The House Ethics Committee on Thursday opened a rare public hearing into the conduct of a Democratic congresswoman accused of embezzling federal disaster money to support her congressional campaign, turning back her effort to delay the proceedings until her criminal case was resolved.
The ethics trial of Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Florida Democrat charged with stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency money for her campaign, was the first time in 16 years that the typically secretive panel had held a public hearing regarding the actions of a sitting lawmaker.
Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick’s attorney, William Barzee, argued that his client was “absolutely innocent,” and that the public congressional proceedings would taint her ability to have a fair criminal trial to consider her pending federal criminal indictment.
“You’re going to have members of the public who are also potential jurors in a criminal matter hearing about facts they otherwise would never be exposed to,” Mr. Barzee said. “That’s a major, major risk.”
“We’re not trying to run out the clock,” he added while asking to delay the proceedings for at least a few months. “We want this matter resolved.”
But the adjudicatory panel, which included a bipartisan group of eight House lawmakers, rejected her motion to delay the trial, instead kicking off a lengthy motion for summary judgment that will jump-start a process that is likely to lead in the coming weeks to the entire House considering Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick’s case in a vote on the floor.
The last such trial was in 2010, when the Ethics Committee found Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, guilty of 11 violations. The vote to hold a public hearing in this case was bipartisan and unanimous.
“Hearings are very rare,” said Representative Mark DeSaulnier of California, the ranking Democrat on the committee. He noted that the proceedings followed a yearslong, bipartisan investigation that included interviews with 23 witnesses and a review of hundreds of thousands of pages of documents.
“The allegations before us are extremely serious,” he said. “They also implicate the public’s confidence in the House’s integrity as an institution.”
He added: “The American people deserve for their institutions to uphold those standards.”
Throughout the proceedings, Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick sat silently, occasionally jotting down a note for her lawyer, while he mounted a long argument for why the panel should not proceed. She declined to speak to reporters during an extended break in the middle of the hearing.
Sitting in the audience was Elijah Manley, Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick’s primary opponent.
“It’s important for the district to have some eyes into this process,” he said. “We had high hopes for her; we’re disappointed.”
There were also some signs in the audience of what appeared to be quiet support for the congresswoman. Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas and a fellow member of the Congressional Black Caucus, sat through the first half of the hearing, even though she is not a member of the committee.
“It’s an open hearing,” she said as she left, declining to say more about why she had decided to attend.
The House Ethics Committee typically operates in deep secrecy, often remaining opaque about the timeline of its investigations into lawmakers and sometimes even keeping its findings confidential. The committee, for instance, released only its final report into former Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida — finding that he engaged in sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and accepted improper gifts — after a contentious debate over whether its conclusions should be made public at all.
The panel also typically defers to law enforcement on penalties, issuing fines or rebukes and only rarely recommending that a lawmaker be removed from office. In the case of the fabulist and former Representative George Santos, Republican of New York, for instance, the ethics panel stopped short of calling for his expulsion from Congress, even as he faced a 23-count federal indictment. (He was ultimately expelled.)
The Justice Department in November charged Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick with stealing the FEMA funds. She has denied any wrongdoing. If convicted, Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick could face up to 53 years in prison.
Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times.
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