Florida congresswoman faces a rare public hearing on ethics charges. Threat of expulsion vote looms
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Ethics Committee is holding a rare public hearing Thursday into alleged ethics violations committed by Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida, pushing into the open a yearslong investigation into how she funded her political rise.
The third-term congresswoman is facing numerous ethics charges, including failing to follow campaign finance laws, commingling campaign, personal and business funds and using her position to benefit allies. She is also facing federal charges for allegedly stealing $5 million in COVID-19 disaster relief funds.
Over two years of work, committee investigators say they found “substantial evidence” that Cherfilus-McCormick committed the deeds alleged in the federal indictment. She denies any wrongdoing.
The hearing could carry significant political repercussions because some Republican lawmakers are threatening a vote to expel Cherfilus-McCormick from the House. Both parties are vying for the ethical high ground before the November elections.
Cherfilus-McCormick, who represents a heavily Democratic district in southeastern Florida, has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and last year called it “an unjust, baseless, sham indictment.” She argued to have the committee postpone its hearing until after the conclusion of the criminal trial or to hold the proceedings in private, but the subcommittee examining the allegations unanimously denied those requests.
The committee's work rarely take place in the open. It has been more than 15 years since a sitting member of the House faced a public hearing, dating to the 2010 ethics trial of Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., on charges related to his personal finances. The panel also held a hearing for allegations against Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., that year, but found insufficient evidence to prove the allegations.
Thursday's hearing will give House investigators an opportunity to lay out their findings and make a motion for the panel of lawmakers to adopt their conclusion that Cherfilus-McCormick committed numerous ethics violations. The full committee could then later recommend a punishment.
Cherfilus-McCormick's lawyer, William R. Barzee, is appealing for the subcommittee to reconsider the earlier decision to go ahead with the public hearing. Barzee told the committee that if she wants to preserve her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the upcoming federal trial, “she must remain silent before the committee.”
He argued to the panel on Thursday that the House hearing could influence potential jurors in the criminal trial and that the concurrent proceedings have prevented her from cooperating with the ethics committee's investigation.
“She is not guilty of these allegations. She is absolutely innocent,” Barzee said, adding, “But she is in between a rock and a hard place right now.”
After meeting for roughly an hour in private, the panel denied Cherfilus-McCormick’s request to postpone the proceedings.
Committee investigators have laid out their findings in a 242-page report that concludes Cherfilus-McCormick committed 27 counts of ethics violations.
The report alleges that Cherfilus-McCormick first won a special election in 2022 with a campaign that presented itself as self-financed. But in reality, the campaign was substantially funded through a $5 million overpayment for COVID-19 vaccination services that her family's company had received from the federal government, according to investigators.
They also found evidence that the congresswoman then funded her reelection campaign largely through outside groups run by her friends and family, including a company that was mostly funded by the Haitian government.
The investigation alleges that she continued to commit ethics violations in office, including using her position to benefit allies with special favors during the appropriations process and disregarding restrictions on volunteer work by her senior campaign adviser.
House ethics officials said the committee, which has been considering the matter since 2023, met a dozen times as part of the investigation, reviewed more than 33,000 documents and issued dozens of subpoenas.
In February, the Florida Democrat pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen federal counts, including theft of government funds, making and receiving straw donor contributions and money laundering, as well as conspiracy charges associated with each of those counts.
Prosecutors accuse her of conspiring to steal $5 million in federal disaster funds mistakenly overpaid to the health care company owned by her family through a federally funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract. Within two months of receiving the money, prosecutors allege, more than $100,000 had been spent to buy the congresswoman a 3-carat yellow diamond ring. Her brother, former chief of staff and accountant were also charged in the alleged scheme.
She has said she had no plans to resign. But Cherfilus-McCormick has stepped down from her position as ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, in keeping with House Democratic Caucus rules that require indicted members to relinquish committee leadership positions.
Republicans are moving to do just that, although it would require a significant number of Democrats to join them. It takes a two-thirds vote to expel a member from the House.
Democratic leaders have so far declined to condemn Cherfilus-McCormick. California Rep. Pete Aguilar, the third-ranked Democrat in House leadership, said this week that he would not “prejudge” the allegations against her.
“Let’s see what happens in the Ethics Committee,” he said at a news conference Tuesday.
The last member of Congress to be expelled was Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., in 2023. Santos had not yet been convicted of federal charges, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., voted against it at the time, expressing concern about setting a precedent of expelling members based on untried allegations.
But a scathing House Ethics Committee report preceded the expulsion vote for Santos. ___
Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C., and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
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