WASHINGTON — Embattled Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., resigned on Tuesday, moments before the House Ethics Committee was set to consider whether to recommend she be expelled from Congress.
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Last month, the Ethics panel found her guilty of 25 ethics violations related to allegations she stole federal relief funds and used some of the money to fund her political campaign.
“I will not stand by and pretend that this has been anything other than a witch hunt. I simply cannot stand by and allow my due process rights to be trampled on, and my good name to be tarnished,” Cherfilus-McCormick said of the Ethics process in a statement posted on X.
“Rather than play these political games, I choose to step away so that I can devote my time to fighting for my neighbors in Florida’s 20th district. I hereby resign from the 119th Congress, effective immediately.”
She complained that the Ethics panel should not have held a hearing or considered her expulsion before her criminal trial, set for next year: “That is a dangerous path, and one that should concern every American, regardless of party.”
The Justice Department indicted Cherfilus-McCormick in November on charges that she stole and laundered millions in Federal Emergency Management Agency funding. Her family’s health care company, Trinity Healthcare Services, had been working with FEMA through a Covid-19 vaccination contract, but then received a $5 million overpayment.
The DOJ alleged she and her brother never paid it back, routed it through multiple accounts and then used it to fund her successful 2022 special election campaign. She also allegedly used some of the FEMA money to buy a $109,000, 3.14-carat yellow diamond ring.
She could face more than 50 years in prison if convicted.
Expulsion requires a two-thirds vote of the chamber, meaning it would have taken roughly 70 Democrats to remove her — a high bar. But Democrats were under enormous pressure to oust her as Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and his team try to paint President Donald Trump and the GOP as the party of corruption in a critical midterm election year.
Tuesday’s development marked the third resignation in the past week. Two other House lawmakers — Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Tony Gonzales, R-Texas — resigned ahead of potential votes to expel them from Congress over allegations of sexual misconduct.
In the months since her indictment, Cherfilus-McCormick had said she would not resign, denying the allegations and pleading not guilty in her criminal case. Her federal trial was slated to begin this year, but a judge delayed it until February 2027, well after the November midterms.
Her attorney, William Barzee, has told the Ethics panel that it should not have moved forward with a public hearing or verdict, arguing that such a decision would influence Cherfilus-McCormick’s criminal case and violate her right to due process.
The House Ethics panel — comprised of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats — began conducting its own investigation of the congresswoman in 2023, after the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics said the committee should probe the matter.
In December, the House Ethics subcommittee tasked with investigating Cherfilus-McCormick adopted a statement of alleged violations against the Florida Democrat. It detailed 27 counts in which the subcommittee determined there was “substantial reason to believe” that she violated House rules, regulations or the law.
The investigative subcommittee “reviewed over 33,000 documents totaling hundreds of thousands of pages of materials and conducted 28 witness interviews” before making its determination. In January, the panel, led by Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., and ranking member Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif., formed a separate, special adjudicatory subcommittee to evaluate the other subcommittee’s findings.
Last month, after a dramatic public hearing attended by Cherfilus-McCormick, that subcommittee determined that the congresswoman was guilty of 25 House violations. It marked only the third completed adjudicatory hearing, according to the Ethics panel. The most recent was in 2010 concerning former Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y.; the panel eventually recommended that he be censured, which the full House voted to do.
For decades, it had been precedent that the House only expelled members who had been convicted of a crime. But that changed in December 2023, when House lawmakers ousted Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., in a 311-114 vote following a scathing Ethics panel report and 23-count indictment by the DOJ.
Only six members have ever been expelled from the House — the first three for fighting in the Confederacy during the Civil War. In 1980, the Ethics panel made its first recommendation of expulsion in the case of Rep. Michael J. Myers, D-Pa., who was convicted of bribery. And in 2002, Ethics recommended expulsion of Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, who was expelled. Santos’ expulsion came more than two decades later.
There have been other cases where the committee recommended expulsion, but the member resigned before a vote.
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