Democratic US Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick on Tuesday resigned, minutes before a congressional committee was set to hold a hearing on her punishment for ethics violations.
Her departure immediately expands Republicans’ narrow majority to 217-213 with an independent who caucuses with Republicans and four vacancies.
In a social media post announcing her resignation, Cherfilus-McCormick called the chamber’s ethics review a “witch hunt” and an unfair process that gave her insufficient time to defend herself.
Photo: AFP
“I simply cannot stand by and allow my due process rights to be trampled on, and my good name to be tarnished,” Cherfilus-McCormick said. “Rather than play these political games, I choose to step away so that I can devote my time to fighting for my neighbors in Florida’s 20th district.”
In her resignation letter, Cherfilus-McCormick said it was in the best interest of her and her constituents to step down, but that she remained committed to a smooth transition to ensure continuity of service for those in her district.
The US House of Representatives’ Committee on Ethics was poised to sanction Cherfilus-McCormick, who was charged by the US Department of Justice with allegedly stealing federal disaster funds. She has denied wrongdoing.
The hearing lasted less than five minutes.
Two seats for Cherfilus-McCormick and her attorney remained empty as committee Chairman Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican, announced that the panel no longer had jurisdiction over the case given Cherfilus-McCormick’s resignation.
He defended the committee’s work, saying that the panel investigated “extremely serious” and “complicated” allegations without a rush to judgement.
A congressional subcommittee found “clear and convincing evidence” that Cherfilus-McCormick was guilty of 25 violations related to campaign finance laws and regulations, ethics laws and regulations, and House rules.
The justice department indicted Cherfilus-McCormick in November last year, charging her with stealing US$5 million in federal disaster funds and using the money to support her congressional campaign.
Cherfilus-McCormick’s family healthcare company was overpaid US$5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds in July 2021, which she and others funneled the money through multiple accounts and used them as campaign contributions for her congressional run, prosecutors said.
Cherfilus-McCormick, whose ?federal trial is set to begin in February next year, faces up to 53 years in prison, if convicted.
Her resignation comes the week after two US representatives — Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, and Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican — resigned in disgrace following accusations of sexual misconduct. Another member, Republican US Representative Cory Mills of Florida, is also under an ethics investigation for alleged sexual misconduct.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
RSS