A bipartisan House Ethics Committee panel found Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida committed 25 ethics violations tied to allegations she funneled millions in stolen COVID-19 relief money into her 2022 congressional campaign, a ruling that could pave the way for her expulsion from Congress.
The panel of four Democrats and four Republicans reached its finding early Friday morning after a seven-hour public hearing, the first open ethics proceeding in nearly 15 years. Committee investigators had originally laid out 27 violations in a 242-page report. The subcommittee found "clear and convincing" evidence on 25 of those counts.
The ruling lands at a moment when Republicans are already pressing to remove Cherfilus-McCormick from office, and at least one Democrat has joined them.
The case centers on a roughly $5 million overpayment that Florida made to Cherfilus-McCormick's family health care business for coronavirus vaccination services. Committee investigators accused the congresswoman of receiving millions from that overpayment and routing the money through a network of businesses and family members to bankroll her 2022 special election campaign.
The New York Post reported that ethics investigators said more than $3.6 million in federal funds paid to Trinity Health Care Solutions ultimately reached Cherfilus-McCormick's campaign. The 242-page report accused her of portraying the campaign as self-financed when it was, in the investigators' telling, built on diverted taxpayer dollars.
She also faces separate federal criminal charges for allegedly stealing the $5 million in COVID-19 disaster relief funds. Federal prosecutors allege the money went to personal purchases, including a 3-carat yellow diamond ring. Her brother, her former chief of staff, and her accountant were also charged. Cherfilus-McCormick has pleaded not guilty.
The National Review noted that the Ethics Committee reviewed more than 33,000 documents and interviewed 28 witnesses over the course of a three-year investigation. That is not a rushed process. That is not a political hit job assembled over a weekend. It is the kind of exhaustive paper trail that makes a finding hard to wave away.
During Thursday's public hearing, Cherfilus-McCormick declined to testify, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Her attorney, William Barzee, did the talking instead, and he did plenty of it, sparring with lawmakers on the panel and criticizing the proceeding itself.
Barzee argued that the panel should have allowed a full ethics trial where he could present witnesses and evidence to counter the investigators' conclusions. He accused the committee of giving further momentum to the effort to remove her from Congress, as previously reported when the rare trial was first announced.
Barzee told the panel that the committee was trying to:
"throw a woman out of Congress who was duly elected by her constituents"
He also maintained that "she was entitled to that money." But some members of the bipartisan panel appeared skeptical. And the final vote, 25 violations sustained out of 27 alleged, suggests the defense did not land.
Barzee indicated Thursday that the related federal criminal trial is expected to start in the coming months. That trial carries the prospect of significant prison time if she is convicted.
The Ethics Committee said it would recommend a punishment in the coming weeks. Ethics Chairman Michael Guest and Ranking Member Mark DeSaulnier issued a joint statement saying the full committee will hold a hearing after the April recess to determine what sanctions to recommend, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Those sanctions could include censure or expulsion.
Expulsion from the House requires a two-thirds vote, a high bar, but one that becomes more reachable when members of the accused's own party start calling for her removal.
Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube has already made his intentions clear. As the Associated Press reported, Steube said:
"I will move on the floor to expel."
He said he would act once the committee makes its formal determination. And he may not be alone. The more striking development is what happened on the Democratic side of the aisle.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat from Washington state, did not hedge. She said:
"You can't crime your way into legitimate power."
And she went further: "Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed." That is not the kind of statement a party makes when it plans to circle the wagons. As we previously covered, Gluesenkamp Perez's position represents a significant crack in Democratic unity on the matter.
Cherfilus-McCormick represents a southeastern Florida district and is running for a fourth term. The timing of this ruling could not be worse for a Democratic caucus trying to claw its way back to a House majority in the November midterm elections.
If the full Ethics Committee recommends expulsion and the House votes on it, Democrats will face a choice: defend a colleague found guilty on 25 of 27 counts by a bipartisan panel, or cut her loose and risk losing a seat in a cycle where every district matters. Neither option is comfortable.
The ethics finding alone does not remove her from Congress. But combined with pending federal charges, a potential criminal trial in the coming months, and growing bipartisan calls for her ouster, Cherfilus-McCormick's political future looks increasingly untenable. The Just the News report noted that the subcommittee found clear and convincing evidence on nearly all counts, a standard that leaves little room for the kind of ambiguity defenders usually exploit.
Her attorney's argument, that she was "duly elected" and "entitled to that money", may play in a courtroom where the burden of proof is higher. But in the court of public accountability, voters in her district and across the country are entitled to ask a simple question: Where did the $5 million go?
The Ethics Committee says it went to a campaign. Federal prosecutors say some of it went to a diamond ring. The congresswoman invoked the Fifth.
The full House Ethics Committee hearing on sanctions is expected shortly after the April recess. If it recommends expulsion, the matter goes to the full House floor. A two-thirds vote would be required. The GOP push to remove Cherfilus-McCormick has been building for months, and the ethics ruling gives it a formal foundation that did not exist before.
Meanwhile, the federal criminal case looms. If that trial proceeds as expected in the coming months, Cherfilus-McCormick could find herself fighting for her freedom and her seat simultaneously.
Twenty-five violations. A bipartisan finding. A 242-page report. A Fifth Amendment invocation. And $5 million in COVID relief money that was supposed to help Floridians get vaccinated, not help a politician get elected.
If this isn't what the ethics process was built for, then the process has no reason to exist.
