{"id":240907,"date":"2026-04-21T21:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/240907\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:12:12","slug":"florida-democrat-resigns-from-congress-over-5m-covid-relief-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/240907\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Democrat resigns from Congress over $5M COVID relief scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned from the House of Representatives<\/a> on Tuesday as she faced likely expulsion for allegedly stealing $5 million in overpaid COVID-19 relief funds.<\/p>\n

The South Florida lawmaker stepped down effective immediately<\/a> over allegations she diverted payments made to her family\u2019s health care business to her 2022 congressional campaign and to buy luxury items like a 3-carat yellow diamond ring.<\/p>\n

Cherfilus-McCormick, who was indicted and is awaiting trial on federal criminal charges stemming from the same accusations, was losing support among Democratic colleagues and appeared likely to be expelled by a two-thirds vote<\/a> as soon as Wednesday.<\/p>\n

She avoided becoming the first lawmaker ousted from the House since Long Island Rep. George Santos (R-New York) was expelled<\/a> over fraud and campaign finance accusations. Santos was later convicted but was freed from prison after being pardoned by President Trump.<\/p>\n

Just last week, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California) resigned from Congress after a string of women accused him of sexual assault and misconduct<\/a>. He hasn\u2019t been charged with any crime.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., left, speaks to the media as her lawyer David Markus looks on after a hearing in federal court Monday, Dec. 29, 2025 in Miami. (AP Photo\/Terry Renna)<\/p>\n

Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) quit on the same day. He admitted having an affair with an aide<\/a> who later committed suicide by setting herself on fire.<\/p>\n

Cherfilus-McCormick\u2019s departure expands the slim Republican majority from four to five votes<\/a>. That would give Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson a bit more breathing room as he seeks to enact President Trump\u2019s agenda with a deeply divided GOP caucus.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not immediately clear when or if Gov. Ron DeSantis would call a special election to fill her deep-blue FL-20 district near Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n

The ethics panel already determined that Cherfilus-McCormick committed 25 violations of House rules and ethical standards, including breaking campaign finance laws.<\/p>\n

She denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty in federal court.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., condemns hate speech and misinformation about Haitian immigrants, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite, File)<\/p>\n

The allegations against the congresswoman center on how she received millions of dollars from her family\u2019s health care business after Florida mistakenly overpaid the business by roughly $5 million with COVID-19 disaster relief funds. She is accused of using that money to fund her 2022 congressional campaign through a network of businesses and family members.<\/p>\n

The resignation could turbocharge Democratic efforts to seek the ouster of Rep. Cory Mills<\/a>, a Florida Republican who is accused of campaign finance violations and domestic violence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned from the House of Representatives on Tuesday as she faced likely expulsion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[5142,44843,68875,13888,28,249,251,250,8884],"class_list":["post-240907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-congress","tag-democratic","tag-expulsion","tag-fema","tag-florida","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-sheila-cherfilus-mccormick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}