The House Ethics Committee announced on Wednesday that it had established a subcommittee to investigate allegations that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) flouted campaign finance laws, among other potential violations.
According to a statement, the committee will probe whether “she 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.”
Rep. Andrew Garbarino is set to lead the subcommittee. The possible violations were referred by the Office of Congressional Ethics.
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“As the Ethics Committee said in its statement, the mere fact of establishing an investigative subcommittee does not itself indicate that any violation occurred,” Cherfilus-McCormick’s Press Secretary Jonathan Levin said in a statement to the Daily Beast. “Regardless, the Congresswoman takes these matters seriously and is working to resolve them.”
Cherfilus-McCormick came under scrutiny during her reelection campaign after using taxpayer funds from congressional office—not her campaign committee—to fund television advertisements.
RNC Spokeswoman Julia Friedland blasted the spending as corruption in a statement issued in July 2022: “Not only are Florida Democrats incompetent, they’re also corrupt.”
The right-wing outrage grew to include increasingly outlandish claims about Cherfilus-McCormick.
Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics, went so far as to question whether Cherfilus-McCormick pilfered money earmarked for vaccines, a claim fully rebuked by her campaign. Florida Politics later took down Schorsch’s story, which can still be found via web archive.
Cherfilus-McCormick’s press secretary Shauna Pierre told the South Florida Sun Sentinel last year that “There is no grey area on the use of these PSAs. They have been unequivocally approved.”
