The House Ethics Committee didn't go home until well past midnight Thursday after a rare marathon public hearing. It was not good news for embattled Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL).
After seven hours of testimony, the committee emerged in the early hours of Friday morning with a finding that she had violated House rules on 25 counts. The bipartisan panel concluded that 25 of 27 alleged violations had been proven "by clear and convincing evidence,” it said in a release on Friday.
Prosecutors allege a $5 million COVID relief overpayment landed in the accounts of Cherfilus-McCormick family's healthcare company, which she is accused of running it through a maze of bank accounts, funneling more than a million into her congressional campaign and buying a 3.14-carat yellow diamond ring, a Tesla and designer clothes. She allegedly had friends and relatives disguise her own money as personal donations back to her campaign/
Cherfilus-McCormick won her seat in 2022, telling voters she was self-financing her campaign.
Now the Florida Democrat is staring down 15 federal criminal charges carrying a potential 53-year prison sentence, with a trial expected as early as next month. And she is starting to see bipartisan calls for her resignation and a potential expulsion vote.
"You can't crime your way into legitimate power," Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) posted on X Friday morning. "Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed."
During the hearing, Cherfilus-McCormick did not speak during the entire seven hours, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights while her attorney — who'd only taken her case three weeks earlier — sparred with lawmakers.
The Ethics Committee said shortly after the House returns from April recess, the full committee will hold a hearing to determine what sanction to recommend. That could range from censure all the way to expulsion, posing a headache for Democratic leadership in the wake of the majority of the party voting in favor to expel former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.)
Cherfilus-McCormick has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
