WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is staring down potential expulsion from Congress.
The House Ethics Committee is set to meet Tuesday to recommend a punishment after ruling the South Florida Democrat committed more than two dozen ethics violations.
The two-year investigation from the bipartisan panel found what it calls clear and convincing evidence that Cherfilus-McCormick, 47, stole $5 million in FEMA COVID-19 relief funds and funneled that money toward her campaign.
The Democrat has fiercely denied the charges, telling Local 10’s Glenna Milberg on “This Week in South Florida” that the push to expel her is part of a political attack.
“I told everybody from the beginning that this was all politically motivated to have salacious headlines,” Cherfilus-McCormick said.
But demands to Cherfilus-McCormick from Congress have only grown louder. U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Florida is leading the charge on the expulsion vote, writing on social media: “Expelling someone who stole $5 MILLION from taxpayers should be the easiest vote in Congress.”
Forcing Cherfilus-McCormick out of office would require a wave of Democrats to cross party lines. So far, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has refused to weigh in.
“We’ll have a conversation as a caucus in the aftermath of the recommendation which we anticipate will be bipartisan from the ethics committee,” Jeffries said.
The ethics vote comes after a flurry of unceremonious exits from Congress. Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales and Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell both resigned the week prior after facing mounting sexual misconduct allegations.
The cases are turning up the pressure on lawmakers to hold fellow members accountable, even those in their own party.
“Enough of this garbage,” said U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-New Mexico. “Enough of guarding people, enough of all the sugarcoating here, man. Like, people are here with the trust of the American people and they want to act like this.”
These resignations have kept the Ethics Committee extraordinarily busy in recent weeks. Just Monday, the panel released a statement saying there should be zero tolerance for sexual misconduct of any kind in the halls of Congress and they are asking anyone who has experienced misconduct on Capitol Hill to speak with them.
There has already been a motion to expel Cherfilus-McCormick in the House for months.
The lawmaker who introduced it said he would wait until the Ethics Committee wraps up its process to bring it forward for a vote.
That could happen very quickly, with members reportedly being told to be ready to vote on expelling the congresswoman Wednesday afternoon.
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