Jeffries declines to break with indicted Democrat after ethics panel’s guilty verdict
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Jeffries declines to break with indicted Democrat after ethics panel’s guilty verdict


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A bipartisan group of lawmakers found Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., guilty of more than two dozen ethics violations, but House Democratic leadership is standing by their embattled colleague.

“As I understand it, the Ethics Committee has one final step in their process, so I’m not going to get out ahead of the Ethics Committee process that will be completed upon our return,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Friday morning. “And then I’ll have more to say.”

House Democratic Conference Chairman Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., also told Punchbowl News on Friday that he had not seen the ethics panel’s findings, but added “that doesn’t sound good” when told the body determined that she committed 25 ethics violations. Those charges include money laundering, making false statements on campaign finance reports and seeking special favors from entities receiving federal funding. 

INDICTED DEMOCRAT REP. SHEILA CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK ONE STEP CLOSER TO EXPULSION

Jeffries declines to break with indicted Democrat after ethics panel’s guilty verdict

An eight-member House Ethics investigative subcommittee determined Friday that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., committed 25 House ethics violations, which could lead to her potential expulsion from the House of Representatives. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

The Florida Democrat is facing a separate federal criminal indictment that could result in more than five decades in prison if convicted. Cherfilus-McCormick, who has pleaded not guilty, is accused of illegally transferring millions in disaster relief funds improperly paid to her family’s healthcare company to finance her run for Congress and the purchase of luxury items, including a massive diamond ring.

The House Ethics Committee said it would announce its recommended punishment for Cherfilus-McCormick in April, which could be as severe as expulsion. Under House rules, a two-thirds majority would have to support the resolution to formally remove the Florida Democrat from the chamber.

Jeffries’ refusal so far to condemn Cherfilus-McCormick’s conduct mirrors the relative silence of the Democratic caucus, though some rank-and-file members are beginning to break their silence on the Florida Democrat.

Moderate Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., was the first Democratic lawmaker to publicly issue a statement Friday calling on Cherfilus-McCormick to resign or be removed following the guilty verdict.

“You can’t crime your way into legitimate power,” Gluesenkamp Perez wrote. “Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed.”

Split of Hakeem Jeffries and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. has so far refused to condemn Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McComrick, an indicted lawmaker facing a looming expulsion threat. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

HOUSE DEMOCRAT ACCUSES FELLOW DEM OF VIOLATING A ‘FREE AND FAIR ELECTION’ IN STUNNING PUBLIC MOVE

A handful of other congressional Democrats said Friday that they would consider backing an expulsion resolution if the indicted lawmaker did not leave on her own terms.

A Jeffries spokeperson did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Despite the looming expulsion threat, Cherfilus-McCormick has given no indication that she will resign. She is also running for a fourth term in November’s midterm elections.

“I look forward to proving my innocence,” Cherfilus-McCormick said in a statement Friday. “Until then, my focus remains where it belongs: showing up for the great people of Florida’s 20th District who sent me to Washington to fight for them.”

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., was the first congressional Democrat to call for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick to resign or be removed following the conclusion of a rare House ethics hearing.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., was the first congressional Democrat to call for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick to resign or be removed following the conclusion of a rare House ethics hearing. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

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The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), House Republicans’ campaign arm, ripped congressional Democrats’ lack of outrage over Cherfilus-McCormick’s conduct.

“The Ethics Committee just confirmed that Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick broke the rules, and House Democrats are still saying nothing,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said Friday. “Their silence is a choice. Democrats can stand for accountability or keep protecting a proven ethics violator, but voters won’t forget it.”


Senate advances DHS funding bill, tees up House vote to end shutdown as TSA lines stretch
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Senate advances DHS funding bill, tees up House vote to end shutdown as TSA lines stretch


Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a rally against the SAVE America Act outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, United States, on March 18, 2026.

Nathan Posner | Anadolu | Getty Images

The Senate early Friday morning advanced a bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, in a move to end the partial government shutdown that has disrupted air travel across the U.S.

After weeks of Republicans fighting Democrats on their calls to remove funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement from any potential deal, the bill does exactly that. It would fund all of DHS except for ICE and parts of Customs and Border Protection, though it does not include the changes to ICE’s immigration enforcement practices that Democrats had demanded.

It now moves to the House for final approval. A vote could be held as soon as Friday as lawmakers seek to leave Washington for a scheduled recess.

“This could’ve been accomplished weeks ago if Republicans hadn’t stood in the way,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said from the Senate floor Friday. “Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms.”

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The Senate vote is an encouraging step toward ending the shutdown, which resulted in missed paychecks for Transportation Security Administration agents and long lines at airports. The deal comes just in time for lawmakers to leave town for a pre-planned two-week recess beginning at the end of this week.

Lawmakers scrambled much of the week to strike a deal before the recess, but as talks broke down late Thursday, Trump intervened and announced via Truth Social that he would pay TSA agents via executive order.

“Because the Democrats have recklessly created a true National Crisis, I am using my authorities under the Law to protect our Great Country, as I always will do!,” Trump posted. “Therefore, I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports.”

The shutdown began in February in the weeks after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis as part of a federal immigration crackdown. Democrats demanded change with ICE and DHS more broadly and refused to fund the department.

Friday’s vote largely ends that impasse, though it was far from a kumbaya moment.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a statement that Democrats “remained intransigent and unreasonable” in their DHS funding demands.

“Congressional Democrats have done real damage to the appropriations process by repeatedly forcing government shutdowns and refusing to fund entire agencies,” Collins said. “Their refusal to fund ICE and Border Patrol leaves our borders and our country less secure and sets a precedent that they may one day come to regret.”

Republicans have vowed to restore funding to ICE via a second party-line legislative package using the Senate “budget reconciliation” procedure they used to pass last year’s tax and spending bill. Republicans’ next measure with ICE funding may also include a grab-bag of other issues, including defense funding and the SAVE America Act, a Trump-backed voter-ID and noncitizen voting bill that has captivated the right-flank of the GOP in recent months.

“This bill will focus on ensuring ICE and other vital functions of homeland security, as well as the U.S. military and efforts to increase voter integrity, are Democrat-resistance proof,” Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a post to X on Thursday.

Budget reconciliation is a procedural tool that requires only a simple majority to pass — as opposed to the 60 votes usually required to overcome a filibuster in the Senate — provided its components have some spending or revenue impact.

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DC grand jury declines to indict Sens. Kelly, Slotkin for seditious conspiracy: MS Now
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DC grand jury declines to indict Sens. Kelly, Slotkin for seditious conspiracy: MS Now


A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., declined a request by prosecutors to indict two Democratic U.S. senators, Mark Kelly of Arizona and Michigan’s Elissa Slotkin, on charges of seditious conspiracy, MS Now reported Tuesday night.

The attempted indictment of Kelly, a former U.S. Navy captain and the former CIA analyst Slotkin related to a video in November that they made with four other Democrats in Congress, on which they reminded members of the U.S. military that they have the right to refuse to follow illegal orders by superiors.

The video was released on social media in response to ongoing extrajudicial killings by the U.S. military of crews of boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that allegedly were carrying narcotics.

The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors also tried and failed to obtain indictments against the other four Democrats, in addition to Kelly and Slotkin. Rep. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, who is a former Navy reservist, and Rep. Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, a Navy veteran, later indicated they were among the six reportedly targeted in the indictment effort.

The other two Democrats who made the video were Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, who was an Army Ranger, and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, who is a former Air Force officer.

It is extremely unusual for a grand jury to refuse to issue an indictment when a prosecutor seeks one. An indictment is a charging document that a grand jury will issue if jurors agree there is probable cause to believe a crime was committed.

President Donald Trump had condemned the Democrats for the video after it was made public on Nov. 18.

Trump at the time accused them of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

“Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL,” Trump wrote on Truth Social then.

Kelly, who is also a former NASA astronaut, blasted the effort to indict him.

“This is an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackies,” Kelly said in a post on X on Tuesday.

“It wasn’t enough for [Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth to censure me and threaten to demote me, now it appears they tried to have me charged with a crime — all because of something I said that they didn’t like. That’s not the way,” Kelly said.

Kelly is suing the Pentagon to challenge its censure of him and its effort to reduce his rank because of his participation in the video.

Slotkin, in a statement, said, “Today, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro attempted to persuade a Grand Jury to indict me. This was in response to me organizing a 90-second video that simply quoted the law.”

“Pirro did this at the direction of President Trump, who said repeatedly that I should be investigated, arrested, and hanged for sedition,” Slotkin said. “Today, it was a grand jury of anonymous American citizens who upheld the rule of law and determined this case should not proceed. Hopefully, this ends this politicized investigation for good.”

“But today wasn’t just an embarrassing day for the Administration. It was another sad day for our country,” she said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday night that he believes the six Democrats who made the video on illegal orders to the military should be indicted.

Goodlander, in a statement, said, “President Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate me, arrest me, and hang me simply for doing my job.”

“Today an American grand jury honored our Constitution by standing up to an outrageous abuse of presidential power and taxpayer dollars,” Goodlander said. “No matter the threats, I will keep doing my job and upholding my oath to our Constitution.”

Deluzio, in a statement, said, “I will not be intimidated for a single second by the Trump Administration or Justice Department lawyers who tried and failed to indict me today. American citizens on a grand jury refused to go along with this attempt to charge me with a crime for stating the law in a way Trump and his enablers didn’t like.”

“They may want Americans to be afraid to speak out or to disagree — but patriotism demands courage in this moment. DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP!” Deluzio said.