Florida Democrat Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigns from Congress

Former Democrat Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and her eyelashes 

Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) resigned from Congress today, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. The resignation went down just minutes before a scheduled House Ethics Committee hearing set to consider formal disciplinary action, which could have included expulsion recommendations.

The committee had previously found "clear and convincing evidence" of 25 out of 27 violations related to ethics rules and campaign finance laws, including allegations that she misused millions in federal COVID-era FEMA disaster relief funds (improperly sent to her family's health care company) to support her 2022 congressional campaign.
Cherfilus-McCormick said in her arrogant statement that the process was a "witch hunt" and unfair "political games," saying she chose to step away rather than continue. Her resignation is effective immediately.

"Rather than play these political games, I choose to step away so I can devote my time to fighting for my neighbors in Florida's 20th District," she wrote on social media Tuesday afternoon. "I hereby resign from the 119th Congress, effective immediately."

"This fight is far from over," Cherfilus-McCormick, who was indicted by a grand jury last year for allegedly stealing COVID-19 emergency funds, added in her statement.

She is facing 53 years in prison as part of a separate criminal indictment. The chances that her actually serving that sentence is as remote as JD Pritzker running a marathon.

Her abrupt announcement came after Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) pledged to file a motion to expel her, teeing up a vote later this week. It takes two-thirds of the House to remove a lawmaker, but a growing number of Democrats have voiced support for the expulsion effort.

House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) announced the panel lost jurisdiction with Cherfilus-McCormick's eleventh-hour decision to quit Congress. The committee panel dropped a bombshell back in March, uncovering "clear and convincing evidence" that Florida Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick had misused federal disaster relief money, funneled improperly straight to her family’s healthcare company, along with a boatload of other misconduct that would make even the most jaded Capitol Hill veteran raise an eyebrow.

Cherfilus-McCormick, of course, has denied any wrongdoing from day one and repeatedly swatted away any chatter that she might actually resign if faced with the real possibility of an expulsion vote.

She took to social media to blast the entire ethics investigation as a "witch hunt" and whined about supposed violations of her due process rights, even though the committee had bent over backward to accommodate her, granting a delay earlier this year when she temporarily lost her legal representation.

But Rep. Michael Guest wasn’t having any of it on Tuesday. The Mississippi Republican pushed back hard on that narrative, pointing out that Cherfilus-McCormick had repeatedly turned down the committee’s invitations to hand over any exculpatory evidence that might clear her name."The committee has worked diligently to investigate this matter," Guest said. "This was not a rush to judgment, as some would claim … this was a very deliberate process to gather information into allegations that were extremely serious, and extremely complicated."

Guest also made sure to thank the committee staff who had spent more than two years grinding through this mess, poring over tens of thousands of documents to get to the bottom of Cherfilus-McCormick’s alleged shenanigans.

And just like that, she became the third lawmaker to resign from Congress in the past week alone. California Democrat Eric Swalwell and Texas Republican Tony Gonzales both stepped down last week to dodge their own expulsion threats tied to serious sexual misconduct allegations.

At least five women have now come forward accusing Swalwell of sexual assault and rape. Gonzales, for his part, admitted to sexual misconduct back in March with a former aide, who later tragically died by suicide.

Despite the storm clouds, Cherfilus-McCormick went ahead and filed for re-election anyway, though her fundraising tells a different story: she scraped together a measly $11,000 in the first quarter of the year, according to the latest FEC filings. Whether she plans to actually keep that campaign alive remains to be seen.

Notably, Cherfilus-McCormick herself wasn’t even on the House floor when her resignation announcement was read aloud.

A staffer for the congresswoman told reporters she was back in Washington with her family as the news dropped.

"She's with her family digesting this development and digesting this decision," the aide said. "As you can imagine, this wasn't what she wanted."

House Democratic leadership stayed conspicuously silent in the run-up to her resignation announcement, even after the Ethics Committee laid out the extensive misconduct in painstaking detail.

But it looks like Cherfilus-McCormick finally caved once a wave of her own Democratic colleagues made it crystal clear they’d vote to expel her if that rare removal vote ever hit the floor.

Former Speaker Nancy Hands-a-Flying Pelosi, never one to mince words, went on Fox News Tuesday and basically said enough is enough: "Let’s just get this over with."

Pelosi also called for the swift boot of embattled Rep. Cory Mills, the Florida Republican currently under Ethics Committee scrutiny for an alleged domestic violence incident and other issues.

"These cases just being out there . . .  they make us look terrible," Pelosi said.House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, didn’t publicly call on Cherfilus-McCormick to step down before she pulled the plug.

On the other side of the aisle, Speaker Mike Johnson argued that the Ethics Committee should be allowed to finish its work on Mills before any punishment gets considered.

"I'm confident that they are moving along as quickly as they are able," Johnson told Fox News. "And when members cooperate, which my understanding is Representative Mills is cooperating, unlike Cherfilus-McCormick, I would expect that the outcome would be much sooner."

"He's very upset about some of the allegations that have been made," Johnson added of Mills. "He says that he wants to prove his innocence, and he has the opportunity to do that."

By the way, this resignation didn’t fly under the radar, major outlets across the spectrum, Brain Flushings, PBS and CNN to CBS, Fox News, The Hill, Politico, Reuters, NBC, and The Washington Post, all jumped on the story today.

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GOP-er Tony Gonzales will retire from Congress: admits the affair with aide

Well, folks, strap in because the swamp is serving up another double helping of congressional sleaze today, and the timing is almost too perfect to be accidental.

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) announced Monday that he plans to file his retirement from Congress on Tuesday after admitting to an affair with a former staffer who committed suicide last year.

“There is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all. When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office. It has been my privilege to serve the great people of Texas,” Gonzales posted on X, invoking his intimate relationship with G_d.

This mini bombshell dropped about an hour after Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said he’d be stepping down over his own sex scandal. These bipartisan scumcrumpets should walk away holding hands as they walk toward the sunset with their women folk.

Back in early March, Gonzales had already dropped his re-election bid in Texas’s 23rd Congressional District after getting dragged into a runoff by feisty GOP challenger Brandon Herrera. He’d also been catching heat from fellow Republicans who were loudly suggesting he might want to consider resigning his seat.

Those calls got a lot louder once Gonzales owned up to the affair with former staffer Regina Santos-Aviles, a 35-year-old married mother who, according to the fire department, “doused herself in gasoline and was ignited into flames” in the backyard of her Uvalde, Texas home. 

Conservative media The Daily Wire had reported that Gonzales claimed the affair wrapped up in the summer of 2024, more than a year before Santos-Aviles took her own life. But those text messages the San Antonio Express-News published back in February painted a rather uncomfortable picture, with Gonzales apparently making some very direct sexual requests to the woman who worked for him.

Let's face it, politicians behaving badly is hardly breaking news, but when it ends in tragedy and then gets wrapped up in a neat little “God has a plan” bow, it’s enough to make even the most jaded observer roll their eyes. 

The voters in Texas-23 deserved better. Hell, the staffers who have to work in these offices deserve better. And the taxpayers footing the bill for all of it are the ones who really get screwed every single time.

Another day, another reminder that power attracts exactly the kind of people you wouldn’t want babysitting your kids. Enjoy your retirement, Congressman. Try not to set anything else on fire on the way out.

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Swalwell gets the Dem hook for sexual misconduct allegations

"It's this big"
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) wears a protective mask while speaking during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on April 15, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) just dropped a political grenade on Monday, announcing he would resign his congressional seat in the wake of multiple bombshell reports from last Friday that kneecapped his already-flailing bid to become the next governor of California.

"I am deeply sorry to my family, staff, and constituents for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past," Swalwell said in a statement. "I will fight the serious, false allegations made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make."

Mistake in judgment? His behavior [allegedly] was not a 'mistake,' it was on purpose [allegedly] and an ongoing behavior [allegedly].

"I am aware of efforts to bring an immediate expulsion vote against me and other members. Expelling anyone in Congress without due process, within days of an allegation being made, is wrong," he continued. "But it's also wrong for my constituents to have me distracted from my duties. Therefore, I plan to resign my seat in Congress."

Funny, but isn't that exactly what he wanted to happen to Justice Kavanaugh during the hearings for his appointment to SCOTUS?

At least four women have accused Swalwell [aka Swell-well] of sexual misconduct, including a former aide who alleged he raped her when she was intoxicated and could not consent, according to reporting from the Compromised News Network (CNN) and The San Francisco Chronicle.

Swalwell’s abrupt resignation announcement looks like a desperate sprint to the exits, potentially short-circuiting a bipartisan push to expel him from the House that was set to ramp up as early as this week.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, the no-nonsense Florida Republican, was gearing up to introduce a resolution to boot Swalwell on Tuesday and had been pressing House GOP leadership to hold a vote on Wednesday.

Luna called on lawmakers from both parties to set aside "ideological differences" and back her measure alongside a separate expulsion effort targeting embattled Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) led by Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM).

"It is our responsibility, according to the Constitution and House rules, to hold one another accountable, especially when it brings dishonor upon the institution," Luna wrote to her House colleagues Tuesday in a letter reviewed by Fox News Digital. "We as Members of Congress need to stand together in publicly condemning this behavior and restore the trust we have lost with the American people."

The Florida Republican had warned over the weekend that she’d draft the expulsion papers if Swalwell didn’t resign by the time lawmakers returned to Washington on Tuesday. Luna’s resolution was on track to pick up serious bipartisan backing.

Even Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), a leading progressive voice, was among the Democrats voicing support for the expulsion drive.

Other Democrats urged Swalwell to step down but stopped short of endorsing Luna’s hard-line resolution.

The Democratic backlash following the San Francisco Chronicle’s gut-wrenching reporting triggered a stampede of Swalwell’s colleagues and longtime allies yanking their endorsements for his now-suspended gubernatorial campaign — including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi herself.

Swalwell bailed on the 2026 primary to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday, despite polling that had him looking like a top-tier contender just days earlier.

Swalwell first entered the House in 2013. Prior to that, he worked as a prosecutor in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and served on the Dublin, California, city council starting in 2010.

In Congress, he was a key player in the 2019 impeachment push against President Donald Trump and, before that, helmed investigations into whether Russian meddling actually swung the 2016 election.

Whether this resignation spells the final chapter of Swalwell’s political career remains to be seen.

"I'm outta here"
California gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell waves before speaking at the 2026 California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

The Chronicle’s Friday bombshell laid out graphic details from a woman accusing Swalwell of targeting intoxicated women, pressuring staffers into compromising situations, and soliciting explicit images from female contacts.

Whispers of misconduct had started bubbling earlier this month when Cheyenne Hunt, a former Capitol Hill staffer turned political commentator, began sharing testimony from women claiming they were sexually assaulted by the congressman.

"The Democratic candidate currently leading in the California governor’s race has a known history of being predatory towards women," Hunt posted on social media.

Swalwell’s team initially went radio silent before pushing back in comments to the New York Post earlier this week.

"This false, outrageous rumor is being spread 27 days before an election begins by flailing opponents who have sadly teamed up with MAGA conspiracy theorists because they know Eric Swalwell is the frontrunner in this race," spokesperson Micah Beasley said.

Swalwell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment because to do so would be a political blunder.

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