The House Ethics Committee has found Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick guilty of violating several campaign finance laws and regulations, the panel announced Friday.
The congresswoman was found guilty on multiple counts of failing to both comply with Federal Election Commission regulations and uphold the Code of Ethics for Government Service, particularly in disclosing campaign contributions, the committee said.
The statement comes a day after Cherfilus-McCormick appeared before the House Ethics Committee in a rare public hearing to face allegations she stole millions in federal disaster funds and used it to bolster her 2021 campaign.
In a document outlining her alleged violations, the Ethics Committee detailed several instances between 2021 and 2022 in which it believes her campaign improperly reported more than a dozen payments as loans. The committee claimed this was done “to create the appearance of a financially strong campaign.”
The panel added that shortly after the House returns from the April recess, it will hold a full hearing to determine whether to recommend sanctions against the congresswoman.
Following the announced finding, Cherfilus-McCormick said she intends to keep her focus on her work in Congress.
“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 said in a statement.
The report and public hearing place renewed attention on how Congress polices its own members, and increases pressure on Democrats, who have before seized on the high-profile indictments and ethics proceedings of their Republican colleagues — including pushing to expel then-Rep. George Santos – as they look to win back power in Washington. While separate from criminal proceedings underway against Cherfilus-McCormick, the hearing could ultimately determine what, if any, punishment she may face from her fellow lawmakers.
While leaders from both parties have said the House proceedings should play out, Cherfilus-McCormick has faced calls from even some in her own party to step down.
“You can’t crime your way into legitimate power. Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed,” Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state said.
The top Democrat on the ethics committee acknowledged the severity of the allegations against the Florida congresswoman on Thursday.
“The allegations before us are extremely serious. They not only concern an individual member’s conduct, they also implicate the public’s confidence in the house’s integrity as an institution,” said Rep. Mark DeSaulnier of California.
“Today at a time when public confidence in our institution is so low, this committee’s role in enforcing congressional ethics process and defending the integrity the house could not be more important,” he continued.
Cherfilus-McCormick’s legal counsel argued during the public portion of the proceeding that the panel should pause its investigation amid an ongoing federal case, arguing it could risk violating “her constitutional rights to a fair trial.”
“How can she possibly go into court and have a fair trial if her jurors have already heard that she was found guilty by the House of Representative? It’s an impossibility,” attorney William Barzee told lawmakers.
But some lawmakers pushed back.
“We’re not in a court of law. We’re not dealing in a criminal matter. We are a body that’s unique unto itself. We’re dealing with rules. We’re not dealing with any type of criminal adjudication, I want to just push back on that a little bit that we are not violating her constitutional rights,” Republican Rep. Brad Knott of North Carolina said.
Committee members spoke at length about Cherfilus-McCormick’s company’s finances between 2021 and 2022.
Barzee acknowledged that the congresswoman’s campaign staff mishandled reporting campaign funds to comply with existing campaign finance laws but denied allegations that Cherfilus-McCormick explicitly broke the law.
“Many mistakes were made with her campaign and the way they reported the funds,” he said during the hearing. “There’s no question about that.”
Knott expressed skepticism during the hearing. “When you add up all the things that she did not know, it absolutely flies in the face of common sense,” he said.
In November, the Justice Department indicted Cherfilus-McCormick on charges, with prosecutors accusing her of stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency overpayments that her family health care company had received through a federally funded Covid-19 vaccination staffing contract. Prosecutors allege that some of those funds were then used to benefit her campaign through candidate contributions.
The congresswoman, who is serving her second full term in office, pleaded not guilty to those charges last month.
At the time of the indictment, Attorney General Pam Bondi called the alleged conduct “a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” saying that “no one is above the law.”
In a previously issued report, the Office of Congressional Ethics found that Cherfilus-McCormick’s income in 2021 was more than $6 million higher than in 2020, driven by nearly $5.75 million in consulting and profit-sharing fees received for work for Trinity Healthcare Services. The House Ethics Committee voted unanimously in July to reauthorize an investigative subcommittee for the 119th Congress to examine allegations involving the congresswoman.
House Speaker Mike Johnson called the allegations against Cherfilus-McCormick “a very serious matter,” but noted the internal process must play out.
“Expulsion, obviously, is effectively the political death penalty. There are occasions that that meet that standard, but it’s a decision of the body to determine that. So, you look at all the factors, and you figure that out, we’ll be doing that here,” the Republican leader said. “In this case, it seems that this member of Congress has egregiously violated the law and exploited taxpayers and all the rest, and that that would be, it would be a harsh penalty necessary for that. It’s true. It’ll be a decision of the body.”
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar told reporters, “We’ll see what happens,” when asked whether Democrats would be willing to accept the congresswoman’s removal from the House if the committee were to recommend it.
“We believe that Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick has an opportunity to defend herself both from the allegations here under the dome as well as those in a courtroom,” he said Wednesday.
And asked earlier this week whether the party would oppose expulsion, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters: “Next question.”
This headline and story have been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi and Aileen Graef and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
