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.

“The rules and laws governing the use and disclosure of federal campaign expenditures are written to ensure that those in Congress elected to represent us do so without personally profiting from their office,” said Executive Director Kendra Arnold of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a group that in March 2023 called on the Federal Election Commission in a complaint to review Bush’s payments to Merritts. The watchdog argued Bush’s campaign was unlawfully using funds for personal use, which the FEC defines as disbursements to fulfill commitments existing separate from campaign needs.

Arnold asserted the public “deserves the truth” about Bush’s payments listed under security.

Bush, who took office in 2021 and represents Missouri’s 1st Congressional District encompassing St. Louis, said Tuesday she is “fully cooperating” with the investigation. The congresswoman denied any wrongdoing, including by denying that “any federal tax dollars” were used “for personal security services,” even though Bush’s Member Representational Allowance records list her prior payments totaling $1,416 for personal security.

In Washington, D.C., since-confirmed rumors swirled on Monday that Bush was on the receiving end of a Justice Department investigation after the House sergeant-at-arms announced being served a grand jury subpoena in connection to a Democratic lawmaker’s use of federal funds for security. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The FEC, which Bush said is also investigating her, told the Washington Examiner it can’t comment “on potential enforcement matters that may come before the agency.” Bush also said she’s cooperating with an investigation through the House Ethics Committee, a powerful body that receives referrals for cases from the Office of Congressional Ethics, a nonpartisan entity the congresswoman said voted unanimously to dismiss a case on her security payments.

“The OCE investigation was completed a number of months ago,” OCE spokesman William Beaman told the Washington Examiner, noting he has “no idea” what the Justice Department is specifically investigating. “Could be quite different from the scope of our investigation.”

In February of last year, Bush tied the knot with Merritts, her security guard, in a private ceremony in St. Louis.

By that time, Merritts had already received more than $62,000 between January 2022 and January 2023 from Bush’s campaign for “security services,” according to FEC filings.

From Feb. 6, 2023, to April 3, 2023, Merritts then pocketed $12,500 combined from the Bush campaign.

However, subsequent campaign payments totaling $30,000 to Merritts between April 14, 2023, and Sept. 26, 2023, were no longer listed as “security services” but were instead described as “wage expenses,” documents show.

That discrepancy proved to be a red flag in March of last year to the Committee to Defeat the President, a conservative super PAC that alleged in an FEC complaint Bush had been “falsely reporting the purpose of disbursements” to Merritts. Dan Backer, the super PAC’s lawyer, told the Washington Examiner at the time the Bush campaign’s actions amounted to a “criminal act” that ought to be referred to the Justice Department and OCE.

The super PAC, which aims to push back on President Joe Biden‘s agenda, also joined the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust in requesting an investigation into the fact that Merritts did not have a private security license in St. Louis County or the city of St. Louis. The Bush campaign did not return a Washington Examiner request for comment.

Meanwhile, as scrutiny grew over the Bush campaign shelling out thousands of dollars to her employee-turned-husband, so did that of the congresswoman’s large payments to Nathaniel Davis III, a “guru” and friend of Bush’s claiming to be 109 trillion years old with supernatural abilities.

Davis, whom the Washington Free Beacon reported was Bush’s highest-paid security guard, also came under the spotlight for not having a security license. A former Black Panther Party member, Davis has alleged he can summon hurricanes and levitate.

To Mike Columbo, a campaign finance attorney and former counsel to the FEC, the question federal investigators will have to get to the bottom of is whether Bush’s payments to Merritts were legitimate or for personal expenses.

“It is a broad rule that makes it unlawful for anyone to embezzle campaign funds or for a candidate to treat their campaign contributions like their personal funds,” Columbo told the Washington Examiner. “This critical rule is what prevents candidates from defrauding their donors by not using their contributions for election expenses, and it prevents campaign contributions from being bribes that can directly, personally, and monetarily enrich a candidate.”

He said the FEC will likely pause its administrative enforcement inquiry to avoid interfering with the Justice Department’s criminal investigation.

News of the criminal investigation comes after years of conservatives lambasting Bush over her shelling out cash for security while supporting the left-wing movement to defund the police.

But in 2021, Bush firmly rejected calls of hypocrisy from conservatives, whom the congresswoman told to “suck it up” since “defunding the police has to happen.”

“We need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets because we’re trying to save lives,” Bush told CBS News that year.

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Tim Jones, state director for the conservative Missouri Freedom Caucus and former house speaker for the Show Me State’s legislature, said Bush is an “epic hypocrite” over her defund the police position.

“All she talks about is herself and her own personal security,” Jones told the Washington Examiner, pointing to rising crime rates in Missouri.