ST. LOUIS, Missouri — In a private staff meeting in January, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush pleaded with her inner circle to stick with her and ignore fallout from a federal investigation into her campaign spending.
The Washington Post first reported on the existence of the audio Monday morning. While the newspaper published excerpts from the 11-minute recording, it did not publish the entire conversation. The same audio recording was provided to 5 On Your Side in its entirety on the eve of Bush's primary election.
The recording from Jan. 30 occurred hours after Bush walked out onto the steps of the U.S. Capitol and publicly acknowledged she was the target of several investigations.
Later that night, she urged her Congressional staffers to circle the wagons around her during a "history-making moment."
"Do we run from it because it's tough," she asked, "because they throwing all of this stuff at us? Or do we push through and walk through it and come out on the other side victorious for the people who need us the most?"
5 On Your Side was first to report Bush funneled campaign funds to her husband in February of 2023.
Once word started swirling on Capitol Hill that the payments might've triggered a criminal investigation, other national media outlets quickly quoted anonymous sources to claim she was under investigation for misusing taxpayer funds, which is a claim 5 On Your Side has not been able to verify, and a claim she adamantly refutes in public and private.
"What sounds better? What gets more clicks? What gets people to go, "Oh, no!" What makes people mad? When you start talking about taxpayer dollars," Bush told her staffers.
"If they would have put it out and say campaign funds, people would have been like, 'Oh, that's messed up. But, meh...' It wouldn't have... it wouldn't have really went hard because campaign funds... people. You know, it's just not as... it's not as salacious and clickworthy."
Bush insisted her campaign's payments to her husband were not illegal after the Office of Congressional Ethics dismissed one of the complaints against her. However, since she came under investigation, her campaign filings no longer list her husband's payments under the "Security" category. Campaign finance documents show Bush began categorizing bi-weekly $2,500 payments to him as "wage expenses" after the investigations became public.
She offered several contradictory theories to try and explain why the Department of Justice opened an investigation at all after an earlier probe was conducted and dismissed.
"That did not stop the DOJ from picking it up too, because they had already received back in August or July, whenever that article came out," she said in the staff meeting. "That person not only reached out to the House, they also reached out to the DOJ and all of these other groups. And so that's where the DOJ one comes from."
While she acknowledged the Justice Department complaint was filed in the summer of 2023, she also suggested she was coming under scrutiny for criticizing Israel's military actions in Gaza -- comments she wouldn't make for another two months.
"There are people who are very, very angry with us -- powerful people who are angry with us -- because we said 'Ceasefire,'" Bush said.
Then, she floated another theory contradicting that one: maybe the whole investigation was just propped up to insulate President Biden from Republican critics.
"This person who was a right-wing Trumper-type deal, if this person asked the DOJ to open this investigation, and if the DOJ would have said no, then they could have... this person could have come back and said to DOJ didn't do this because she's a Democrat, and the President is a Democrat, and it's just to cover for Democrats," she said.
Then she compared the government's investigation into her campaign spending to J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI's covert operations to spy on Communists and to discredit Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"Just remember, think about how many folks was actually with Dr. King when Dr. King was doing all the things that he was doing," she said. "How many folks turned away from him when the FBI came at him?"
"It's the same type of tactics," she said. "If we can throw mud on your name, if we can get you caught up in spending money, if we can get you in a place to where you tired, and, and people don't trust you no more, and all of this... If I can ruin your credibility, then we can ruin you. And then you no longer will be in that seat and we can put who we want there."
Bush's efforts to keep her staff on board were ultimately unsuccessful.
Legislative Director Kate Kelly resigned in June and took a job with the liberal think tank Center for American Progress.
Legal counsel and policy advisor Sameer Jaywant submitted his resignation letter, effective at the end of this month.
Kameron Davis, an integral legislative staffer who was the architect and "heart and soul" of Bush's eviction moratorium, was recently dismissed from Bush's office.
According to sources with intimate knowledge of the inner workings of Bush's office, Davis, a transgender man who was initially hired before transitioning, took a brief medical leave from Bush's office. Not long after Davis returned to work identifying as 'Kameron,' Bush terminated his employment. Bush's office declined to answer questions about Davis' dismissal.
During the spring, Bush was ranked one of the top 10 "worst bosses" among House Democrats due to high staff turnover. That ranking was published before three more staffers left Bush's office within a six-week span.
She is now down to just one staffer on her legislative team, three communications aides, and her chief of staff. Two other aides help handle "operations."
At the end of this month, Bush will no longer have any Legislative Director, Counsel, or Legislative Assistants on staff. According to her public website, Bush's Congressional office isn't actively hiring any replacements to fill the open jobs.
Lynese Wallace, Bush's current chief of staff, is the only staffer still employed from Bush's original team assembled in 2021.
“Any attempt to build a false narrative about people moving on from our office is misguided," one of the communications aides said. "The majority of our staff have been with us for multiple years and have put in incredible work for the people of St. Louis. Our office is incredibly proud of the team that we’ve built, both former and current team members. It’s worth noting that several of our former staff have been promoted within our office or have left Capitol Hill entirely and not only do we continue to hold strong relationships but partner together in the work for justice for our communities. We are fully invested in the personal and professional growth of our entire team.”