Attorney Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick found guilty by House Ethics panel, faces disbarment
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A panel of House lawmakers has voted to begin a process that could lead to the impeachment of a Democratic congressman accused of embezzling millions in disaster relief money from his campaign account.
A House Ethics subcommittee has approved a motion for summary judgment, effectively finding Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., guilty of nearly all allegations of wrongdoing brought up by the committee earlier this year.
The decision came after a rare public ethics hearing Thursday — the first since 2010 — that lasted more than six hours as lawyers for both sides sued Cherfilus-McCormick’s attorney. The eight-member judiciary subcommittee, assisted by Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., announced his decision in a written statement Friday morning.
“After careful deliberation that lasted until midnight, a subcommittee of judges found that Counts 1-15 and 17-26 of the SAV. [statement of alleged violations] has been confirmed,” the committee leaders said in a statement.
Attorney Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted by a Miami grand jury on charges of stealing $5 million in FEMA funds on Nov. 18, 2025, according to the Department of Justice. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)
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A number of the panel’s charges against Cherfilus-McCormick, who faces a separate federal lawsuit, range from using improper funds to fund her campaign to repeatedly filling out false financial disclosure forms and seeking “special actions” from recipients of funding applications.
The panel will meet after the Easter break to come up with a recommended punishment, which could be as severe as dismissal. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., vowed to move forward with his decision to fire Cherfilus-McCormick regardless of the outcome.
Under House rules, two-thirds of lawmakers must agree to fire a member, meaning Steube’s decision would need support from other Democrats.
The House Democratic leadership has largely stood by Cherfilus-McCormick so far, although some Democrats in Congress have expressed their discomfort with the allegations against their impeached colleague.
“The allegations before us are very serious,” said Rep. Mark Desaulnier, D-Calif., at the start of the hearing Thursday. “They are not only about the behavior of individual members, but they also put public trust in the integrity of the House as an institution.”
Cherfilus-McCormick, who won her first term for Congress in 2021, is accused of stealing more than $5 million in disaster relief funds improperly paid out to her family’s health care company, among other criminal allegations. She and her siblings allegedly used the illegal funds to launch her congressional campaign and for personal expenses, including the purchase of the large diamond ring that Cherfilus-McCormick is seen wearing in her official congressional photo.
Cherfilus-McCormick has denied the extraordinary charges brought against him in 2025. If convicted in federal court, Cherfilus-McCormick, 47, faces up to 53 years in prison.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., is promising to move forward with his decision to fire Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
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The House ethics panel’s investigation into Cherfilus-McCormick predated the 2025 federal criminal impeachment by more than two years. During that time, Cherfilus-McCormick switched between four different attorneys while flatly refusing to cooperate with the bipartisan panel.
On Thursday, Cherfilus-McCormick sought to use the fact of her new representation to continue delaying the committee’s progress until June — a request the eight-member panel quickly rejected in closed session. Her new attorney, William Barzee, has been arguing that she violated Cherfilus-McCormick’s due process rights while maintaining her innocence.
“For you to sit here and say that we, the committee, are trying to trample on your client’s rights. That makes me angry,” Guest told Barzee in interviews. “We have been trying to get documents from your client for two years. Not only did we ask for the documents, but we subpoenaed those documents. Those documents were not provided for two years.”
“I am personally saddened because I know the work done by this committee to protect all members and make sure that we move forward,” continued Guest.
Members of both parties appeared unconvinced by Barzee’s argument, which tried to claim that Cherfilus-McCormick was entitled to the millions of dollars she received from her family’s company that came from FEMA overpayments.
When he said the undated chart was proof of a “profit-sharing agreement” showing his legal title to the money, the bipartisan team appeared frustrated.
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., chaired the jury subcommittee that indicted William Barzee, the attorney for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, in a series of ethics violations against the congressman. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
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“I did a lot of corporate law for several years before I came to Congress. I wrote a lot of profit sharing agreements. I’ve never seen one that was just an unsigned chart,” said Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas, told Barzee.
Later in the hearing, Barzee argued that because Cherfilus-McCormick is a native of Haiti, it was not unusual to have a “handshake agreement” to divide the millions of dollars between him and his family instead of a formal legal document.
Cherfilus-McCormick faces a federal criminal charge this summer.
