Ethics Committee expands inquiry into Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick

The House Ethics Committee is expanding its investigation into U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. The scant details from the committee suggested the examination could involve a range of questions involving official business or the Florida Democrat's reelection campaign.

The U.S. House Ethics Committee said Tuesday it is expanding its investigation into U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who represents parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties.

It’s unknown just what the committee is looking at. The announcement suggested it could involve a range of questions involving official business or the Democratic lawmaker’s reelection campaign.

The joint statement 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.

They said an investigative subcommittee will examine whether Cherfilus-McCormick “violated the Code of Official Conduct or any law, rule, regulation, or other standard  of conduct applicable to the performance of her duties or the discharge of her responsibilities, with  respect to allegations that Representative Cherfilus-McCormick: (1) engaged in improper conduct in connection with community project funding requests; (2) misused official funds for campaign purposes; and/or (3) violated campaign finance laws and regulations in connection with her 2024 re-election campaign.”

Cherilus-McCormick has already won another term months before the 2024 election. Luther Campbell, the rap musician and civic activist contemplated challenging her in the August Democratic primary, but decided just before the deadline to qualify that he wouldn’t run.

With no Democratic primary challenger or Republican general election challenger coming forward to run against her, Cherfilus-McCormick became the only one of Florida’s 28 members of Congress returned to office without facing a primary or general election.

Clara Benice, Cherfilus-McCormick’s communications director, said via email that “Expanding the scope of the inquiry by itself does not indicate that any violation has occurred or reflect any judgment or decision by the Committee. The Congresswoman continues to take this matter very seriously and intends to cooperate with the House Ethics Committee and its investigative subcommittee to address the allegations that have been raised. To respect the Ethics Committee’s process, we will have no further comment at this time.”

In December, the committee announced that it had established an Investigative Subcommittee to determine whether Cherfilus-McCormick may have “violated campaign finance laws and regulations in connection with her 2022 special election and/or 2022 re-election campaigns; failed to properly disclose required information on statements required to be filed with the House; and/or accepted voluntary services for official work from an individual not employed in her congressional office.”

The announcement on Tuesday and the one in December said the committee was acting based on referrals from the Office of Congressional Ethics, adding that “the mere fact of an investigation into these allegations does not  itself indicate that any violation has occurred.”

The contents of the referral weren’t released. The committee almost never releases any additional information and said none would be forthcoming in this case.

Cherfilus-McCormick was elected in January 2022 to fill the remainder of the late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings’ term and then reelected to a full term in November 2022.

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.