House panel finds Democrat broke ethics rules by misusing FEMA funds

A House ethics panel found Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., guilty early Friday on more than 20 violations following a probe into allegations she misused federal emergency relief funds for her congressional campaign.

Following a rare public hearing Thursday to determine whether the third-term congresswoman broke House rules, a bipartisan subcommittee deliberated past midnight before finding that 25 violations had been proven, according to a statement from Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., and Ranking Member Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif.

The committee will reconvene for a public hearing next month to make recommendations on sanctions. She could face possible censure or expulsion, and fellow Democrats, who have largely avoided commenting on the case, began calling Friday for her to step down.

“Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed,” Rep. Marie Glusenkamp Perez, D-Wash., posted on X.

Cherfilus-McCormick, who was first elected in 2022 in a special election and is seeking a fourth term, faces separate criminal charges related to the accusations. She was indicted in November and has pleaded not guilty to charges of stealing federal disaster funds, laundering the proceeds and using the money to support her 2021 congressional campaign.

The Justice Department alleged that the Florida lawmaker and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, used a $5 million overpayment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for their family health care company’s Covid-19 vaccination staffing contract to fund her 2021 congressional campaign and for their personal benefit.

Cherfilus-McCormick and her associates allegedly “conspired to steal that $5 million and routed it through multiple accounts to disguise its source,” the DOJ said.

The allegations “not only concern an individual member’s conduct,” DeSaulnier said in his opening statement at Thursday’s hearing. “They also implicate the public’s confidence in the House’s integrity as an institution.”

Cherfilus-McCormick’s attorney, William Barzee, spoke shortly after and argued against the committee holding a public hearing, saying the decision could sway jurors in her criminal case and jeopardize her chance for 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 Representatives?” Barzee asked the committee. “It’s an impossibility.”

Cherfilus-McCormick has denied any wrongdoing and called the indictment an “unjust, baseless sham.”

As part of the indictment, Cherfilus-McCormick and her tax accountant, David K. Spencer, are accused of filing a false federal tax return that claimed political and personal expenses as business deductions and inflated charitable contributions.

Spencer did not respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.

Mychael Schnell and Syedah Asghar contributed to this report.

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