WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee found Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) broke campaign finance laws and committed other violations by taking more than $5 million in federal COVID-19 relief and using much of the money to bankroll her political aspirations.
An eight-member subcommittee voted early Friday that Cherfilus-McCormick was “guilty” on 25 of the 27 counts related to the scheme following a rare public “trial” that stretched for more than six hours the night before.
“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,” Ethics Chairman Michael Guest (R-Miss.) and Ranking Member Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement.
That recommendation could be that the full House censure Cherfilus-McCormick — or even expel her from Congress.
“I look forward to proving my innocence,” Cherfilus-McCormick responded in a statement. “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.”
“You can’t crime your way into legitimate power,” said her fellow Democrat, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez of Washington State, in a post on X. “Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed.”
The late New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel was the last House member to sit for a public ethics hearing, which he walked out of shortly after it began in protest over his lack of legal representation.
Rangel — who served 23 terms in the House — was censured for fundraising violations and other financial misconduct but remained in office until 2017. He died eight years later.
The vote tally of the subcommittee — which consists of four Democrats and four Republicans — was not provided by the ethics panel, though members from both parties posed tough questions to the South Florida Democrat’s defense attorney during the hearing.
The lawyer, William Barzee, tried unsuccessfully to postpone the committee’s consideration of the violations, noting that Cherfilus-McCormick will be headed to federal trial next month, at which she will face charges based on many of the same allegations.
In November 2025, federal prosecutors indicted the congresswoman on 15 counts related to her allegedly stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to assist her congressional campaign.
Some of the funds were splurged on luxuries — including a 3.14-carat yellow diamond ring, prosecutors alleged. The 47-year-old faces up to 53 years in prison if convicted of all charges.
Barzee expressed concerns throughout Thursday’s hearing that any finding by the Ethics Committee would taint the jury pool.
“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 told the subcommittee members, adding that any determination in the House “will result in a loss of her constitutional rights.”
One of the counts not agreed upon by a majority of the subcommittee members involved allegations of money laundering “to conceal the source of the funds” from a Florida-based corporation to Cherfilus-McCormick’s 2022 congressional campaign.
Another money laundering count was deemed proven and involved millions of dollars in federal funds paid to a for-profit health care company owned by the congresswoman’s family that helped with the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations in Florida, per House ethics findings.
Between 2020 and 2021, Cherfilus-McCormick was paid $86,000 by the company, Trinity Health Care Solutions — which took more than $6 million in government funding for COVID jab registration efforts.
At least $5.7 million of that sum flowed to a consulting firm that the lawmaker “wholly owned” between March 2021 and October 2022, when it was voluntarily dissolved, a House ethics report determined in January.
Cherfilus-McCormick unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2018 and 2020 — but won a January 2022 special election in Florida’s deep-blue 20th Congressional District to replace the late Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) before winning a full term that November.
In the special Democratic primary held in November 2021, Cherfilus-McCormick defeated her closest competitor by just five votes.
Ethics investigators found, following a more than two-year-long investigation, that a total of $3.6 million in federal funds paid to Trinity eventually reached Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign.
Many of the contributions were made in the form of personal loans — illegal, in some cases — while others came through donations from siblings and even a member of her staff.
Barzee disputed the finding in Thursday’s hearing, claiming that Cherfilus-McCormick had a “profit-sharing” agreement with her relatives who ran Trinity.
“This is a family business,” Barzee told lawmakers, batting down questions about his client’s failure to provide documentation by claiming arrangements were made “orally” or with “a handshake.”
House subcommittee investigators repeatedly highlighted in the hearing how Cheriflus-McCormick had denied records requests during their probe, leading to her being hit with subpoenas.
“For two years, we tried to get documents from your client,” Guest told Barzee at one point. “For two years, we tried to get a statement from your client.”
