FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge in Miami set a $60,000 bond Tuesday for U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who made her first appearance in court on charges of conspiring to steal $5 million in federal disaster funds meant to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
The Florida Democrat is facing 15 federal counts that accuse her of stealing funds that had been overpaid to her family’s health care company, Trinity Healthcare Services, prosecutors alleged. The company had a contract to register people for COVID-19 vaccinations.
Cherfilus-McCormick stood with her attorneys as Judge Enjoliqué Lett read all 15 charges, the South Florida SunSentinel reported. She told the judge she is aware of the charges she faces.
She said in a statement sent to the AP that she plans to fight for her constituents.
“Today I made my initial appearance in a case that is both politically timed and politically motivated,” Cherfilus-McCormick said in the statement. “Let me be clear: I am innocent and I look forward to my day in court. This has been a fight not just for my name — it’s a fight for my constituents, an attack on the progress we have been making and the movement we have started.”
She said she will not be “intimidated or silenced.”
In addition to bail, the judge said Cherfilus-McCormick must surrender her personal passport, and she is restricted from traveling to and from Florida from anywhere other than Washington, D.C., Maryland and the Eastern District of Virginia.
The congresswoman will be allowed to retain her congressional passport so she can do certain duties for her job.
In a federal indictment unsealed earlier this month, prosecutors claimed that within two months of receiving the funds in 2021, more than $100,000 had been spent to purchase a 3-carat yellow diamond ring for the congresswoman.
The health care company owned by Cherfilus-McCormick’s family had received payments through a COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract, the indictment said. Her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, requested $50,000, but they mistakenly received $5 million and didn’t return the difference.
Cherfilus-McCormick has denied the charges, through her attorney, David Oscar Markus.
Prosecutors said the funds received by Trinity Healthcare were distributed to various accounts, including to friends and relatives who then donated to Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign for Congress.
Cherfilus-McCormick won a special election in January 2022 to represent Florida’s 20th District, which includes parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties, after Rep. Alcee Hastings died in 2021.
The charges she faces include theft of government funds; making and receiving straw donor contributions; aiding and assisting a false and fraudulent statement on a tax return; and money laundering, as well as conspiracy charges associated with each of those counts.
According to a statement provided by the congresswoman’s chief of staff, she doesn’t plan to resign from office and maintains her innocence. She said she has cooperated with “every lawful request” and will continue to do so until the matter is resolved.
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Payne, who reported from Tallahassee, Florida, is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
