WASHINGTON — House ethics investigators recommended that Rep. Charles Rangel of New York be reprimanded for ethical violations, the chairman of the investigative subcommittee said Friday.
Meanwhile, calls for Rangel’s resignation surfaced late Friday from House Democrats who said 13 ethics charges against the 20-term Democratic lawmaker showed a disregard for the rules and undermined the public’s confidence in Congress.
Either conditionally or outright, Democrats calling for his resignation included Reps. Walter Minnick of Idaho, Betty Sutton of Ohio, John Yarmuth of Kentucky, Zack Space of Ohio, Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona and Mary Jo Kilroy of Ohio.
“Too many politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, have fallen victim to the idea that they are ‘different’ than regular folks and nothing could be further from the truth,” Kirkpatrick said in a statement.
“It is our job as members of Congress to hold each other accountable to a higher standard regardless of party,” she added. “If the serious charges against [Rangel] are accurate, he needs to resign.”
Rangel denies the charges and says the indictment released Thursday contains factual errors.
The four-member investigative committee traded several settlement offers with Rangel’s lawyers without ever reaching an agreement that required a vote, said Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, the chairman of the investigative subcommittee that presented 13 ethics charges against Rangel on Thursday.
The charges included allegations that Rangel improperly solicited and obtained $8 million in donations fromcompanies and private foundations with business before Congress to help finance an academic center to be built in his name at the City College of New York.
“The recommendation we had was a reprimand,” Green said in Washington on Friday. A reprimand would have to be voted on by the full House.
The adjudicatory committee would make the recommendation for any penalty, which would follow a finding of ethical misconduct.
The full House must approve the more serious penalties such as reprimand, censure or expulsion, said Stefan Passantino, an ethics lawyer in Washington who represented former House Speakers Newt Gingrich and Dennis Hastert, both Republicans, before the ethics panel.
It would be difficult for lawmakers in either partyto settle on a reprimand for Rangel in light of the charges, Passantino said. He said the reprimand recommendation “doesn’t carry a great deal of weight” because it isn’t normally part of the subcommittee’s procedures.
President Barack Obama said Friday that he viewed the allegations faced by his fellow Democrat as “very troubling.” Obama made his comments in an interview with CBS News.
“He’s somebody who’s at the end of his career,” Obama said of Rangel, in his first public comments on the case. “I’m sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity. And my hope is that it happens.”
Rangel, 80, met with the subcommittee twice in the past two months as the probe was reaching its conclusion, Green said. He was questioned under oath last December.
“If we could have reached a settlement, we would have recommended that,” Green said. “But that didn’t happen.”
Asked whether the failure to settle the case meant that Rangel refused to accept a reprimand, Green said “there were other issues.” He declined to elaborate on those issues.
Rangel’s attorneys may have been talking to staff lawyers on the full Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, Green said. “But there was no discussion for the last two weeks with the subcommittee,” he said.
Any subsequent settlement talks would have to take place with the adjudicatory subcommittee that is composed of four Republicans and four Democrats, Green said.
Republicans on the committee said Thursday thatRangel passed up numerous chances to settle the case.
“Let me be clear that Mr. Rangel” was “given opportunities to negotiate a settlement during the investigation phase,” Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said at the hearing. “We are now in the trial phase.”
A public hearing on the charges won’t occur until after Congress returns from its August recess.
Rep. John Larson of Connecticut, who is chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said the case against Rangel is “gut-wrenching” for his colleagues. Still, Rangel should have his “day in court, as awkward as that can be” if the veteran lawmaker chooses not to settle the case, he said. Information for this article was contributed by James Rowley and Ryan Donmoyer of Bloomberg News and by Laurie Kellman, Larry Margasak and Ben Evans of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 07/31/2010