Every once in a while, a public official is charged with a crime so brazen that it makes your jaw drop. Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Democrat of Florida, has just been indicted, and the scale and conspiracy alleged by the Department of Justice is, indeed, jaw-dropping.

Cherfilus-McCormick has been indicted, along with three other people, of stealing $5 million of FEMA funds, laundering the funds through multiple accounts, and using the money for both campaign funding and personal use. In reading the DOJ’s press release about the indictment, this all starts with… wait for it… FEMA’s incompetence in distributing funds during Covid.

According to the indictment, Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and her brother Edwin Cherfilus, 51, both of Miramar, worked through their family health-care company on a FEMA-funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract in 2021. In July 2021, the company received an overpayment of $5 million in FEMA funds.

FEMA, incompetent? Handing out money erroneously to the tune of millions of dollars? Is anyone shocked by this? No wonder FEMA can claim that it is “broke” when natural disasters hit – there is apparently little to no oversight, and no consequences (until DOGE), for the bureaucrats making these overpayments.

Now, the correct thing to do, if you are a good person, would be to contact FEMA and tell them that there were too many zeros in this payment. Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother did not do that. In fact, that money was allegedly laundered and then spent, in part, on her campaign to get her elected to Congress!

The defendants allegedly routed the funds “through multiple accounts to disguise its source” and used “a substantial portion of the misappropriated funds … as candidate contributions” to Cherfilus-McCormick’s 2021 congressional campaign.

Cherfilus-McCormick and another co-defendant, Nadege Leblanc, 46, further schemed to utilize “straw donors” to contribute the stolen money to the Florida Democrat’s campaign, according to prosecutors.

The congresswoman and her tax preparer, David K. Spencer, 41, are also charged with conspiring to file a false federal tax return for allegedly falsely marking political spending and other personal expenses as business deductions — and inflating Cherfilus-McCormick’s charitable contributions to ease her tax obligations.

Cherfilus-McCormick was first elected to serve Florida’s 20th District in Congress in 2022, replacing the late Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), who died in 2021.

During that campaign, Cherfilus-McCormick aroused suspicion by personally loaning her campaign more than $6 million and then paying herself back to the tune of roughly $2.5 million, Federal Election Commission filings show.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management claimed in a December 2024 lawsuit against the health care company owned by Cherfilus-McCormick’s family — Trinity Healthcare Services – that it overcharged the state by nearly $5.8 million for work done during the pandemic and refused to give the money back.

Cherfilus-McCormick was the CEO of Trinity at the time of the overpayment.

So if you’re keeping track, there are four people who are alleged to have taken part in this conspiracy to keep the overpayment, use it to fund a Congressional campaign, and commit tax fraud. And in an ironic twist, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick was elected to take the seat of the late Alcee Hastings, who had quite the checkered criminal past himself. Is something wrong with that particular congressional district in Florida? Is there something in the water?

And the indictments carry serious prison time, should Cherfilus-McCormick and the rest of her conspirators be found guilty.

If convicted, Cherfilus-McCormick faces up to 53 years in prison. Edwin Cherfilus faces up to 35 years, Leblanc up to 10 years, and Spencer up to 33 years.

Cherfilus-McCormick’s lawyers are proclaiming that she will “fight to clear her good name,” but the finances of her 2022 campaign had already caught the attention of the House Ethics Committee, via a referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics in 2024. This indictment will certainly have an impact on that investigation, but one of Cherfilus-McCormick’s Florida colleagues is going a step further.

Tomorrow morning I will be filing a privileged motion to censure Rep. Cherfilus McCormick and remove her from all committees.

This is one of the most egregious abuses of public trust I have ever seen. Stealing $5 million in taxpayer disaster funds from FEMA of all places is… https://t.co/xsqm0oqOWw

— Congressman Greg Steube (@RepGregSteube) November 20, 2025

Steube’s full post reads:

Tomorrow morning I will be filing a privileged motion to censure Rep. Cherfilus McCormick and remove her from all committees.

This is one of the most egregious abuses of public trust I have ever seen. Stealing $5 million in taxpayer disaster funds from FEMA of all places is beyond indefensible. Millions of Floridians have relied on FEMA after devastating hurricanes, and that money was supposed to help real disaster victims.

And once House Ethics concludes their investigation or she is formally convicted, rest assured I will move to expel her from Congress.

Why wait? There is precedent to expel the Florida Democrat now.

Republicans expelled George Santos for less and Dems all cheered for it. They need to keep that same energy and expel @CongresswomanSC. https://t.co/NlcyvAwz9I

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) November 20, 2025

Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and her fellow co-defendants are innocent until proven guilty, but that doesn’t mean that she should keep her congressional seat. Her constituents in Florida certainly deserve better. She should be expelled, immediately, and be given the chance to participate in her own defense without the distraction of her office.

Featured image: Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida, official Congressional portrait, cropped, public domain