An official referral indicating possible, but unproven, wrongdoing by Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, was made public Wednesday by the U.S. House Ethics Committee.
The committee released the report from the Office of Congressional Ethics. In the report, referred to the committee a year ago, the board of the Office of Congressional Ethics determined “there is substantial reason to believe” that the South Florida Democrat’s campaign committee “accepted and failed to report contributions exceeding contribution limits” and that her campaign committee “failed to report transactions between the campaign committee and Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick’s businesses.”
If those allegations and two others are proven, the referral said, Chefilus-McCormick “may have violated House Rules, standards of conduct, and federal law.”
Clara Benice, communications director for Cherfilus-McCormick, said in a statement that the release of the report is standard procedure.
“As we’ve said before, the fact that the Committee is reviewing these allegations does not indicate there has been any finding that a violation has occurred. Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick continues to take this matter very seriously and intends to continue to cooperate with the House Ethics Committee and its investigative subcommittee to address the allegations that have been raised,” she said.
First elected in a January 2022 special election in a Broward-Palm Beach County district, Cherfilus-McCormick has been under an ethics investigation for almost her entire tenure in the House.
A Democrat, she was elected to a full term in November 2022.
No Democratic primary challenger or Republican general election challenger came forward to run against Cherfilus-McCormick this year, making her the only one of Florida’s 28 members of Congress returned to office without facing a primary or general election.
Investigations by the House of Representatives into its own members are byzantine to outsiders. The Ethics Committee, which includes Democratic and Republican members, conducts its business behind closed doors. The joint statement Wednesday from U.S. Rep. Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican and committee chair, and U.S. Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the panel, was the usual, brief format routinely used by the ethics panel. It was a total of four paragraphs.
“The Committee notes that the mere fact of a continued investigation into these allegations does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred. No other public comment will be made on this matter except in accordance with Committee rules,” the statement said.
The Office of Congressional Ethics has its own staff and is governed by an eight-person board of private citizens who aren’t members of Congress and don’t work for the federal government.
In the statement Wednesday, the Ethics Committee leaders said the panel hadn’t yet resolved its investigation into Cherfilus-McCormick.
In cases in which the committee hasn’t finished its investigation within a year of receiving a referral, the statement said it releases the referral. That’s what happened on Wednesday.
Allegations
State PAC: The report said Cherfilus-McCormick “made payments to a state political action committee that may have been in connection with her campaign for federal office” and not reported them as contributions to her campaign.
Compensation: The report said her office “may have received services … from an individual who was not compensated with official funds.” Compensating the person with private funds or not compensating him for his services may be a violation.
Excessive contributions: The report said Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign committee “may have accepted and failed to report contributions exceeding (federal) contribution limits.”
Improper transactions: The report said Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign committee “may have failed to report transactions between the campaign committee’s bank account and Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick’s businesses’ bank accounts.”
In each case the referral said, if Cherfilus-McCormick is found to have taken the actions described, she “may have violated House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law.”
The recommendation, in each matter, was “further review” by the Ethics Committee because the board of the Office of Congressional Ethics found “substantial reason to believe” she did the things outlined by the report.
In December, the Ethics Committee announced it had formed an Investigative Subcommittee in February 2023.
It was charged with examining whether Cherfilus-McCormick violated campaign finance law and rules in connection with her 2022 campaigns and failed to properly disclose required information to the House.
In June 2024, the Ethics Committee said it expanded the Investigative Subcommittee’s review to include another referral that the Office of Congressional Ethics said involved allegations that she “engaged in improper conduct in connection with community project funding requests; misused official funds for campaign purposes; and/or violated campaign finance laws and regulations in connection with her 2024 re-election campaign.”
That referral was not released on Wednesday.
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
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