An eight-member House Ethics subcommittee voted early Friday that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the South Florida Democrat already facing a federal indictment, was guilty on 25 of 27 counts tied to an alleged scheme involving more than $5 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds, the New York Post reported.
The vote came after a rare public ethics hearing that stretched more than six hours the night before, the first such proceeding since the late Rep. Charlie Rangel sat for his own in 2010. Four Democrats and four Republicans made up the panel. The committee did not release the vote tally on individual counts.
The finding lands squarely on a sitting member of Congress who already faces 15 federal criminal counts and up to 53 years in prison. Cherfilus-McCormick, 47, represents Florida's 20th Congressional District. She is headed to federal trial next month. And now the full Ethics Committee will convene after the April recess to decide whether to recommend censure, or expulsion.
The allegations paint a picture of federal pandemic dollars diverted to fuel a political career. Ethics investigators found that $3.6 million in federal funds paid to Trinity Health Care Solutions, a for-profit company owned by the congresswoman's family, eventually reached Cherfilus-McCormick's campaign. Trinity helped roll out COVID-19 vaccinations in Florida and took more than $6 million in government funding for those registration efforts.
Between 2020 and 2021, Trinity paid Cherfilus-McCormick $86,000 directly. Meanwhile, a January ethics report determined that at least $5.7 million flowed to a consulting firm the lawmaker "wholly owned" between March 2021 and October 2022, when it was voluntarily dissolved.
That timeline matters. Cherfilus-McCormick ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2018 and again in 2020. In November 2021, she won a special Democratic primary, defeating her closest competitor by just five votes. She then won the January 2022 special election to replace the late Rep. Alcee Hastings and secured a full term that November.
Federal prosecutors allege she stole $5 million in FEMA funding to assist that congressional campaign. The Washington Examiner reported that some of the money was routed directly to her campaign account. The November 2025 federal indictment charged her on 15 counts.
A five-vote margin. Millions in pandemic relief. A family business collecting government checks. And a consulting firm dissolved right after the lawmaker locked down her full term. The timeline speaks for itself.
Cherfilus-McCormick's defense attorney, William Barzee, tried unsuccessfully to postpone the committee's consideration, arguing that the ethics finding would taint the jury pool ahead of her federal trial. He disputed the panel's conclusions across the board.
Barzee told the committee his client was "absolutely innocent" and framed the family's financial arrangements as informal but legitimate. He described Cherfilus-McCormick's relationship with Trinity as a "profit-sharing" agreement with relatives who ran the company, saying the arrangements were made "orally" or with "a handshake."
"She's absolutely innocent. She's looking forward to being in criminal court in order to prove her innocence, which I'm confident she's going to be able to do."
Barzee also claimed the ethics process "will result in a loss of her constitutional rights." But Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, the Mississippi Republican, made clear the committee had been patient, and that Cherfilus-McCormick had not cooperated.
Guest addressed Barzee directly during the hearing, as previously detailed in our coverage of the ethics trial:
"For two years, we tried to get documents from your client. For two years, we tried to get a statement from your client."
Cherfilus-McCormick was ultimately hit with subpoenas after investigators said she denied records requests during their probe. Two years of stonewalling, and the committee still assembled enough evidence to find her guilty on 25 counts.
Of the 27 counts in the Statement of Alleged Violations, the subcommittee found clear and convincing evidence on 25. One count that did not achieve a majority involved allegations of money laundering "to conceal the source of the funds" from a Florida-based corporation to her 2022 congressional campaign.
But another money laundering count was deemed proven. That one involved millions of dollars in federal funds paid to Trinity, the family health care company, which helped with the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in Florida. The ethics report and the federal indictment overlap significantly, though they operate on different legal tracks.
The distinction matters. The ethics process uses a "clear and convincing" standard, lower than the "beyond a reasonable doubt" threshold in criminal court. Barzee will likely argue that the ethics finding prejudices the federal case. But the committee's bipartisan composition, four Democrats, four Republicans, makes it harder to dismiss as a partisan exercise.
Ethics Chairman Guest and Ranking Member Mark DeSaulnier, a California Democrat, issued a joint statement outlining the next steps:
"Shortly after the House returns from the April recess, the full Committee will hold a hearing to determine what, if any, sanction would be appropriate for the Committee to recommend."
The options range from censure to expulsion from Congress. And the calls are already coming, not just from Republicans. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a fellow Democrat from Washington State, posted on X after the finding. Her message was blunt.
"You can't crime your way into legitimate power. Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed."
That a Democrat is publicly calling for a Democratic colleague's removal tells you something about the weight of the evidence. As we have previously reported on the growing push for her expulsion, the political ground beneath Cherfilus-McCormick is eroding fast, on both sides of the aisle.
Cherfilus-McCormick, for her part, issued a statement striking a defiant tone:
"I look forward to proving my innocence. Until then, my focus remains where it belongs: showing up for the great people of Florida's 20th District who sent me to Washington to fight for them."
She will have her chance. Federal trial is next month. But the ethics finding now hangs over that courtroom like a storm cloud, no matter what Barzee says about jury pools.
Public ethics hearings are vanishingly rare. The last member to face one was Charlie Rangel, the legendary New York Democrat who served 23 terms. Rangel walked out of his hearing shortly after it began. He was censured for fundraising violations and other financial misconduct but remained in office until 2017. He died eight years later.
Cherfilus-McCormick's case is arguably more severe. Rangel was never federally indicted. Cherfilus-McCormick faces 15 criminal counts and a potential 53-year prison sentence. The ethics investigation lasted more than two years. The federal case adds another layer entirely.
And the dollar figures dwarf the typical campaign finance violation. More than $5 million in pandemic relief, money allocated by Congress to help Americans survive COVID-19, allegedly funneled through a family business and a wholly owned consulting firm to bankroll one woman's political ambitions. A 3.14-carat yellow diamond ring even appeared in the federal allegations.
The ethics committee's finding does not carry the force of a criminal conviction. But it carries something else: the bipartisan judgment of her own colleagues, after reviewing the evidence for more than two years, that Cherfilus-McCormick broke the rules on nearly every count.
The real question now is whether the House acts with the seriousness this case demands. Censure would be a slap. Expulsion would be historic, and appropriate, if the full committee agrees with the subcommittee's findings. The voters of Florida's 20th District deserve a representative who won her seat legitimately, not one who allegedly bought it with stolen FEMA money.
Cherfilus-McCormick won her primary by five votes. She now stands guilty on 25 ethics counts and indicted on 15 federal charges. If the system works the way it should, the full committee hearing after recess will not be a formality.
Pandemic relief was supposed to save lives, not launch careers. When the people trusted to spend that money are the ones stealing it, accountability isn't optional, it's the bare minimum.
