MIRAMAR, Fla. — One day after being indicted on accusations that she stole $5 million in disaster relief funds to help fund her congressional campaign, the political fallout continued for U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Florida.
The congresswoman is facing the possibility of decades in prison after a Miami federal grand jury indicted her along with several associates, including her brother and her tax preparer, prosecutors announced on Wednesday.
A Republican colleague from Florida is now calling for her expulsion from the U.S. House of Representatives. Meanwhile, Cherfilus-McCormick is stepping down from her position as a ranking member on a congressional subcommittee.
Investigators said Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and her brother Edwin Cherfilus, 51, both of Miramar, received a vaccination staffing contract through their family healthcare company, Trinity Healthcare Services, in 2021 and got a $5 million overpayment that July.
Read the indictment:
According to the indictment, the overpayment happened after Trinity billed the state $50,758.50.
The state left out the decimal point, making the payment sent to Cherfilus-McCormick’s company $5,075,850.
Cherfilus-McCormick and her associates “conspired to steal” the money and used much of it to fund her 2021 congressional campaign to succeed the late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings ― or for the “personal benefit” of herself and others accused, prosecutors claim.
The news led U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Florida, who called for a censure motion on Wednesday evening after news of the congressman’s indictment broke, to call for her expulsion.
“Defrauding the federal government and disaster victims of $5 million is an automatic disqualifier from serving in elected office,” Steube said in part in a statement posted to social media platform X. “Cherfilus-McCormick needs to be swiftly removed from the House before she can inflict any more harm on Congress, her district, and the State of Florida.”
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, through a spokesperson, said in part that Cherfilus-McCormick is “entitled to her day in court and the presumption of innocence,” but that pursuant to House Democratic Caucus rules, she “will take leave from her position as Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa while this matter is ongoing.”
Cherfilus-McCormick maintains her innocence.
In a statement Thursday morning, she said, “This is an unjust, baseless, sham indictment — and I am innocent. The timing alone is curious and clearly meant to distract from far more pressing national issues. From day one, I have fully cooperated with every lawful request, and I will continue to do so until this matter is resolved."
The congresswoman later spoke to Local 10 News Washington correspondent Ross Ketschke at the Capitol.
“I look forward to my day in court so I can prove myself and actually state the truth, but if this is what Congress is becoming, whether it’s intimidation tactics, trying to scare you, especially attacking minorities, Black and brown people, then we’re going to have to keep fighting for the district,” she said.
She also responded to colleagues who have called on her to step down.
“They didn’t elect me; it was my district,” Cherfilus-McCormick said. “So we’ll keep fighting for the people and keep working like we’re doing now, until they get what they need. We’re here for the people and only people who elected me can make that decision.”
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
