Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) is stepping down from her position as the top House Democrat of a Foreign Affairs subcommittee in light of the Justice Department indicting her over allegations of stealing and laundering $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds.
In a statement on Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Cherfilus-McCormick will “take leave” as ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, “while this matter is ongoing.”
“Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick has proudly represented the people of Palm Beach and Broward Counties since 2022,” Jeffries said. “Consistent with the United States Constitution, she is entitled to her day in court and the presumption of innocence.”
A federal grand jury in Miami handed down the indictment on Wednesday, alleging that Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother’s family healthcare company received a $5 million overpayment from FEMA in 2021 and hid the money through multiple accounts before rerouting a “substantial portion” of it to her congressional campaign.
Cherfilus-McCormick called the indictment an “unjust, baseless, sham” in a statement released Thursday, insisting she is innocent.
“The timing alone is curious and clearly meant to distract from far more pressing national issues,” Cherfilus-McCormick said. “From day one, I have coordinated with every lawful request, and I will continue to do so until this matter is resolved.”
Cherfilus-McCormick has been under investigation by congressional ethics watchdogs since 2023. In May, the Office of Congressional Ethics recommended that the House Ethics Committee investigate the congresswoman after it found enough evidence to suggest that she may have requested funds for a for-profit entity and violated campaign finance laws.
In the wake of the indictment, Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) said he would file a censure resolution against Cherfilus-McCormick. But on Thursday, he said he’d forgo a censure and move straight to a motion to expel the Florida congresswoman.
“Defrauding the federal government and disaster victims of $5 million is an automatic disqualifier from serving in elected office,” he said in a post on 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.”
“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,” he added.
A censure resolution against Cherfilus-McCormick would have made this the fifth one this week. Once a rare reprimand for high crimes and misdemeanors, both parties have now started to use censures as a form of mudslinging rather than a rebuke for extremely poor behavior.
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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said prior to Steube’s expulsion plans that he anticipated a censure to come against Cherfilus-McCormick.
“That seems to be the thing to do now, so we’ll see,” Johnson said. “I would like to get back to normal Congress. It’s just that no one knows what that looks like anymore.”