By Caitlin Yilek
Updated on: April 21, 2026 / 8:17 PM EDT / CBS News
Washington — Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida resigned from Congress Tuesday, moments before the House Ethics Committee was set to determine whether she should be sanctioned for allegations of theft and other misconduct.
Cherfilus-McCormick has been charged with stealing nearly $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds for her campaign and has pleaded not guilty. House leaders indicated she likely would have faced expulsion if she had not stepped down.
“This was not a fair process,” Cherfilus-McCormick said in a statement. “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. I hereby resign from the 119th Congress, effective immediately.”
Her resignation was read on the House floor shortly after the statement, triggering the special election process in Florida to fill her seat. House Ethics Committee chairman Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., said the panel “has now lost jurisdiction in this matter” and that the scheduled sanctions hearing would not proceed.
The Ethics Committee released a report in January concluding its monthslong investigation and saying investigators found “substantial evidence of conduct consistent with the allegations in the indictment, as well as more extensive misconduct.” The report outlined repeated inaccurate and incomplete campaign finance reporting across several election cycles, including improper contributions falsely reported as personal loans, acceptance of improper contributions, and inflated cash-on-hand figures. Investigators also allege Cherfilus-McCormick spent FEMA funds on luxury items such as jewelry and designer clothing.
Last month, the committee’s adjudicatory subcommittee held a rare public “trial” and found that all but two of the 27 allegations in the committee’s report “had been proven.” During that hearing, Cherfilus-McCormick’s lawyer, William Barzee, argued that any committee action would jeopardize her right to a fair federal trial, warning that potential jurors would have already heard she was found guilty by the House.
Barzee told reporters Tuesday that his client was “left with no choice.” “She could go along and allow them to just trample her constitutional rights and her due process rights,” he said. “Instead of allowing that to happen, she decided to step away.”
Cherfilus-McCormick’s federal criminal trial was postponed earlier this month to February 2027. She has said she is limited in what she can address because of the federal case and has welcomed the opportunity to set the record straight when legally able.
In recent days she had said she did not intend to resign, but her fate appeared all but certain heading into Tuesday’s hearing. Republican Rep. Greg Steube of Florida had been holding off on forcing an expulsion vote until after the Ethics Committee made its recommendation; removal would have required a two-thirds vote in the House.
Democratic leadership had delayed signaling whether they would support expulsion, saying they would wait for the committee’s guidance. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Cherfilus-McCormick “did the right thing” by resigning but declined to discuss private conversations. “She did the right thing for the people that she has previously represented, and as she moves forward, she’s entitled to the presumption of innocence and her day in court,” he said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson called the resignation “a sad day for the institution” and said he believed she was on a path to expulsion and had “assessed that and realized the votes were there.”
Cherfilus-McCormick is the third member of Congress to step down in the past week amid misconduct allegations; Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales both resigned April 14 ahead of expected expulsion votes.
Jaala Brown and Patrick Maguire contributed to this report.