So, harking back to yesterday, another skeleton in someone’s closet has shown up, and this is not something we will enjoy. It’s a Democrat getting busted, and it isn’t for something small. As a matter of fact, it’s something pretty damn big. Well, everyone gets embarrassed sometimes. It doesn’t mean we have to like it. Onward through the fog, friends! From (one more time,) Raw Story:
A federal grand jury in Miami indicted Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) and several co-defendants on charges of stealing federal disaster money, laundering the proceeds, and using the money to support her 2021 congressional campaign. Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and her brother Edwin Cherfilus, 51, both of Miramar, worked through their family health-care company on a FEMA-funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract in 2021. In July of that year, the company received an overpayment of $5 million in FEMA money, authorities said Wednesday.
Ouch! Can’t say that’s the brightest thing in the world to do, and from the *federal* government. The mills of g-d may grind slowly, but once they get started, they are relentless, and so was this investigation, apparently. That was not a small amount. You can bet they don’t have a way to pay for it, either. They’d better hope they can somehow afford a fancy, very good lawyer.
The duo conspired to steal that money and funnel it through multiple accounts to disguise its source, prosecutors said in a news release. A significant amount of the misused money was used as candidate contributions to Cherfilus-McCormick’s congressional campaign that year, as well as for the personal benefit of the defendants, prosecutors added.
It gets better and better. They had any number of ways to give it back, and they chose to hide and scrub it instead. Something that big *will* get noticed. It took a couple of years, but it was noticed. They’re going to get their asses kicked, too. None of us would like to look at the possibility of spending the rest of our lives in prison. Now, they are. Bet they never thought they would get caught, either. Oops.
Additionally, authorities said Cherfilus-McCormick and another defendant used straw donors, funneling money from the pandemic contract to friends and family who then donated to her campaign as if using their own cash. “Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “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.”
Never thought we could say Blondi was right. That disaster relief money *certainly* could have been used somewhere else, say, in Texas after the floods? The Congresswoman did not need it for an emergency. Can’t say there’s any sympathy for her and her co-defendants. Sure, we could all use that much money. That doesn’t make this right. Disaster money. Goddamn.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
Who wants to bet if this had happened to a representative whose name was followed with an “R” (especially a MAGA “R”), the investigation would’ve been shut down the second the matter was first reported?
YOU BETCHA, Joseph.