The Department of Homeland Security has barred former Florida Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick from all federal contracts, grants, and aid after a grand jury indicted her for allegedly stealing $5 million in COVID-19 FEMA relief funds.
DHS announced the suspension Monday, formally designating Cherfilus-McCormick and several associates, including her brother Edwin Cherfilus, as ineligible for any federal business dealings. The action follows her resignation from the 119th Congress in late April, just as the House Ethics Committee was preparing to recommend punishment.
“Former Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick abused Americans’ trust in the most egregious way possible,” said DHS General Counsel James Percival. “She manipulated the COVID-19 crisis to funnel over $5 million of FEMA relief funds to her and her family members.”
Percival did not mince words. “This is outright fraud,” he said. “That’s exactly what a federal grand jury and the U.S. House of Representatives found.”
A Miami grand jury indicted Cherfilus-McCormick in November 2025 on charges of stealing $5 million from FEMA disaster relief and making illegal campaign contributions. Prosecutors alleged she routed the money through a network of companies and into her own campaign coffers.
The House Ethics Committee’s investigation found she committed 18 campaign finance violations, five counts of false financial disclosures, three counts of misusing official funds, and one count of lack of candor. Republicans had moved to force a floor vote on her expulsion. She announced her resignation days before that vote could happen.
Cherfilus-McCormick has denied wrongdoing throughout the process. “This was not a fair process,” she said in a statement. She accused the Ethics Committee of refusing her attorney time to prepare a defense and said she would not “allow my due process rights to be trampled on.”
Despite the criminal charges and suspension, she has filed to run for her old seat, Florida’s 20th congressional district, in the November 2026 election.
