March 27 (UPI) — An ethics adjudicatory subcommittee found Friday that 25 of 27 charges of ethics violations against Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., had been “proven by clear and convincing evidence.”
“Following the hearing, the adjudicatory subcommittee moved into executive session to deliberate. After careful deliberation that lasted until well past midnight, the adjudicatory subcommittee found that Counts 1-15 and 17-26 of the [Statement of Alleged Violations] had been proven,” the release from the Committee on Ethics said.
Cherfilus-McCormick, who maintains her innocence, was indicted in November on the federal charges along with her brother, Edwin Cherfilus.
The representative’s family owns Trinity Healthcare Services. The company had a FEMA-funded contract to register people for COVID-19 vaccines, but in July 2021 was accidentally overpaid by $5 million by a Florida agency, the indictment said. Instead of returning the funds, Cherfilus-McCormick allegedly moved the money to different accounts “to disguise its source,” the Justice Department said. She then allegedly used some of the funds to finance her campaign.
The full ethics committee is scheduled to have a hearing when the House comes back from its two week recess beginning Friday, “to determine what, if any, sanction would be appropriate for the Committee to recommend,” Ethics Chair Michael Guest, R-Miss., and Ranking Member Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif., said in a joint statement.
The hearing lasted nearly seven hours Thursday night.
Cherfilus-McCormick has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in a federal criminal case.
William Barzee, Cherfilus-McCormick’s lawyer, argued that the facts in the committee’s motion were in dispute and that the federal charges kept her from responding to the Ethics panel because of concerns about self-incrimination in the trial.
Barzee argued in the hearing that there was evidence of a “profit-sharing agreement” for the family company, which means she was “entitled to every single penny that she received” from her family’s company after the improper payment. Lawmakers appeared skeptical of that argument and of the evidence of a profit-sharing agreement.
The committee said Cherfilus-McCormick failed to file accurate financial disclosure forms, accepted improper campaign contributions from others and provided special favors in connection with community project funding requests, The Hill reported.
The panel did not approve two of the 27 counts.
It said that Cherfilus-McCormick: “had knowledge that some or all information identified as inaccurately disclosed in numerous FEC reports filed on behalf of her campaign were false” and that she “caused her campaign to submit false records to the FEC.”
Another charge it didn’t approve was lack of candor and diligence in ethics investigations, because she missed deadlines and canceled interviews, but her lawyer said that her previous lawyer had told her not to cooperate because of the federal charges.
“You can’t crime your way into legitimate power,” Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., posted on X. “Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed.”
When asked if she should stay in the House, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., didn’t answer.
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