An attorney for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) entered a plea of “not guilty” on behalf of the congresswoman Tuesday, advancing the south Florida lawmaker’s $5 million fraud trial in Miami federal court.
The US Justice Department alleges the congresswoman and her brother diverted $5 million in federal disaster relief funds through a family health-care company, with some of the cash funding her campaign. Some other funds, according to a 59-page House Ethics Committee report, went to jewelry from Tiffany’s, a Tesla, and a cruise.
She faces up to 53 years in prison if convicted of all counts in the ...