A bipartisan House Ethics Committee subcommittee found Democratic Florida Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick committed wrongdoing on 25 of 27 counts Thursday after a seven-hour public hearing on Capitol Hill, the first such proceeding against a sitting lawmaker in more than fifteen years. Republican Florida Rep. Greg Steube announced he is prepared to introduce a resolution to expel her from Congress.
The hearing capped a 24-month investigation into allegations that Cherfilus-McCormick helped divert roughly $5 million in FEMA-funded COVID-19 relief money through her family's healthcare company and into her congressional campaigns. She already faces 15 federal charges, conspiracy, theft of government funds, money laundering, illegal campaign contributions, and falsifying tax documents, carrying a possible 53-year prison sentence if convicted.
The case against the South Florida congresswoman is one of the most brazen alleged misuses of taxpayer disaster funds to surface in years. And the bipartisan finding now opens the door to sanctions that could range from censure to outright removal, a step Congress has taken only six times in American history.
The scheme, as described by federal prosecutors and House investigators, began with a misplaced decimal. Florida was distributing emergency COVID-19 relief funds, and an error turned a $50,000 payment into a $5 million transfer. That money landed in the bank account of Trinity Healthcare Services, Cherfilus-McCormick's healthcare company, in July 2021, the Daily Caller reported.
Instead of returning the windfall, prosecutors allege Cherfilus-McCormick and associates routed the funds through multiple family-owned businesses without proper documentation "to disguise its source," according to a Department of Justice press release from November 2025. House ethics investigators concluded that approximately $3.6 million of those federal funds ultimately reached Cherfilus-McCormick's campaign, including an alleged $2 million direct transfer designed to create the appearance of a strong campaign operation.
That campaign was her 2021 special election bid to replace the late Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings, and, investigators say, her 2022 race as well. In other words, taxpayer money earmarked for pandemic relief allegedly bankrolled a sitting congresswoman's political career. As we previously reported, the federal indictment laid out a detailed trail connecting FEMA dollars to campaign expenditures.
Thursday's hearing was rare. The House Ethics Committee had not held a public hearing to consider allegations against a lawmaker since 2010, when it found former Democratic New York Rep. Charlie Rangel guilty on 11 ethics charges involving tax and rental income violations.
Cherfilus-McCormick did not speak publicly during the proceeding. She sat with her counsel, passing notes and whispering throughout the seven hours. Her criminal defense lawyer, William Barzee, argued that holding the ethics hearing while she faces a criminal trial was a "risky endeavor."
Barzee told the panel that potential jurors could hear facts they otherwise would not encounter:
"The difficulty here is that you're going to have members of the public who are also potential jurors in the primal matter, hearing about facts they otherwise would never be exposed. Those potential jurors can end up on her jury and can include those facts in the decision making in an inappropriate way."
The defense also offered a cultural explanation for the lack of documentation around the fund transfers. Barzee described the undocumented transfers as a "family business" matter and told the panel that oral or handshake agreements "are not unusual" in the Haitian American community. The committee was apparently unpersuaded.
The Ethics Committee's case recap, released Wednesday, stated that Cherfilus-McCormick "has made no meaningful argument to rebut these findings in the more than two years that this matter has been ongoing." The Washington Examiner reported that the subcommittee found 25 of the 27 counts proven after the investigation, and that the full committee plans a post-recess hearing to decide what sanctions to recommend.
Steube did not wait long. On the night of the hearing, the Republican congressman posted on X, listing the allegations: "27 violations!!! Money laundering. False statements. Illegal campaign contributions. Hiding financial disclosures." He added: "And Democrats still defend this?"
In a separate statement, Steube said:
"This is disgraceful. The American people deserve better than corruption in Congress. I'm ready to expel Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick!"
The push is not coming only from Republicans. Democratic Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez stated bluntly on social media: "You can't crime your way into legitimate power. Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed." That bipartisan pressure is significant. Only six members of Congress have ever been expelled, the most recent being former Republican New York Rep. George Santos in December 2023. The Washington Free Beacon noted that the ethics ruling could lead to an expulsion vote ahead of Cherfilus-McCormick's criminal trial.
Cherfilus-McCormick has maintained her innocence. After her November indictment, she issued a statement calling it "an unjust, baseless, sham indictment." She has also claimed she is the target of a political witch hunt. The Hill reported that she sought a pardon from President Donald Trump during last year's White House Christmas party.
Meanwhile, the political ground is shifting beneath her. Elijah Manley, a 27-year-old leading challenger in Cherfilus-McCormick's August Democratic primary, attended Thursday's hearing in person. He told Newsmax and Florida Politics why he made the trip:
"It's important for the district to have some eyes into this entire process. People are confused back at home, and I want to be able to report back to the district what's happening. But also, as somebody who's hoping to succeed the Congresswoman, I think being here is important."
Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a former public defender who is not on the Ethics Committee panel, sat in for the hearing's first hour. Asked about her presence, she said simply: "It's an open hearing." She was notably wearing a brown fedora hat.
The broader political fallout has already begun to ripple through Democratic circles. As we have previously covered, Democrats have faced uncomfortable questions about donations tied to the alleged FEMA fraud, questions that are only going to intensify now that a bipartisan panel has found the underlying conduct proven on 25 counts.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi framed the federal case in stark terms when the indictment dropped in November 2025:
"Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime. No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain. We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice."
Scott Jennings, speaking on his Salem News Channel show Wednesday, called it "one of the most serious corruption cases involving a sitting member of Congress to come along in years." National Review reported that investigators found funds originating from Trinity were funneled through outside groups and into expenditures benefiting Cherfilus-McCormick's 2022 special election campaign.
The congresswoman's own public conduct has drawn scrutiny beyond the courtroom. She drew attention for editing a pricey ring out of a photograph amid mounting questions about her spending, and she has denied allegations of COVID fund misuse from the start. But denials look different after a bipartisan committee spends two years reviewing the evidence and concludes, on the record, that the respondent offered no meaningful rebuttal.
The full House Ethics Committee will hold a hearing after the April recess to determine what sanctions, if any, to recommend. Ethics Chairman Michael Guest and Ranking Member Mark DeSaulnier said in a joint statement that the process will proceed on schedule. Expulsion requires a two-thirds vote of the full House, a high bar, but one that Santos cleared just two years ago under bipartisan pressure.
Cherfilus-McCormick still faces her federal criminal trial, where the stakes are even higher: up to 53 years behind bars. Whether Congress acts before a jury does remains an open question. But the facts laid out Thursday, seven hours of them, leave little ambiguity about where the evidence points.
Disaster relief money exists for one reason: to help people in crisis. When it ends up funding a political career instead, the system has failed. The only question left is whether Congress has the will to say so.
