An official report outlining potential ethics violations by U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., said there was probable cause to believe that she “accepted campaign contributions linked to an official action.”

If proven, the allegation contained in a document released Thursday by the House Ethics Committee could be a violation of House rules, standards of conduct and federal law.

The Office of Congressional Conduct determined in May 2024 that the matter warranted review by the Congressional Ethics Committee, which said it has been reviewing the allegation for the last year. The official document provided no details, just a total of three sentences in two different places.

It was one of five alleged violations. The board of the Office of Congressional Conduct recommended further review of three and dismissal of two.

The document was released one year after the conduct office, which reviews allegations of misconduct against members, referred the case to the committee, which investigates and adjudicates alleged violations of House rules and related laws.

In a joint statement accompanying the release of the referral, the Republican chair and top Democrat on the Ethics Committee said that “the mere fact of a continued investigation into these allegations does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred.”

For the three violations it said warranted further investigation, the congressional conduct office said Cherfilus-McCormick “may have” taken actions that, if substantiated, mean “she may have violated House rules and standards of conduct.” For two of the allegations, it said violations may have violated federal law.

Besides the allegation about “campaign contributions linked to an official action,” the office said she may have requested community project funding that would be directed to a for-profit entity. It also said her congressional office may have “made payments to an entity in violation of” the rules or “alternatively, that her campaign may have accepted and failed to report in-kind (campaign) contributions that may have exceeded applicable limits.”

In each of the three allegations, the conduct office’s board voted 6-0 to recommend further review by the Ethics Committee.

The board voted 5-1 to recommend dismissal of the allegation that she “may have dispensed favors or privileges to friends” in connection with official requests for community project funding. It voted 6-0 to recommend dismissal of an allegation that her campaign misrepresented the source of a campaign contribution or accepted a contribution made by one person in the name of another.

In both dismissal recommendations, the board found there was “not substantial reason to believe” the allegations.

In a statement provided by her communications director, Cherfilus-McCormick said, “The Committee on Ethics has not yet concluded its review of the allegations, and no decision has been made at this time. As outlined in the Committee’s public statement, the referral for further review does not imply that any violation has occurred. I fully respect the process and remain committed to cooperating with the Committee as it works to bring this inquiry to a close.”

In 2023, the Ethics Committee received an earlier referral. A limited summary was released in 2024 — similar to the one put out Thursday. In January, 576 pages of materials were released.

In the earlier case, which has not been publicly resolved, the Office of Congressional Conduct said there was “substantial reason to believe” four allegations including that she “made payments to a state political action committee in connection with her campaign and failed to report these payments as contributions to her campaign” and that her campaign campaign committee “accepted and failed to report contributions exceeding contribution limits.”

Cherfilus-McCormick

Cherfilus-McCormick was first elected in a January 2022 special election in the Broward-Palm Beach county 20th Congressional District.

A Democrat, she was elected to a full term in November 2022.

No Democratic primary challenger or Republican general election challenger came forward to run against Cherfilus-McCormick in 2024, making her the only one of Florida’s 28 members of Congress returned to office without facing a primary or general election.

A young Democratic activist, Elijah Manley, who has run unsuccessfully for office before, is challenging Cherfilus-McCormick in the 2026 Democratic primary.

“The people of Florida are sick and tired of political corruption, ethical scandals, and the legal maneuvers the wealthy and powerful use to escape accountability,” Manley said in a statement, adding that in his view the information released by the Ethics Committee shows the incumbent’s “inability to serve the people of Florida’s 20th District with honesty and transparency.”

Ethics process

Congressional ethics investigations move slowly, and the system is byzantine to outsiders.

The Office of Congressional Conduct has its own staff and is governed by a bipartisan board of private citizens who aren’t members of Congress and don’t work for the federal government. Half the members are chosen by the House speaker and half by the minority party leader.

Currently there are only four members instead of the six members and four alternates. Another change: Until January, it was called the Office of Congressional Ethics. This year “conduct” was substituted for “ethics” in the name.

The House Ethics Committee includes equal numbers of Republican and Democratic members, which is unusual. The majority party has a majority of spots on all other committees. The panel conducts its business behind closed doors and is circumspect about its activities.

The joint statement Thursday from U.S. Rep. Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican and committee chair, and U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier of California, the top Democrat on the panel, was the usual, brief format, totaling four paragraphs.

“No other public comment will be made on this matter except in accordance with Committee rules,” Guest and DeSaulnier said.

In cases — such as this one — in which the committee hasn’t finished its investigation within a year receiving a referral from the Office of Congressional Conduct, House rules require the release of the referral.

The referral contains some details, but the supporting materials the committee gets at the same time, which can be voluminous, aren’t included. Two pages were released Thursday, but pages 3 to 17 were not.

If there has been no resolution of the investigation and at least one year has passed, all the supporting documents are publicly released at the end of the two-year session of Congress. In this case, that would be January 2027.

Currently the matter is in the hands of an investigative subcommittee of the Ethics Committee, which is still considering the earlier ethics referral.

Lawsuit settled

Separately, a lawsuit involving Cherfilus-McCormick’s former company, Trinity Health Care Services, has been settled.

In December, the Florida Division of Emergency Management sued Trinity to recover what it said was $5.8 million in overpayments.

Before she was elected to Congress, Cherfilus-McCormick was the CEO of the family-owned company. The case involved the company, not Cherfilus-McCormick. Her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, is vice president of operations, according to his LinkedIn page.

In 2021, the emergency management agency hired Trinity to administer COVID-19 vaccinations and employ canvassers to sign people up to get vaccinated.

In its lawsuit, the state said that on June 28, 2021, the emergency management division sent Trinity an “overpayment of $5,057,050.00” instead of the $50,578.50 it actually owed “due to a clerical error.” It later discovered “several” additional overpayments, totaling $5.78 million.

The Leon County Circuit Clerk’s Office website shows the case is closed. The most recent filing, from an attorney representing the Division of Emergency Management, said there was “an executed settlement agreement in the matter,” and that both the state agency and Trinity Healthcare Services would each pay their own attorneys’ fees.

Trinity did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement, and it agreed to repay $5.62 million. Though the total repayment is almost as much as the state wanted, it is effectively much less because it is being repaid over many years without interest.

Under the terms of the settlement Trinity agreed to pay $25,000 in April and $15,000 in May. Starting in 2026, the company agreed to repay $92,910.99 each quarter, which works out to $371,644 a year. The repayments last 15 years, which means the final payment would be made in the fourth quarter of 2040.

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