Congress holds North Miami Beach mayor in contempt over ethics investigation

Alex Harris, Miami Herald on Sep 2, 2026

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The sitting mayor of North Miami Beach on Tuesday was found in contempt of Congress as part of an ethics investigation into former U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.

The U.S. House Ethics Committee said Michael Joseph, an ally of Cherfilus-McCormick, didn’t help with its investigation into the former congresswoman and ignored the committee’s subpoenas for documents and testimony. The vote was unanimous and bipartisan.

As part of the investigation into Cherfilus-McCormick that led to her resignation, the committee released a report naming Joseph as the go-between between the ex-representative and a politically connected oil company, Petrogaz Haiti. The report accuses the congresswoman’s campaign of soliciting $810,000 from the Haitian company and funneling it, indirectly, into a now-defunct “shell company” that helped fund her 2022 campaign.

Joseph, the report said, arranged a meeting between Cherfilus-McCormick and the company’s owner four days before the checks and campaign cash started flowing. He was also president of the middleman political group through which the money flowed, it said.

In a statement provided to the Miami Herald, Joseph said the contempt resolution was “yet another erosion of rights, freedoms and norms that have protected the liberty of every American” and said that he would prevail if the issue does go to court.

“After issuing a subpoena which was not even correctly served upon me, the Committee refused to follow basic legal procedures to allow me the time and ability to comply in a way that would be thorough and complete, and protect the attorney client privilege and duty of confidentiality that I must adhere to in order to uphold my professional responsibilities to clients,” he wrote.

Joseph’s lawyer, Kendall Coffey of law firm Coffey Burlington, previously told the committee it was a scheduling issue, not an attempt to impede the investigation.

In a letter to the committee, Coffey explained that the subpoena was served on a day Joseph was on vacation — a fact Coffey said he shared with the committee in advance. Per the letter, the committee did not attempt to serve the subpoena again after it failed the first time.

It’s up to the U.S. Justice Department now to pursue criminal prosecution. Contempt of Congress can earn violators a $100,000 fine and up to a year in prison.

The Ethics Committee’s sprawling investigation into Cherfilus-McCormick centers mostly on allegations that she took a $5 million overpayment in COVID-19 federal relief funds and used them to fund her campaign instead. The committee found her guilty of 25 of 27 ethics and campaign finance violations, and she faces federal trial next year. She maintains her innocence.

Amid the investigation, Cherfilus-McCormick gave up her seat in April. She tried to win it back shortly after but lost last month in a crowded Democratic primary to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.