A Democratic congresswoman accused of illegally using federal relief funds for her election bid resigned from Congress on Tuesday and accused the House Ethics Committee of launching a “witch hunt” against her.
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned on Tuesday in a statement maintaining her innocence after a House Ethics Committee probe into allegations that she stole $5 million in FEMA funding intended for Covid vaccinations, for which she’s on federal trial in Florida.
“I hereby resign from the 119th Congress, effective immediately,” Cherfilus-McCormick wrote in a statement posted to X/Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.
She added: “This was not a fair process...I will not stand by and pretend this was anything other than a witch hunt.”
The congresswoman went on to say that she would “devote [her] time to fighting for my neighbors in Florida’s 20th district”, but did not explain what that meant. With her resignation, a single-digit House GOP majority ticks up to 217-213, with four vacancies and one independent caucusing with Republicans.
Last month, the Ethics panel found her guilty of 25 ethics violations tied to allegations she stole the Covid relief funds and used some of the money to fund her political campaign.
Her resignation follows the ouster of two male members of Congress, one Democrat and one Republican, over their respective sexual misconduct claims. Former Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat, is accused by a former staffer of rape; he has denied the claims while dropping out of the House and the California governor’s race, where he was a leading contender. Former Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas)’s affair with a staffer who later committed suicide also led to his resignation.
Those resignations happened in quick succession, as a wave of pressure grew on Capitol Hill and members of both parties increasingly signaled that they would back a series of expulsion resolutions.
Cherfilus-McCormick was accused of taking a $5 million overpayment from FEMA for Covid vaccination distribution purposes and funneling it through a series of straw donors and accounts before some of the money was used to fund her 2022 campaign for the House of Representatives.
She is also accused of spending other funds from the overpayment on jewelry and other personal expenditures. She has maintained that the allegations are false since she was charged with federal offences over the allegations in November of 2025 by the Trump Justice Department.
“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement at the time. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain. We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.”
While the allegations made heads turn on Capitol Hill, the president has focused his fire on other Democrats and politicized targets with far less credible allegations of financial (or other) misdeeds as he has directed his deputies to transform the Justice Department into something of his own personal prosecutor’s office.
The agency, formerly led by Bondi, has launched unsuccessful attempts to prosecute the likes of James Comey, Letitia James and other perceived enemies of the president, which has sparked a wave of resignations from career prosecutors and investigators.
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