This scandal-ridden Democrat just got one step closer to being expelled from Congress



Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida just got one step closer to being expelled from the House of Representatives.

The House Ethics investigative subcommittee effectively found Cherfilus-McCormick guilty of nearly every campaign finance violation levied against her earlier this year. The bipartisan panel voted to start the process that could lead to Cherfilus-McCormick's expulsion after she was accused of laundering millions of dollars worth of Federal Emergency Management Agency funds related to a COVID-era contract into her campaign account.

'That raises serious concerns about due process.'

"After careful deliberation that lasted until well past midnight, the adjudicatory subcommittee found that Counts 1-15 and 17-26 of the [Statement of Alleged Violations] have been proven," the committee said in a statement.

"Shortly after the House returns from April recess, the full Committee will hold a hearing to determine what, if any, sanction would be appropriate for the Committee to recommend."

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This verdict came after the committee's six-hour hearing Thursday, which was the first public ethics hearing since 2010.

Cherfilus-McCormick is facing several accusations in addition to a federal criminal indictment ranging from filing false financial disclosures, seeking "special favors" with earmark funding requests, and improperly using funds to finance her campaign.

Ahead of the hearing, Cherfilus-McCormick criticized the committee, saying her legal team was denied "reasonable time to prepare" for the trial.

"That raises serious concerns about due process and the fundamental rights every American is entitled to under our Constitution," Cherfilus-McCormick said in a statement. "While I am limited in what I can address due to an ongoing federal matter, I have cooperated fully within those constraints."

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"I urge the Committee to follow its own precedents and uphold fairness and not allow this process to be driven by politics or numbers," Cherfilus-McCormick added. "I welcome the opportunity to set the record straight and challenge these inaccuracies, when I am legally able to do so. Make no mistake: I am innocent and I am a fighter. My district is made up of fighters. I will continue to fight for the people I was elected to serve.”

In order for Cherfilus-McCormick to be expelled, two-thirds of representatives would have to vote in favor of expulsion, requiring some Democrats to agree to vote with Republicans.

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Epstein-friendly lesbians managing fraud-plagued Manhattan club in hot water — again



Core, an invitation-only private club in Manhattan where membership fees reportedly range from $15,000 to $100,000 a year, has counted among its approximately 1,500 members Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold, and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson.

Dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was also a longtime patron of the club as well as a founding member.

Jennie and Dangene Enterprise — the lesbian couple who run the club — are both under intense scrutiny over their friendship with the child sex offender in light of new insights from the Epstein files.

Jennie Enterprise, however, might be in especially hot water over the apparently irreconcilable sworn statements that she allegedly provided about her club's finances in two separate cases regarding COVID fraud and rent delinquency.

Competing claims

The club entered a 20-year lease with 711 Fifth Ave Principal Owner LLC in 2021 and took over four floors of the building in 2023.

In the years since, the Enterprises have been engaged in a bitter legal battle with property developer Michael Shvo. For instance, the Core Club reportedly sued Shvo in 2024 for $600 million, alleging that he failed to deliver promised upgrades to the 711 Fifth Ave. property and other locations. Shvo, in turn, accused the Core Club of defaulting on its lease at the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco.

Last year, the landlord served the Core Club with a termination notice, alleging that it had "defaulted on its obligation to pay the Base Rent and/or Additional Rent under the Lease in the amount of $3,633,787.13 by Aug. 1" as purportedly required under the lease.

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Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

The Core Club, in response, sought what is called a Yellowstone injunction barring the landlord from terminating the lease and evicting the club.

A judge with New York County’s Commercial Division court obliged the Enterprises in September, finding that their club had "established 'it is prepared and maintains the ability to cure the alleged default by any means short of vacating the premises.'"

Attorneys for the landlord have pointed out an apparent discrepancy between the story that Jennie Enterprise and the Core Club told the court and what they told the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York in their COVID-era relief fraud case in August.

The landlord's attorneys alleged in a court filing on Wednesday that the Core Club secured its injunction "by making materially misleading representations to this Court about its financial health," and has "repeatedly been delinquent" on its use and occupancy payments.

The attorneys noted that in September 2025, the club "represented to the Court that it had a more than sufficient financial ability to cure its default of over $3.5 million in past due rent and that it could continue paying Rent at the Least rate."

'You have influenced my life in a really amazing way.'

While supposedly able to pay millions in allegedly past-due rent, the attorneys noted that the club managed in August to avoid paying back most of the over $4 million that Core Club entities — controlled by Jennie Enterprise — fraudulently received in COVID-era relief funds and paid only a fraction of the $8.1 million consent judgment against the club.

The attorneys highlighted that court documents show that Jennie Enterprise's sworn financial disclosures about the Core Club's "financial condition" to the USAO-SDNY led the government "to accept in compromise" a settlement of only $366,000 spread over several years.

The Wednesday court filing alleged:

These apparent representations by the SDNY Core Defendants to the United States Attorney regarding their supposed inability to pay a civil penalty greater than $360,000 over five years flies directly in the face of Tenant’s representations to this Court regarding its supposed ability to cure its default of over $3.5 million in past due rent and continue paying Rent at the Lease rate.

The landlord suggested that under the circumstances, the injunction should be vacated and further relief should be conditioned on the Epstein club's payment of the outstanding rent.

When asked for comment, the Core Club's attorney Marc Kasowitz said in a statement to Blaze News, "Shvo's latest attempt to relitigate issues the Court has already addressed will fail, just as his others have. Shvo's motion falsely claims that Core violated the Yellowstone order, but Core is current on rent and has fully complied with the Court’s directives."

Kasowitz suggested that the apparent function of the filing was to distract from "pressures surrounding Shvo's broader real estate ventures" and noted, "Core will oppose this motion vigorously and is confident the Court will recognize it as another meritless attempt to manufacture a default where none exists."

Shvo's office did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

Epstein's gal pals

The latest trove of Epstein files released by the Department of Justice provides insights into Epstein's involvement with the club and the Enterprises, whose relationship with the pedophile apparently thrived after his guilty plea in 2008 for solicitation of a minor for prostitution.

Epstein not only routinely visited the club's spa and had women in his network attend but clearly made an impression on Jennie Enterprise, who appears to have written to the pedophile just months after his guilty plea, "You are and have always been sooooo special too me ....not sure u will ever know how much you have influenced my life in a really amazing way."

The club recently downplayed Epstein's involvement, telling the Wall Street Journal in a statement that the pedophile was one of 150 members who belonged from 2003 and 2007 but continued thereafter as a client of the club's spa.

Dangene Enterprise often applied Epstein's skin treatments, reported the Journal.

"The Enterprises were never part of this individual’s social world," the club alleged. "He was a sounding board for the Enterprises on a variety of subjects, as he was known to be a highly in-demand, influential financial advisor and philanthropist in New York City."

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Michigan Democrat returns $5,000 of COVID-related funds, calls out 'individual with ulterior motives'



A Democratic state representative in Michigan has "voluntarily" returned thousands of dollars she received as part of the relief funds issued after the government-imposed COVID lockdowns.

The case relates to Kristian Grant, a first-term Democratic state representative from Grand Rapids. As a small business owner, Grant submitted multiple applications for funds from the Kent County Small Business Recovery, which sprung from the federal CARES Act following the COVID lockdowns. Grant was ultimately granted $15,000.

However, a subsequent review of her applications revealed discrepancies among the documents. In one tax filing, Grant reported that her Game Plan Lifestyle Planner business had generated nearly $4,300 in sales in 2019. In another filing, she indicated that the 2019 sales revenue for that business was a paltry $205.

Grant initially blamed the mistake on confusion created because some orders placed in 2019 were not delivered until 2020.

County officials told her she could keep all the money, so long as she submitted updated tax returns. And according to Kent County Administrator Al Vanderberg, she claimed to have filed the amended returns last May.

But a subsequent review of those materials conducted earlier this month revealed that, in fact, no such amended returns were ever filed.

Grant then decided to return $5,000 of the COVID-related funds, indicating in a statement that she just wanted to put the issue behind her. "Despite no findings of fraud or wrongdoing on my part, I made the decision to voluntarily return the $5,000 grant awarded to Game Plan Lifestyle Planner through the Kent County Small Business Recovery Fund," she said.

"While I did rely on a professional to assist in preparing my tax return, I take full responsibility for the oversight and believe returning the funds is the right thing to do," she continued. She now considers the matter to be "fully resolved."

In her statement, she also made reference to "an individual with ulterior motives" who seems to carry a grudge against her. This individual "stoked" county officials into reviewing her applications, she claimed.

County Administrator Al Vanderberg said that his office was just doing its due diligence in Grant's case. "As stewards of taxpayer dollars, we take our responsibility seriously," he said in a statement. "We have thoroughly addressed the issues brought to our attention regarding Rep. Grant’s applications and subsequent funding. We remain steadfast in upholding the highest standards of accountability and transparency."

Vanderberg confirmed that Grant has returned the funds. He also added that his office, which rejected about 30% of its COVID-related applications, believes that all other grantees are legitimate.

"We have received no additional challenges and have no reason to believe there were problems with other applications."

State Rep. Kristian Grant returns $5,000 in COVID funds www.youtube.com

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Republican 'China Lied, People Died' bill would make communist Chinese regime pay for America's pandemic costs



Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) introduced a bill Thursday aimed at holding the Chinese communist regime accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic, which has reportedly claimed the lives of over 1.1 million Americans.

If passed in the Republican-controlled House, the "China Lied, People Died" Act (H.R.566) would "prohibit the availability of Federal funds for programs, projects, or activities in the People's Republic of China until amounts made available for COVID-19 relief in the United States have been reimbursed, and for other purposes."

"My first order of business this Congress is holding China accountable," Nehls told Fox News Digital. "The Chinese Communist Party [CCP] is singlehandedly responsible for the loss of a million lives in the United States and causing one of the worst economic disasters in the history of our country."

Nehls added, "With a Republican majority, we will work to force the CCP to pay back the $4.6 trillion in Congressionally appropriated funds, as well as the $16 trillion of American taxpayer dollars that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic."

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Co.) has co-sponsored the bill.

Nehls introduced a House resolution on Jan. 9 in the same spirit as H.R.566, which has been referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. The proposed resolution states:

  • "the coverup of COVID-19 by the ... Chinese Communist Party has caused significant economic harm around the world and has cost the United States economy $16,000,000,000,000";
  • "the global median gross domestic product dropped by 3.9 percent from 2019 to 2020, making it the worst downturn since the Great Depression";
  • "the Chinese Communist Party’s calculated coverup, including reporting inaccurate numbers of infections and deaths, enabled COVID–19 to go global";
  • "the COVID–19 pandemic increased extreme poverty between 88,000,000 and 93,000,000 in 2020"; and
  • "over 1,000,000 Americans have died as a result of COVID–19."

For these and other reasons, the Texas congressman believes China should be held financially responsible.

The guilty party

Republicans on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence issued a report in December noting that it was "plausible" that Chinese military researchers possessed the COVID-19 virus "as part of bioweapons research" prior to its release into the world as a consequence of a safety incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

An October Senate report indicated that natural origins claims now appear untenable and that the "COVID-19 pandemic was, more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident."

Beyond its possible culpability over the potential manufacture and release of the virus (i.e., at the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab), Chinese authorities also delayed warning the world about the emergence of the deadly disease, going to great lengths to silence doctors like the late Lie Wenliang, who had tried to raise the alarm.

Communist officials waited until Dec. 31 to alert the World Health Organization, then claimed, "The disease is preventable and controllable."

A Five Eyes intelligence dossier accused the CCP in May 2020 of engaging in an "assault on international transparency" to the "endangerment of other countries," reported the New York Post.

The intelligence dossier indicated that the genocidal Chinese regime had scrambled to bury evidence of the virus and its origins, "destroying" lab samples, censoring evidence of spread, and denying sample requests from other countries.

British conservative politician Bob Seely said in response, "At the end of this when the dust settles it is also clear that there has to be a re-evaluation by the West of its relationship with China."

The Department of Homeland Security intelligence service indicated in early 2020 that the CCP simultaneously covered up the outbreak while hoarding critical medical supplies and cutting other countries off of items believed necessary to tackle the virus, reported NBC News.

"We assess the Chinese Government intentionally concealed the severity of COVID-19 from the International community in early January while it stockpiled medical supplies by both increasing imports and decreasing exports," said the May 1 DHS report.

Extra to possibly birthing the virus, covering it up, and taking advantage of other nations it left in the dark, the CCP also locked down domestic travel internally while knowingly allowing infected Chinese citizens to travel internationally.

The New York Times reported that while Chinese officials began locking down Hubei province, home to Wuhan, they nevertheless continued to permit international travel ahead of the Lunar New Year, when hundreds of millions of people were expected to travel back to their hometowns.

175,000 people left Wuhan on Jan. 1 alone.

Seven million people left Wuhan in January before travel was restricted, thousands of whom the Times indicated were infected. Thousands successfully made it to cities around the world. 900 reportedly made it to New York; 2,200 to Sydney, Australia; and tens of thousands more to various other cities.

Flights out of Wuhan weren't cancelled until late January 2020.

The Weekend Australian reported that a 2015 document written by Chinese, communist, military scientists and senior public health officials described SARS coronaviruses as ushering in a "new era of genetic weapons."

The document notes that such viruses can be "artificially manipulated into an emerging human ­disease virus, then weaponized and unleashed in a way never seen before."

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