{"id":31123,"date":"2026-01-30T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/01\/30\/democratic-congresswoman-faces-fate-of-george-santos-over-claims-she-plucked-covid-cash-for-car-and-cruise\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T14:10:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:10:00","slug":"democratic-congresswoman-faces-fate-of-george-santos-over-claims-she-plucked-covid-cash-for-car-and-cruise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/01\/30\/democratic-congresswoman-faces-fate-of-george-santos-over-claims-she-plucked-covid-cash-for-car-and-cruise\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic congresswoman faces fate of George Santos over claims she plucked Covid cash for car and cruise"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By JON MICHAEL RAASCH, US POLITICAL REPORTER<\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/p>\n

Published:<\/span>

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Florida<\/a>Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick could be expelled from Congress as soon as next week after investigators found evidence she committed fraud.<\/p>\n

Democrat<\/a> Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, is already facing federal charges for her alleged misuse of $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds.<\/p>\n

A federal grand jury in Miami indicted Cherfilus-McCormick and multiple co-defendants in November with stealing federal emergency cash, laundering the funds and spending the money to support her 2021 congressional<\/a> campaign.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the House Ethics Committee’s Investigative Subcommittee published a report indicating that many of the charges outlined in her indictment are substantiated in their own probe.<\/p>\n

‘The ISCs investigation has revealed substantial evidence of conduct consistent with the allegations in the indictment, as well as more extensive misconduct … related to violations of federal laws and regulations, as well as ethical standards,’ the subcommittee wrote in the report.<\/p>\n

The 59-page report also claims the defendants used the federal emergency cash to fund the Democrats’ congressional campaign and on luxury items.<\/p>\n

‘Respondent also used those<\/span>funds on luxury personal items, including jewelry from Tiffanys, a Tesla, designer clothing, high-end hotels, and a cruise,’ the lawmakers wrote.<\/p>\n

The congresswoman has denied the report’s findings in a statement: ‘I reject these allegations and remain confident the full facts will make clear I did nothing wrong.’<\/p>\n

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Congressional investigators found ‘substantial evidence’ that Congresswoman Shiela Cherfilus-McCormick committed fraud as outlined in the DOJ’s indictment against her<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Congressman Greg Steube has said he will begin a petition to expel the Democratic congresswoman as soon as next week<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Now, a Republican lawmaker is calling for Cherfilus-McCormick to be expelled from Congress as soon as next week.<\/p>\n

The last member to be expelled from the chamber was ex-Congressman George Santos, who was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison for misleading donors and spending campaign money fraudulently. The 2023 vote against Santos was 311-114.<\/p>\n

Santos had his sentence commuted by Trump after serving around three months in prison<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘In November, I filed a resolution to expel [Cherfilus-McCormick] following her indictment by the DOJ,’ Florida Republican Congressman Greg Steube wrote on social media on Thursday.<\/p>\n

‘Todays House Ethics findings detail more than two dozen counts of serious financial crimes. When we return to Washington, Ill call up a resolution to expel her from Congress.’<\/p>\n

Expulsion resolutions in the House require a two-thirds vote, meaning around 80 Democrats would need to side with all Republicans to successfully boot the congresswoman from the chamber.<\/p>\n

The indictment alleges that Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, conspired to steal money earmarked for FEMA-funded COVID-19 contracts in July 2021 after their family healthcare company received $5 million in overpayments.<\/p>\n

She then funneled many of those funds to multiple accounts to disguise the source of the money.<\/p>\n

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The indictment alleges that Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, conspired to steal money earmarked for FEMA-funded COVID-19 contracts in July 2021 after their family healthcare company received $5 million in overpayments<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A substantial portion of that money was used to fund her successful 2021 congressional campaign and for the benefit of the defendants, the DOJ alleges.<\/p>\n

If convicted, the congresswoman faces up to 53 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Only six members of the House of Representatives have been expelled from the body in US history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/ad-slot> <\/ad-slot> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JON MICHAEL RAASCH, US POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 12:10 EST, 30 January 2026 | Updated: 12:10 EST, 30 January 2026 FloridaRepresentative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick could be expelled from Congress as soon as next week after investigators found evidence she committed fraud. Democrat Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, is already facing federal charges for her alleged misuse of $5 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}