Indicted Congresswoman Sued Primary Challenger for Defamation
A Democratic congresswoman in Florida who is under indictment for allegedly misappropriating more than $5 million in stolen FEMA funds to get elected filed an unusual lawsuit accusing her primary challenger of defamation, and then never served notice on the challenger. The “ghost litigation” was dismissed last month due to the lack of service.
The action by Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) against challenger Elijah Manley is a classic example of using the mechanics of the law simply to generate negative publicity and burden critics with legal costs, Manley said in an interview. “This is pretty much the textbook definition of a SLAPP suit,” Manley said, referring to an acronym that stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation.” These became such a frequently used tool to silence critics that 33 states and the District of Columbia have passed protections against them. But it is unusual to see a sitting member of Congress file this type of lawsuit, especially as the lack of service suggests that there was no intention of following through.
Emails to Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick’s re-election campaign bounced. Her House office has not responded to a request for comment.
Manley, 27, announced his primary challenge last year for the seat in Florida’s 20th Congressional District, based in Fort Lauderdale and other parts of Broward County. At the time, Cherfilus-McCormick was already embroiled in a House Ethics Committee investigation for campaign finance violations, including allegations that she paid a state PAC that later assisted her campaign without disclosing the transaction, and that unreported money transfers occurred between her campaign’s bank account and her personal account.
It was also public record at this time that the state of Florida Division of Emergency Management had sued Cherfilus-McCormick’s family health care company Trinity Health Care Services, which it accidentally overpaid by $5.7 million for assistance with COVID-19 vaccination. The company didn’t return the money, and Cherfilus-McCormick, then Trinity’s CEO, saw her annual earnings increase by a suspiciously similar sum, about $6 million. She then left the company to run for Congress in a special election in early 2022, and personally loaned her campaign more than $6 million. She proceeded to win by a mere five votes.
Trinity agreed last July to a settlement that would refund the state through 19 years of installment payments.
Manley, a substitute teacher who was briefly homeless as a child and who has run for office before (including an aborted run for president—he was ineligible due to age restrictions—in 2020), cited the House Ethics Committee investigation and the Florida lawsuit in the course of his campaign, in letters to local media and videos put on Instagram. In one video, he referred to “representatives who are themselves under investigation for serious ethical violations.” In another, he said that Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick “took $5.7 million from taxpayers and [that] shows bad judgment on her part.”
“Everyone in the community knows this stuff,” Manley said. “I was just informing voters that the congresswoman was under investigation. So she tried to silence my voice.”
In September, Cherfilus-McCormick sued Manley for defamation, seeking at least $1 million in damages. The lawsuit accuses Manley of “slander” with statements that are “not only completely false but done with the malicious purpose of inflicting harm.” A secondary count accused Manley of “cyberstalking,” presumably through running his campaign and criticizing her conduct. The lawsuit attempted to seek “injunctive relief” that would prevent Manley from repeating any statements about the ethics investigation or lawsuit with the state of Florida.
This was not the first defamation lawsuit that Cherfilus-McCormick has filed against a political rival: She sued Dale Holness, her primary opponent in 2022, over similar allegations. (That case ended in 2025 without a judgment on the merits.)
Manley had to get an attorney to defend himself, using personal expenditures and campaign funds. But then something unusual happened: Cherfilus-McCormick never served notice of the lawsuit within the prescribed 120-day deadline.
She certainly knew where to find Manley, who described to the Prospect instances of being in the same place with Cherfilus-McCormick after she filed the suit. He described one example of a public event in October where “she went ballistic at me” with shouting and screaming. Yet service was never made.
On January 8, Judge Daniel Casey dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning it could be brought up again.
Last November, in between the lawsuit and its dismissal, a federal grand jury indicted Cherfilus-McCormick for “stealing” the COVID funds given to the family health care company, and routing them through various bank accounts and straw donors to hide the source of the money before using it to get elected. The charges, which were first pursued during the Biden administration, carry up to 53 years in prison. Cherfilus-McCormick has called the indictment baseless and maintained her innocence. She also attempted to raise grassroots campaign funds off the indictment, though her fundraising has dried up.
In addition, the House Ethics Committee released a report in January claiming that there was “substantial evidence” she did indeed commit the alleged crimes outlined in the indictment. The statement of alleged violations also claims that a state-run Haitian oil company gave corporate contributions to Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign through shell companies, which would violate campaign finance laws. Cherfilus-McCormick has denied these charges as well.
“It turns out I was completely correct,” Manley told the Prospect. “I have never seen a member of Congress suing an opponent or a constituent for bringing things up. I think she thought she could scare me into silence.” If the idea was to get Manley to quit the race, or drain his funding so much that he would no longer be competitive, that didn’t happen. In fact, it raised his name recognition, his fundraising is substantially higher than the incumbent’s, and he now leads Cherfilus-McCormick in an independent poll released this week, with 70 percent of those polled saying that she should resign.
Manley is considering a countersuit for tortious interference, abuse of process, defamation of character, and malicious prosecution. He believes that the case was filed simply to damage his reputation in front of the public.
The 20th District is among the poorest in Florida. Manley described the need for stability in the district, with an office that is accessible to constituents. He said that he’s talked to people who have sought assistance with the congresswoman for help with federal benefits or other matters, and that they have gone months without a response. “I want functioning casework” for the district’s residents, Manley said.
He’s also concerned about the potential withdrawal of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, which was blocked temporarily by a federal judge last week. The district has a significant concentration of Haitian immigrants. (Cherfilus-McCormick is the first Haitian American Democrat ever elected to Congress.) The notorious Alligator Alcatraz detention center is located near the district.
“She has not been active in oversight,” Manley said of Cherfilus-McCormick. “She comes to the district and says she’s doing a town hall, but it’s just government employees.”
The primary is in August.
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