Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the Democratic congresswoman from Florida, resigned earlier this year after being charged with 15 federal counts including wire fraud, theft of government funds, and unlawful monetary transactions. The feds say she stole $5 million in FEMA disaster relief money — COVID-era funds meant for actual emergencies — and spent over $100,000 of it within two months on personal items, including a diamond ring.
Cherfilus-McCormick's family runs Trinity Healthcare Services, which received the FEMA relief money. According to federal prosecutors, she used the company as a pass-through to siphon disaster funds into personal spending. Wire fraud. Aiding and abetting. Unlawful monetary transactions. The indictment reads like someone working through a checklist of things you're not supposed to do with emergency relief money.
She's not even the most recently arrested Democrat. She's just the highest-ranking one this cycle.
Five days ago, Lawrence, Massachusetts Mayor Brian DePeña was arrested in an FBI dawn raid and charged with wire fraud and money laundering. Federal prosecutors say he received more than $1.5 million in COVID-era small business loans and used the money to fund his reelection campaign, pay off back taxes owed to the IRS, and cover over $880,000 in high-interest personal mortgages. The loans were meant for small businesses struggling through a pandemic. DePeña used them like a personal ATM. He had also been separately under investigation by the state attorney general for allegedly setting up illegal recording equipment to secretly tape conversations inside his own City Hall.
In New Mexico, former Democratic House leader Sheryl Williams Stapleton was convicted on 31 felony charges for diverting school funds through a kickback scheme. The money earmarked for schools ended up everywhere except schools. Thirty-one counts.
In California, the fraud reached the governor's own orbit. Dana Williamson — Gavin Newsom's chief of staff from late 2022 through December 2024 — was hit with a 23-count federal indictment in November 2025. Prosecutors say she conspired to drain a dormant campaign account belonging to former Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, diverting over $225,000 to pad a colleague's salary and personal use. She also allegedly claimed more than $1.7 million in fraudulent business expenses on her taxes — including a $15,000 Chanel bag, a chartered jet, and a $170,000 birthday trip to Mexico. Newsom called her departure from his office routine. Federal prosecutors called it something else.
The left-wing response to these arrests usually falls into one of two categories: "isolated incidents" or "both sides do it." The isolated-incident defense gets harder to maintain when you can fill a spreadsheet with names, dates, and indictment numbers from a single party. And the both-sides deflection conveniently ignores that these aren't campaign finance technicalities or paperwork errors — they're theft of government funds charges, wire fraud charges, kickback convictions.
What connects Lawrence to New Mexico to Florida to Sacramento isn't geography or coincidence. It's a governing philosophy that treats public money as a resource to be allocated among allies. When you build a political culture around expanding government spending, you also build more opportunities for the people controlling that spending to redirect it. More programs, more contracts, more grants — and more hands in the process between the Treasury and the intended recipient.
Cherfilus-McCormick bought a diamond ring with FEMA money. Stapleton diverted school funds through a kickback scheme. DePeña funneled COVID loans into his campaign and mortgage payments. Newsom's chief of staff expensed a $170,000 birthday trip to Mexico on the taxpayer's dime.
Expand the pot. Control the ladle. Keep what sticks to your fingers.