Democratic Florida Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick could be expelled from the House after being charged by federal prosecutors Wednesday night with funneling federal disaster funds into her campaign account.
Republican Florida Rep. Greg Steube, said he would file a motion to censure Cherfilus-McCormick on Thursday morning following the Department of Justice’s indictment that could land her in prison for up to 53 years if convicted. Steube later said that “on second thought” he had “decided to skip censure and move straight to expulsion.”
“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,” Steube wrote in a Thursday morning X post. “I’ll be filing the resolution today. If she refuses to resign and save Congress the embarrassment of having to expel her, I will bring this resolution to the floor for a vote.”
“This is one of the most egregious abuses of public trust I have ever seen,” Steube wrote on X Wednesday night announcing his plans to introduce a censure resolution. “Stealing $5 million in taxpayer disaster funds from FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] 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,” Steube continued in his Wednesday night X post.
Cherfilus-McCormick serves on the Foreign Affairs and Veterans’ Affairs Committees.
Federal prosecutors said that Cherfilus-McCormick and several co-defendants stole $5 million in FEMA overpayments to her family company and used the money for their own personal benefit and Cherfilus-McCormick’s 2021 congressional run. The indictment was brought by a federal grand jury in Miami.
Cherfilus-McCormick was the head of the Florida-based healthcare company, which secured a FEMA contract to register individuals for COVID-19 vaccines.
Some of the alleged stolen FEMA funds were doled out to friends and relatives, who then donated the money to Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign account and pretended that it was their own personal donation, prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors also charged Cherfilus-McCormick and her tax preparer for conspiring to file a false federal tax return.
“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement accompanying the indictment.
A spokesperson for Cherfilus-McCormick did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Though many lawmakers are likely to be horrified by the allegations against Cherfilus-McCormick, it is unclear whether Steube’s effort will succeed.
A motion by Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace to censure Republican Florida Rep. Cory Mills over various ethical controversies failed overwhelmingly on the House floor late Wednesday night. Cherfilus-McCormick did not vote.
On Tuesday, Republicans came up short in their effort to formally rebuke and strip Democratic U.S. Virgin Islands delegate Stacey Plaskett of her seat on the House Intelligence Committee after several GOP lawmakers defected. Republicans have sharply criticized Plaskett for consulting the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing.
Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas and LaMonica McIver of New Jersey have also been indicted by the DOJ and are currently awaiting trial.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the post-publication development that Steube will seek to expel Cherfilus-McCormick.
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