Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the Florida Democrat charged with bilking the government of $5 million in disaster assistance then using it to get elected to Congress, said Thursday that the charges are “baseless” and a “sham.”
She vowed to clear her name and gave no indication of bowing to pressure to resign her seat.
“This is an unjust, baseless, sham indictment — and I am innocent,” she said in a statement. “The timing alone is curious and clearly meant to distract from far more pressing national issues.”
A spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, said Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick is being pulled from her post as the ranking Democrat on a subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee while she’s under indictment.
“Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick has proudly represented the people of Palm Beach and Broward Counties since 2022,” spokeswoman Christie Stephenson said. “Consistent with the United States Constitution, she is entitled to her day in court and the presumption of innocence.”
Rep. Greg Steube, Florida Republican, said Thursday he will mount an expulsion effort — though the timing is unclear.
“Defrauding the federal government and disaster victims of $5 million is an automatic disqualifier from serving in elected office,” he wrote on social media. “Cherfilus-McCormick needs to be swiftly removed from the House.”
He said on social media that he would file the resolution Thursday, but Fox News reported that he is now going to hold off until the House ethics committee releases a report it’s been working on.
A Miami grand jury indicted Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick, her brother Edwin Cherfilus and two associates for conduct related to her family-run business, Trinity Health Care Services.
Prosecutors say the firm bid on and won contracts to staff COVID vaccine registration drives. But when the firm was overpaid by more than $5 million, the company refused to return the money.
Investigators say Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick then paid the money to herself and siphoned the funds to her congressional campaign in 2021, where she was seeking to win the seat of the late Rep. Alcee Hastings. She won the Democratic primary that year by five votes, before beating her Republican opponent handily in early 2022 to claim the seat, which she still holds.
Mr. Cherfilus-McCormick, in her statement Thursday, said she is “confident that the truth will prevail.”
She also said she’s worked with investigators.
“From day one, I have fully cooperated with every lawful request, and I will continue to do so until this matter is resolved,” she said.
But the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which contracted with Trinity, said in a lawsuit filed late last year that the firm had denied its requests to recoup the money.
And the Office of Congressional Ethics, which probed Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick and recommended an ethics case against her, said in a report that she and some of her top aides “refused to cooperate” with the review.
“Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick and Trinity Health Care Services, Inc. did not cooperate with the OCE’s review,” the office said.
OCE said Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick’s income surged in 2021 thanks to Trinity Health Care Services, the family firm. She went from $86,000 in 2020 to nearly $6 million in 2021, based on “consulting fees” she paid herself.
She also reported loaning her campaign millions of dollars that year.
In its lawsuit seeking repayment, the Florida emergency agency said it meant to pay Trinity $50,578.50 for one invoice. Instead, due to a “clerical error,” it sent $5,057,850.
The state then discovered 16 more overpaid invoices totaling more than $700,000.
• Lindsey McPherson contributed to this story.
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