WASHINGTON — The House ethics committee formally unveiled charges Thursday against Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., after efforts to reach a settlement apparently fell short, setting in motion a trial for the 20-term congressman.
In a preliminary hearing on the case, a subcommittee disclosed 13 charges that lawmakers described as “very serious” violations of House rules and federal law. After a two-year investigation, he was accused of failure to report rental income from vacation property in the Dominican Republic, failure to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income and assets on his congressional financial-disclosure statements and accepting a rent-stabilized property in Manhattan for his campaign office, among other things.
“Even though they are serious charges, I’m prepared to prove that the only thing I’ve ever had in my 50 years of public service is service,” Rangel said Thursday night. “That’s what I’ve done, and if I’ve been overzealous providing that service, I can’t make an excuse for the serious violations.”
Rangel did not appear at the hearing earlier Thursday - his presence was not required - but he submitted a written statement. The session set the stage for a committee trial, expected to be held in September.
Rangel, 80, a decorated Korean War veteran who was first elected to Congress from his Harlem district in 1970 and is one of the five longest-serving members of the House, faced the choice of either admitting to ethical misdeeds or forcing the preliminary phase of a trial by the Committee on Standards and Official Conduct, as the ethics panel is formally known.
In an opening statement as the hearing began Thursday afternoon, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, noted that there had been talk of negotiations on a settlement.
“Mr. Rangel ... was given opportunities to negotiate a settlement under the investigation phase,” he said. “We are now in the trial phase.” He said Rangel faces “13 very serious allegations” relating to his conduct.
“For Mr. Rangel, these proceedings present a fair and public opportunity to be heard before his peers,” said McCaul, the top Republican on the subcommittee. If proved, the conduct described in the charges“would violate multiple provisions of House rules and federal statutes,” he said.
In a 32-page rebuttal, Rangel’s legal team wrote that he “denies each and every allegation” of the charges. Rangel didn’t dispense political favors, “did not intentionally violate any law, rule or regulation” and didn’t “misuse his public office for private gain,” they wrote.
After hearing from two lawmakers who headed the ethics committee’s investigative panel, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., adjourned Thursday’s meeting, whose purpose she described as “organizational.”
Lawyers for the former chairman of the powerful taxwriting Ways and Means Committee had negotiated with the nonpartisan attorneys for the committee until late Wednesday and continued the discussions Thursday morning, hoping to reach a settlement.
At her weekly press briefing Thursday morning, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., deflected a question on whether the Rangel case would hurt Democrats in November.
“The chips will have to fall where they may politically,” she told reporters. Pursuing ethics cases against House members is “a serious responsibility that we have,” she said.
The investigative subcommittee probed allegations - at Rangel’s request after published reports - that he inappropriately lived in rent-controlled apartments in Harlem; did not pay taxes properly on a villa in the Dominican Republic; shielded hundreds of thousands dollars in personal assets by not properly disclosing them on his annual forms; and used his congressional office to raise money for the wing of a New York college named after him.
The 13 counts included those allegations, plus charges that Rangel violated the code of providing faithful government services, House rules on soliciting donations and franking rules.
Specifically, the investigative subcommittee found that Rangel broke multiple House rules in his efforts to create and fund the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York, including provisions governing gifts to members and use of official resources for unofficial activities. The probe showed that Rangel frequently solicited donations from lobbyists and companies with interests before his Ways and Means Committee.
The ethics panel reported that Rangel asked his congressional staff to produce “a list of potential donors to the Rangel Center. The work was done on property of the House of Representatives, on official House time and with the use of official House resources.” Rangel also sent letters on congressional letterhead to potential donors, along with a brochure requesting a gift of $30 million, or $6 million per year for five years.
In their rebuttal, Rangel’s lawyers denied that donors for the Rangel Center were targeted based on whether they had business before his committee.
Information for this article was contributed by Larry Margasak, Laurie Kellman, Ann Sanner and Alex Brandon of The Associated Press and by James Rowley, Ryan J. Donmoyer and Nicholas Johnston of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 07/30/2010