Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned Tuesday afternoon, minutes before a scheduled Ethics Committee hearing and vote on what sanctions she should face for the more than two dozen counts of misconduct her colleagues charged her with last month.

In a public statement, Cherfilus-McCormick called the committee’s two-year long investigation into her a “witch hunt” and decried the committee for not holding off proceedings until after her criminal trial over federal charges accusing her of stealing COVID relief funds. She has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

“I simply cannot stand by and allow my due process rights to be trampled on, and my good name be tarnished,” the Democratic lawmaker wrote on social media.

In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, she said her resignation would take effect at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. “After careful reflection and prayer, I have concluded that it is in the best interest of my constituents and the institution that I step aside at this time,” she wrote.

The Ethics Committee determined 25 counts of misconduct by Cherfilus-McCormick had been “proven by clear and convincing evidence,” including accepting improper campaign donations, money laundering, cominngling personal and campaign funds and various other violations.

“This was not a rush to judgment as some would claim,” Ethics Committee Chairman Rep. Michael Guest said Tuesday. The committee issued 59 subpoenas, reviewed 33,000 documents and interviewed 28 witnesses during the course of the investigation.

Republicans have been calling for her resignation for months, and a growing number of Democrats publicly said they would have backed her expulsion had the Ethics Committee recommended it Tuesday, Axios reported.

Shortly before her resignation, the congresswoman’s chief of staff told the Miami Herald she planned to campaign to return to her congressional seat — even if she were expelled by the House. It’s rare, but not unheard of for a sanctioned or expelled member of Congress to try to recoup their seat at the ballot box.

The ethics committee recommended expulsion and the House later expelled former Ohio Rep. James Traficant in 2002 over federal criminal charges. He ran for reelection from a prison cell that year and lost with 15% of the vote, according to reporting at the time.

Cherfilus-McCormick’s office did not immediately respond to questions about whether staying in the race remained the plan after her resignation. Her federal criminal trial was pushed back to February 2027 earlier this month.

A wide scope of misconduct charges

Cherfilus-McCormick was the first Haitian-American from Florida in Congress and advocated for Haitian immigrants in her role as the Haiti Caucus co-chair, including after Trump’s rollback of Temporary Protected Status for people from Haiti. She was also on the House Foreign Affairs and Veteran’s Affairs committees.

But much of her four years in Congress was also marked by the Ethics Committee’s sweeping investigation into her.

The misconduct charges against Cherfilus-McCormick cover a wide scope of actions she took in her special election campaign in 2021, her reelection campaign in 2022 and while in office.

The committee accused her of a straw-donor and money-laundering scheme to funnel money received by her family’s healthcare company in a $5 million overpayment in federal COVID relief funds toward campaign expenses in her 2021 special-election campaign, when she won her primary by just five votes.

Once she took office, she used her position to provide “special favors” to allies on Congressional funding requests, according to the committee.

Then, when she had to run again to keep the seat in the 2022 general election, she funneled illegal corporate contributions from an oil company toward her campaign expenses and failed to disclose these funds, according to the committee’s charges.

Various other charges were related to reporting errors and failures to comply with campaign finance laws. The committee initially accused her of 27 counts of misconduct and agreed that 25 had been “proven” after an hourslong, rare public ethics hearing in March.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries stripped her of her leadership role on a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee after the Department of Justice filed its federal charges against her last fall, according to House rules. But he declined to publicly call for her resignation, instead insisting he would let the House Ethics Committee process play out.

Closely watched election

In the lead-up to Tuesday’s resignation, Cherfilus-McCormick was still trying to rally local support to stay in Congress. She submitted three letters to the House Ethics Committee Tuesday, signed by various South Florida community members.

All of the letters argued that the district should not go without representation until a new election is held, and tried to tie her fate to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to redistrict Florida during a special legislative session next month.

“Florida’s 20th Congressional District is currently engaged in a consequential redistricting battle. To remove its representation during this process would leave hundreds of thousands of constituents without advocacy at a critical moment,” the Palm Beach County Democratic Black Caucus wrote in a letter.

DeSantis has argued that the special session is necessary because the Supreme Court is considering a case that could result in the strikedown a section of the Voting Rights Act draw districts that take race into account to ensure minority voters can elect candidates of their choice.

Black Voters Matter has previously argued that there are three Florida districts that could be impacted by this ruling, including Cherfilus-McCormick’s former district. But the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on that case, and as a majority-Democratic area, it is highly unlikely it would be redrawn in such a way that Republicans were likely to win the district.

The district as its currently drawn includes parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Cherfilus-McCormick has trailed in fundraising behind progressive candidate Elijah Manley, 27, according to federal campaign finance reports.

He had raised about $780,000 compared to Cherfilus-McCormick’s $356,000 by the end of March. Dale Holness, who she narrowly beat in 2021, is also running for the seat and has raised $306,000 so far this election cycle. Former rapper turned community activist Luther Campbell is also in the race. Coral Springs vice mayor and rising Democratic politician Nancy Metayer Bown was expected to announce a run for the seat before she was found dead in her home on April 1.

In the wake of Cherfilus-McCormick’s resignation, Manley requested that DeSantis call a special election to replace her, instead of waiting for the outcome of November’s election results.

Florida Democrats responded to Cherfilus-McCormick’s resignation Tuesday by calling for a Republican Florida member of Congress, Cory Mills, to resign as well over various campaign finance misconduct charges. A House ethics investigation into Mills is ongoing.

“Corruption has no place in Congress,” Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried wrote in a statement. “Now it’s Cory Mills’ turn to resign.”

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