Ethics Committee Alleges House Democrat Solicited Illegal Campaign Contributions

The House Ethics Committee published a report on Jan. 29 alleging that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) solicited illegal campaign donations, lied on financial disclosure records, and engaged in other criminal conduct.

The report, which charges her with 27 violations of House rules, followed a November indictment charging Cherfilus-McCormick with using COVID-19 relief funds to support her congressional campaign. House investigators said their own inquiry found “substantial evidence of conduct consistent with the allegations in the indictment, as well as more extensive misconduct.”

“Today’s action was taken without giving me a fair opportunity to rebut or defend myself due to the constraints of an ongoing legal process,” Cherfilus-McCormick wrote in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times. “I reject these allegations and remain confident the full facts will make clear I did nothing wrong.”

In a Jan. 20 response to the committee’s investigation, her attorney sought to dismiss the charges. He also demanded that the ethics investigation be stayed until the conclusion of her criminal proceeding.

“A stay is required under established Committee precedent, the guidance in the House Ethics Manual, and the Committee’s longstanding practice of deferring proceedings when parallel [Justice Department] actions involve similar facts and legal issues,” D. Michael Stroud Jr., the attorney for Cherfilus-McCormick, wrote in the response.

“Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick disputes and refutes the allegations and report of the Ethics Committee’s Investigative Subcommittee,” Stroud added.

The investigation began on May 29, several months before the congresswoman’s indictment on Nov. 19. It is more extensive than the indictment, which focuses on her alleged theft of government funds, campaign finance law violations, and tax fraud after 2021.

“This is an unjust, baseless, sham indictment—and I am innocent,” Cherfilus-McCormick wrote in a statement on Nov. 20.

The committee report alleges that between 2018 and 2024, Cherfilus-McCormick solicited and received illegal campaign contributions, laundered government funds, lied on financial disclosure reports, mingled her personal and campaign funds, and broke ethics rules by offering special favors through government spending requests.

The report was prepared by a subcommittee formed specifically to investigate Cherfilus-McCormick. The Ethics Committee announced that these charges would be reviewed by another subcommittee to determine if Cherfilus-McCormick was guilty of them, and if sanctions against her should be recommended to the whole House.

The report states that Cherfilus-McCormick, after initially providing some information, declined to cooperate with the committee. In response to the investigative subcommittee’s subpoenas, she invoked her Fifth Amendment right under the U.S. Constitution against self-incrimination.

The allegations against Cherfilus-McCormick, in both her criminal proceeding and ethics investigation, involve a health care business she ran with her brother, Edward Cherfilus, in Miramar, Fla. Federal prosecutors stated that the company, which received a COVID-19 vaccination contract, received an overpayment of $5 million.

Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother then allegedly conspired to divert that money to her 2022 campaign for Congress, in which she won the special Democratic primary by five votes. The Ethics Committee’s investigation also alleges that during her 2018 and 2020 campaigns for Congress, she improperly filed Federal Election Commission campaign finance reports.

Due to the charges, Cherfilus-McCormick is currently on a “leave of absence” as the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa. One Republican lawmaker has filed a resolution to expel her.

“Consistent with the United States Constitution, she is entitled to her day in court and the presumption of innocence,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wrote on Nov. 20. 

Cherfilus-McCormick’s jury trial in the criminal case will be held on April 20. If convicted, the felony charges against her carry three to 10 years in prison.