WASHINGTON, DC - Law Enforcement Today previously reported that a member of the House of Representatives from Florida was brought before a House committee on Thursday to face possible expulsion from the chamber. On Friday, she learned her fate.
On Friday, a bipartisan panel of House lawmakers announced that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) was found guilty of nearly all charges levied against her by the House Ethics Committee via summary judgment. The allegations were outlined by the committee earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported.
On Thursday, the committee conducted a rare public ethics hearing, the first since 2010, that went on for nearly six hours as Cherfilus-McCormick’s attorney was grilled over allegations that his client had laundered millions of dollars in disaster relief funds into her campaign account.
“After careful deliberation that lasted until well past midnight, the adjudicatory subcommittee found that counts 1-15 and 17-26 of the SAV [statement of alleged violations] have been proven,” committee leaders said in a statement, Fox News digital reported.
Cherfilus-McCormick, who is facing a separate federal indictment, was found liable for charges ranging from using ineligible funds to finance her campaign, repeatedly filing false financial disclosure forms, and seeking “special favors” with recipients of earmark funding requests.
The panel is expected to reconvene after the Easter recess, where members will determine its recommended punishment, with the most severe option being expulsion from Congress. Fellow Florida House member Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) has said he will move forward with a resolution to expel Cherfilus-McCormick, no matter what the Ethics Committee decides.
House rules specify that two-thirds of House members must agree to expel a member, which means a number of Democrats would need to cross party lines for such an expulsion to occur.
While some Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), have thus far stood by the two-term congresswoman, other Democrats have indicated they are not comfortable with the allegations levied against her.
“The allegations before us are extremely serious,” Rep. Mark Desaulnier (D-CA) said at the start of Thursday’s hearing. “They not only concern an individual member's conduct, but they also implicate the public’s confidence in the House’s integrity as an institution.”
Cherfilus-McCormick is accused of misappropriating over $5 million in disaster relief funds improperly paid to her family’s healthcare company, along with other criminal allegations. Charging documents said that she and her siblings allegedly used the illicit funds to assist her congressional campaign and for personal use, including a large Tiffany diamond ring that Cherfilus-McCormick wore in her official congressional portrait, then photoshopped out of that same portrait in Christmas cards last year.
She has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges brought last year. If convicted in federal court, Cherfilus-McCormick could face up to 53 years in prison.
The House Ethics panel actually began a probe into its colleague some two years prior to the 2025 federal indictment. Cherfilus-McCormick used that time to stonewall, shifting among four different attorneys while refusing to cooperate with the bipartisan panel.
She used that same tactic at Thursday’s hearing, using the fact she had retained new legal counsel in an attempt to further delay the committee’s probe until June, a request that was denied in a closed-door session. Her new attorney, William Barzee, complained her “due process” rights were being violated by the bipartisan panel while maintaining her innocence, Fox News Digital reported.
“For you to sit here and make the claim that we, the committee, are trying to trample upon the rights of your client. I take offense to that,” Ethics Committee Chair Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) admonished Barzee in what was described as a heated exchange. “For two years, we’ve tried to get documents from our client. Not only have we requested documents, but we have subpoenaed those documents. Those documents were not provided for two years.
“I’m personally offended because I know the work that this committee does to protect all members and to make sure that we go above and beyond.”
Republican and Democrat committee members were not impressed by Barzee’s argument that Cherfilus-McCormick was entitled to the millions of dollars she took from her family’s company, resulting from FEMA overpayments.
Barzee attempted to introduce an undated chart, claiming it was “evidence” of a “profit-sharing agreement” that gave Cherfilus-McCormick legal title to the money; the bipartisan panel appeared equally and visibly disturbed.
“I did a lot of business transaction law for a number of years before I came to Congress. I drafted a lot of profit-sharing agreements. Never saw one that was just a chart that was unsigned,” Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) told Barzee.
Barzee later in the hearing attempted to play the foreign immigrant card, arguing that because Cherfilus-McCormick is of Haitian descent, it wasn’t unusual to have a “handshake agreement” to divvy up millions of dollars between her and her family instead of a formal legal document.
Cherfilus-McCormick is scheduled to go to trial on the federal charges later this summer.
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