House committee finds Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick committed ethics violations
A Democratic U.S. representative could be expelled from Congress after the House Ethics Committee found Thursday that she stole money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, among other campaign violations.
The ethics hearing — the first conducted publicly in 16 years — was the first step in penalizing Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla. The committee could recommend a reprimand or expulsion. The more extreme penalty would require a two-thirds vote in the House, meaning numerous Democrats would have to join Republicans in voting to remove Cherfilus-McCormick from office.
Aside from potential punishment in the House, Cherfilus-McCormick faces a federal indictment that accuses her of stealing a $5 million overpayment of FEMA disaster relief funds given to her family’s company, callad Trinity Health Care Services. House investigators say she used that money to support her 2022 congressional campaign, which she claimed was self-financed.
Prosecutors also allege that $100,000 of the money went to buy Cherfilus-McCormick a three-carat diamond ring. She has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, calling the case “an unjust, baseless, sham indictment.” Her brother, former chief of staff and accountant also face charges.
Cherfilus-McCormick’s attorney, William Barzee, argued at Thursday’s hearing that she would not be able to have a fair trial “if her jurors have already heard that she was found guilty by the House of Representatives.”
“The danger here is in today’s society, without pointing fingers or blaming one side or the other, everything has become weaponized, including the press, and you are going to see press reports indicating that the congresswoman has been found guilty of these various allegations that were made against her,” he said.
Rep. Brad Knott, R-N.C., responded by saying the hearing was not held in “a court of law.”
“We’re not dealing in a criminal matter. We are a body that’s unique unto itself,” Knott said. “We’re dealing with rules. We’re not dealing with any type of criminal adjudication.”
After her indictment, Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., filed a resolution to expel Cherfilus-McCormick from the House. A subcommittee tasked with investigating her released a statement about 27 counts of ethics violations before her indictment.
During the hearing, Sydney Bellwoar, the House Ethics Committee’s senior investigative counsel, said Cherfilus-McCormick and her siblings “funneled more than $500,000 originating from Trinity into various outside organizations that made expenditures on behalf of the campaign.”
“The most egregious example of this scheme,” Bellwoar said, is when on June 23, 2021, Trinity transferred $2 million to Cherfilus-McCormick, who transferred this money to her campaign the next day. Shortly after the end of the filing period on July 2, she returned the money to herself nearly in full,” Bellwoar said.
Barzee said he should be able to call witnesses who will “explain to the committee that every single penny” Cherfilus-McCormick received from Trinity was money she was entitled to through a profit-sharing agreement.
“What the congresswoman decides to do with her own money is up to the congresswoman, and if she wants to put money into her campaign as a loan, as far as I understand, she’s allowed to do so,” Barzee said.
Cherfilus-McCormick was “out there working,” as were her brother and sister, Barzee said.
“They deserved a piece of whatever they deserve to be paid for their work. And if they were part of Trinity, and everyone agreed, then they deserved a particular profit sharing,” he said. “That’s what was happening.”
To call that money laundering “is based on a false premise that this money is tainted because Trinity didn’t deserve” to get it, Barzee said.
“Now, we can talk about whether or not Trinity should have caught [the mistake] immediately, should have given it back immediately, whether or not it was improper for Trinity to hold on to it as long as they did before entering into an agreement to repay it,” Barzee said. “We can talk about those things, but when that money flows from the state of from the federal government to the state of Florida, from the state of Florida to Trinity, that is all 100% legitimate and above board.”
Cherfilus-McCormick was present at the hearing but did not testify herself.
Lawmakers’ response to allegations
Republicans have portrayed Cherfilus-McCormick as a Democratic counterweight to former Rep. George Santos, the last member of Congress to be expelled from office.
Still, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters prior to the hearing that he “believes in due process” and that he’s waiting for the “developments” in the case.
Some Democrats have been reserved in their comments on the case.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said last year that Cherfilus-McCormick is “entitled to her day in court and the presumption of innocence.”
House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California said on Wednesday he will not “prejudge any outcome” of the Ethics Committee’s hearing.
Other Democrats had harsher words, such as Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. He told Politico that “if they give us conclusions that this actually happened, and there’s no question of doubt as to the fact that laws were broken, then our colleague will have to face the consequences of that — it’s plain and simple.”
“You lose your credibility if you’re applying a different set of laws and a different standard to people of the other party,” he added. “I mean, how could we ever justify anything we do if we only apply that to Republicans, and we don’t follow the law?”
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
