U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., raised legal concerns about the unconventional methods her team was using to boost her public profile in her South Florida district in 2022 — a period that has since garnered allegations of “extensive misconduct” from the House Ethics Committee — but her closest advisers encouraged her to brush them off, internal text messages show.

“Maybe we should pull the commercials,” Cherfilus-McCormick texted political consultant Mark Goodrich that summer.

“We are getting a lot of push back,” she wrote. “What do you think.”

Her concerns centered around whether advertisements billed to her official congressional account were permissible public service announcements or an improper use of taxpayer funds for campaign ads.

“I think they are legal,” responded Goodrich, who according to ethics reports was receiving a 20% commission from at least some of the ads.

Cherfilus-McCormick later responded. “It’s just never been done before.”

The TV, radio and mail ads, paid for with $179,000 from her taxpayer-funded congressional budget, according to the ethics committee, featured the Democratic congresswoman introducing herself and discussing various issues. A House commission approved them before they ran and the ethics committee has not treated the ads as part of her alleged misconduct — as the congresswoman appeared concerned about at the time.

But the text messages shed light into how the congresswoman weighed legal and ethical concerns with her closest, trusted advisers during a time period that has since come under intense scrutiny by the ethics committee.

“If you pull the spot it will make you look guilty,” Goodrich wrote the congresswoman: “Watch how many follow your lead!”

One of the congresswoman’s staffers, also on the group chat, chimed in: “It’s close to the line but legal,” the staffer wrote, adding that they should be prepared “to neutralize any ‘irresponsible use of funds’ talk.”

Cherfilus-McCormick later expressed concern again in the 2022 group chat about the ads, saying, “Should we ask legal for an opinion?”

“Yes,” the staffer responded. “Ok please ask,” said Cherfilus-McCormick.

The staffer later testified to the Office of Congressional Conduct she did not recall ever seeking that legal opinion.

Adviser involved in campaign and congressional ads

The congresswoman, whose office did not respond to a request for comment for this article, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that she used a $5 million overpayment to her healthcare company from the state of Florida to present herself to voters as a successful, self-funded businesswoman en route to a win in a 2021 special election — squeaking by in the Democratic primary by just five votes.

The House Ethics Committee has since accused her campaign of secretly funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in unlawful corporate contributions from an oil company called PetroGaz-Haiti into her 2022 reelection bid.

Throughout that campaign, Goodrich — the consultant in the group chat — was one of her closest political advisers, according details laid out in House ethics reports.

He was a central figure in the allegations surrounding illegal corporate contributions from PetroGaz-Haiti and was volunteering — against House rules — with her congressional office, according to the report. Acceptance of voluntary services from Goodrich is part of two of the 27 counts of misconduct Cherfilus-McCormick is being charged with by the Ethics committee.

“The concerns regarding the acceptance of voluntary services of individuals include the fact that at times, quite obviously, an individual offering to perform such services for a Member of Congress may have his or her own agenda,” the House ethics manual reads.

The committee also alleges that Goodrich worked for a “shell company” called Truth & Justice Inc. that never disclosed its unauthorized campaign spending to state or federal regulators. Goodrich testified to House investigators that he helped set up the organization.

Truth & Justice is related to two more of the ethics committee’s counts of misconduct against the congresswoman, including money laundering the undisclosed funds from PetroGaz-Haiti.

Goodrich received at least $34,000 from Truth & Justice in 2022 and a political committee that Goodrich controlled received $177,000, according to investigators. In sum, the organization paid more than $824,000 to “vendors, entities, and individuals who also provided services” to the congresswoman’s campaign.

Goodrich declined to answer questions from the Miami Herald about his involvement with Truth & Justice.

“There will be trial of the Congresswoman in the House of Representatives next month. There will be a trial in Federal court soon. If im asked to cooperate in those trials I will do so,” Goodrich texted the Herald. “I however will not speak to the media as I have a right to privacy as I am not a public figure. I was not indicted. I was not an employee of the Congresswoman.”

He defended his texts in 2022 about Cherfilus-McCormick’s taxpayer-funded advertisements — and said he had no idea about the COVID relief funds she has been accused by the Department of Justice of stealing.

“She asked if she should get legal advice regarding her office sending franking materials. I said YES,” Goodrich texted the Herald Friday.

The 2022 group chat was first revealed in a 2024 report from the Office of Congressional Conduct, an independent, nonpartisan office within the U.S. House of Representatives that reviews misconduct allegations and gives recommendations to the House Ethics Committee. The report focused heavily on Cherfilus-McCormick’s relationship with Goodrich.

New records released last month by the House Ethics Committee tied Goodrich to Truth & Justice and the PetroGaz-Haiti funds, shedding new light on her communications with the consultant.

The congresswoman has rejected the allegations against her in the ethics report and in federal court, and has not given any indication she plans to resign from Congress.

“The [ethics] report is being deliberately misconstrued and mischaracterized, with a substantial amount of information left out to manufacture a particular narrative,” Cherfilus-McCormick said in a statement to the Herald earlier this week. “Republicans are weaponizing the ethics process to steal the seat.”

She is set to have a rare public congressional ethics hearing on March 5. The federal trial over whether she stole COVID relief funds is set to begin April 20.

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