Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) should be expelled by the House after an ethics investigation found she committed wrongdoing on several counts after a monthslong probe into allegations of financial misconduct.
Johnson, who has shied away from calling for members to resign before the House Committee on Ethics completes investigations into members, said the panel found “alarming facts” about Cherfilus-McCormick that warrant her ouster.
The speaker’s call for Cherfilus-McCormick to be removed from office comes after Reps. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) announced they would be resigning from Congress amid their own scandals.
Gonzales’s resignation came after he admitted this year during an interview to having an affair with a staff member who later died after setting herself on fire.
Swalwell, meanwhile, is resigning after four women accused him of sexual assault. One of the women, who is a former staffer of Swalwell’s congressional office, alleged that he raped her twice. Swalwell also suspended his gubernatorial campaign Sunday in light of the allegations, despite denying any wrongdoing.
Cherfilus-McCormick is accused of stealing $5 million in funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and funneling a portion of them to her campaign account. The ethics panel found Cherfilus-McCormick committed wrongdoing on 25 of 27 charges levied against her in March, prompting several calls for her to resign from both sides of the aisle. She is also facing federal charges over the allegations.
The ethics committee is set to reconvene April 21 to decide what sanctions to recommend against Cherfilus-McCormick.
“I look forward to proving my innocence,” Cherfilus-McCormick said in a statement last month. “Until then, my focus remains where it belongs: showing up for the great people of Florida’s 20th District who sent me to Washington to fight for them.”
HOUSE ETHICS PANEL FINDS CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK COMMITTED WRONGDOING AFTER RARE PUBLIC HEARING
Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) plans to file a motion to expel Cherfilus-McCormick once the House ethics committee makes its recommendations public.
Yet, some lawmakers are not willing to wait. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) re-upped her call for Cherfilus-McCormick to resign following the decisions of Swalwell and Gonzales to depart.
