By CNW Reporter
(Source: CNW)
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to hold two associates of former Florida Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick in contempt of Congress for allegedly failing to comply with subpoenas issued during an ethics investigation into the Haitian-American former lawmaker.
The House adopted contempt resolutions against North Miami Beach Mayor Michael Joseph and Hector Roos, who worked on Cherfilus-McCormick’s congressional campaigns in 2021 and 2022. The measures were approved by voice vote, meaning individual lawmakers’ votes were not recorded.
The cases have now been referred to the U.S. Department of Justice, which will decide whether to pursue criminal charges. A conviction for contempt of Congress can carry a fine of up to $100,000 and up to one year in prison.
Joseph and Roos had been subpoenaed for documents and testimony as part of the House Ethics Committee’s investigation into Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign finances.
Although Cherfilus-McCormick resigned from Congress in April, the Ethics Committee said it was important for the House to continue pursuing enforcement of the subpoenas.
In a statement last week, the committee cited “the imperative to protect the institutional interests of the House by enforcing its subpoenas, without which the House’s investigative proceedings cannot be fully executed.”
Cherfilus-McCormick, who became the first Haitian-American Democrat elected to Congress when she won a special election in 2022, represented Florida’s 20th Congressional District, which includes parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Joseph is also Haitian-American and the first Black mayor to lead the city of North Miami.
Cherfilus-McCormick resigned months after she was indicted in a separate federal criminal case involving allegations that she and others misused millions of dollars from a Federal Emergency Management Agency-funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract involving her family’s health care company.
According to the Justice Department, Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, worked through the family company on the FEMA-funded contract in 2021. Prosecutors allege the company received a $5 million overpayment in July of that year and that a substantial portion of the money was later misappropriated.
Federal prosecutors allege some of the funds were used as candidate contributions to Cherfilus-McCormick’s 2021 congressional campaign and for the personal benefit of the defendants.
Cherfilus-McCormick has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.
Her resignation also followed a rare public proceeding before the House Ethics Committee examining allegations surrounding the financing of her congressional campaigns. She had faced the possibility that lawmakers could recommend censure or expulsion.
Cherfilus-McCormick denounced the ethics investigation as a “witch hunt” and argued that she could not fully defend herself because the congressional inquiry overlapped with the pending federal criminal case.
She later attempted to return to Congress but lost a crowded Democratic primary last month in Florida’s 20th District to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Tuesday’s contempt votes allow the House to pursue consequences for Joseph and Roos despite Cherfilus-McCormick’s departure from Congress, with any decision on criminal prosecution now resting with the Justice Department.
