Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., said Tuesday she plans to resign from the House of Representatives after Republicans vowed to force a vote to expel her from the chamber.<\/p>\n
“Rather than play these political games, I choose to step away so I can devote my time to fighting for my neighbors in Florida’s 20th District,” she wrote on social media Tuesday afternoon. “I hereby resign from the 119th Congress, effective immediately.”<\/p>\n
“This fight is far from over,” Cherfilus-McCormick, who was indicted by a grand jury last year for allegedly stealing COVID-19 emergency funds, added in her statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The announcement came after Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., pledged to file a motion to expel Cherfilus-McCormick, teeing up a vote later this week. It takes two-thirds of the House to remove a lawmaker, but a growing number of Democrats have voiced support for the expulsion effort.<\/p>\n
Cherfilus-McCormick\u2019s abrupt announcement came minutes prior to a House Ethics Committee hearing that was slated to recommended sanctions against her for committing a bevy of ethics violations involving financial misconduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n
House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., announced the committee lost jurisdiction over the matter with Cherfilus-Mccormick’s decision to quit Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The House ethics panel found “clear and convincing evidence” in March that the Florida Democrat misused federal disaster relief money<\/a> that was improperly paid to her family\u2019s healthcare company, among other misconduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cherfilus-McCormick has denied any wrongdoing and repeatedly shot down speculation that she would resign if confronted with an expulsion vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n The embattled lawmaker is facing a separate 15-count federal criminal indictment<\/a> that carries a maximum sentence of 53 years in prison if convicted. The federal trial is not scheduled to begin until early 2027.<\/p>\n She filed to run for re-election, despite raising just $11,000 in the year’s first fundraising quarter, according to recent Federal Election Commission filings. It is unclear whether she plans to suspend her campaign.<\/p>\n Cherfilus-McCormick is the third lawmaker to resign from Congress in the past week. Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, stepped down last week to avoid their own expulsion threats related to sexual misconduct allegations.<\/p>\n At least five women have come forward with allegations against Swalwell of sexual assault and rape. Gonzales admitted to sexual misconduct in March with a former aide who later died by suicide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., said Tuesday she plans to resign from the House of Representatives after Republicans vowed to force a vote to expel her from the chamber. “Rather than play these political games, I choose to step away so I can devote my time to fighting for my neighbors in Florida’s 20th District,” she … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}