Rep. Charles Rangel and the House ethics committee have been exploring a settlement to the numerous accusations against him, which would allow the 20-term congressman to avoid a public trial.
Talks broke down Thursday after more than a month, according to lawyers involved in the negotiations, prompting the usually secretive committee to begin the process to hold rare public proceedings on ethics charges against a member.
In interviews Friday, the lawyers described the negotiations as contentious and said that Rangel continued to frustrate committee members with his unwillingness to admit wrongdoing in connection with several of the accusations against him. But they also said they were open to reaching a deal.
For two years, committee members have been examining, among other charges, Rangel’s failure to report income from a villa in the Dominican Republic, his acceptance of four rent-stabilized apartments and his use of his office to preserve a provision for an oil company executive who pledged a $1 million donation for a new public-policy center to be named for him.
On Thursday, the committee, officially called the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, announced that there was evidence to substantiate those accusations, but it declined to provide detail.
In a news conference Friday at his office in New York, Rangel asked his constituents to withhold judgment, while he acknowledged that the lengthy inquiry was taking an emotional toll.
“I’m in the kitchen and I’m not walking out,” Rangel, 80, said. He added that the testimony he planned to give at the public hearing would “make certain, before this election, people know who Charlie Rangel is.”
Behind the scenes, however, Rangel’s legal team continued working to pre-empt the hearing and the release of the report from the investigative subcommittee of the ethics committee. That report, part of which is expected tobe released Thursday, found evidence that Rangel had violated House ethics rules in a number of areas.
The two sides must grapple with what kind of punishment Rangel would agree to in a settlement, such as a reprimand or a letter of censure. While some Republicans have pressed for him to give up his seat, it does not appear that the negotiations included any requirement that he agree to resign or end his re-election bid.
Rangel stepped down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in March, after the ethics committee sanctioned him for accepting a corporate-sponsored trip to the Caribbean.
Although Rangel would appear on the surface to have little leverage in the situation, the calendar, in some ways, favors him.
As an incumbent in a heavily Democratic district, he needs only survive his Sept. 14 primary against four under-financed challengers. Under House rules, the trial cannot start for at least 25 days, in part so that Rangel can review any evidence that would be presented; with the August recess, that would all but certainly push a trial intoSeptember.
But for Democratic leaders, the prospect of a public ethics trial involving one its most senior members in the heart of the general election season is worrisome.
There was disagreement Friday as to why the talks fell apart.
Front Section, Pages 9 on 07/25/2010