The Florida Democrat stepped down before the panel could recommend a punishment for 25 ethics violations, calling the process a ‘witch hunt.’
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) resigned from Congress on Tuesday, stepping down hours before the House Ethics Committee was set to recommend a punishment for the 25 violations of campaign finance law and House rules it found her guilty of last month.
The third-term Florida Democrat announced her resignation in a written statement, calling the ethics process a “witch hunt” and saying the committee had denied her new attorney’s request for time to prepare a defense while a federal criminal case against her remains pending.
“I will not stand by and pretend that this has been anything other than a witch hunt,” Cherfilus-McCormick said. “I simply cannot stand by and allow my due process rights to be trampled on, and my good name to be tarnished.”
“I hereby resign from the 119th Congress, effective immediately,” she said.
In a brief hearing Tuesday afternoon, Ethics Committee Chairman Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) confirmed the panel had lost jurisdiction following the resignation and would not recommend a sanction. He read her resignation letter to the committee into the record, in which Cherfilus-McCormick called it “the honor of my lifetime to serve the people of my district.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
By Chase Smith
