A House subcommittee has concluded that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick gamed the system to siphon ill-gotten money into her political campaigns, provided false information on her financial reports and gave special treatment to associates when doling out earmark spending projects.
The adjudicatory panel, in a vote on Friday, sustained 25 of 27 charges brought against the Florida Democrat.
The full House Ethics Committee will now decide what penalties Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick will face, though there’s already a move afoot to have her expelled from the chamber.
Rep. Greg Steube, Florida Republican, previously said he would raise the matter once the committee action was completed.
Friday’s vote came after a rare public hearing where committee investigators presented what they called a “truckload of evidence” that the congresswoman intentionally used tricks to pump money into her first couple of campaigns, plus gave false information on her personal financial disclosures and campaign finance reports.
The core charge was that money from the congresswoman’s family firm, Trinity Health Care Services LLC, was used to fuel her campaign — including part of a $5 million overpayment of pandemic assistance funds the firm has refused to pay back to Florida.
Investigators also said money from the Haitian government went to a U.S.-based firm, Petrogaz-Haiti, which sent money to operations controlled by the congresswoman’s associates, who spent it on campaign matters.
Investigators didn’t charge that Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick knew about the Haitian government connection, but did say the money from Petrogaz-Haiti was an illegal corporate contribution that was being hidden.
“Sometimes evidence speaks for itself. And that at a minimum says that she was integrally involved in the money moving around these various entities and people into her campaign, her campaign balance,” said Rep. Brad Knott, North Carolina Republican.
Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick sat at the witness table throughout the hearing, whispering to her lawyer William Barzee, who made her public defense.
He said there were explanations for the money being moved.
He said Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick was entitled to Trinity’s funds because of a handshake profit-sharing deal she made with the rest of her family, and he said the lack of documents to support that was standard in the Haitian-American community, which includes the congresswoman.
Mr. Barzee acknowledged “many, many mistakes” on the erroneous campaign reports but blamed others, saying the congresswoman wasn’t paying attention.
And he complained that the committee wasn’t giving him a chance to present witnesses to contradict the facts developed by investigators.
That irked the lawmakers on the adjudicatory panel, who said the committee sought Mr. Cherfilus-McCormick’s side of things for two years and was stonewalled.
Committee investigators had charged 27 violations. The adjudicatory panel sustained 25 of those.
One that wasn’t sustained involved allegations of money laundering, stemming from the way the money moved from Petrogaz-Haiti to her campaign associates.
The other was a lack of candor and diligence in responding to the Ethics Committee.
Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick first won her seat in a special election in early 2022 after the death of Rep. Alcee Hastings in 2021. The Trinity money was used in that campaign.
She then had to quickly turn around and prepare for the general election in November 2022, and that’s when the Petrogaz-Haiti money came into play, investigators said.
They said Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick has filed more than 60 bogus campaign finance reports that wrongly state the status of her finances and loans she made to her campaign.
And the committee sustained a charge that Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick used her office to reward associates by giving them special treatment in pursuing earmarks, the line items lawmakers slip into bills to direct federal taxpayers’ money back to special interests in their states and districts.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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