful the jury saw this for what it was: an innocent small business owner who legitimately sought financial relief during the pandemic for a moving business he built from the ground up and was prosecuted only because he is married to a former United States Congresswoman,” attorney Justin Gelfand said in a statement.
Merritts was charged in March with two counts of wire fraud. At the time, the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. was led by Ed Martin, the former chair of the Missouri Republican Party.
Thousands of people across the country have been charged with pandemic relief fraud, generally for much larger amounts than the $21,000 Merritts was accused of stealing. The same week Merritts was indicted, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Missouri announced charges against a St. Louis woman accused of claiming more than $177,000 in fraudulent tax credits.
