Legal Rangel-ing? Panel deliberates in ethics trial
WASHINGTON (AP) - Rangel walked out of his trial, leaving the panel's top lawyer to cite Rangel's own words from previous proceedings to argue that the lawmaker violated House rules...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A rare ethics trial began Monday for a longtime Democratic congressman who headed the House of Representatives tax-writing committee but acknowledged shortchanging the government on his own tax bill.
A House ethics panel will judge whether filing an amended tax return and belatedly paying his taxes and other financial and fundraising practices violated the congressional rule book.
The ethics trial of Rep. Charles Rangel is an embarrassment for Democrats who are still reeling from losing their majority in the House to Republicans in the Nov. 2 election. Rangel has represented New York’s Harlem district for 40 years.
Denied his plea for a delay, Rangel walked out of his trial, leaving the panel’s top lawyer to cite Rangel’s own words from previous proceedings to argue that the lawmaker violated House rules.
WATCH MSNBC COVERAGE OF RANGEL:
[MSNBCMSN video=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640″ w=”592″ h=”346″ launch_id=”40194560″ id=”msnbc87b28c”]
The panel’s chief lawyer, Blake Chisam, assuming the role of prosecutor, played a video of a Rangel speech on the House floor in August. Rangel, former chairman of the tax-writing committee, acknowledged in that presentation that he had used House stationery to raise money for a college center named after him.
Rangel also said in the August speech that he had been tardy in filing taxes and financial disclosure statements, but that he had no intention of breaking any rules.
Chisam told an ethics panel of four Republicans and four Democrats, “There are no … issues as to any material facts in this case. As a result the case is ripe for a decision.”
Rangel had implored the panel to delay the trial until he could obtain a new lawyer. The panel declined his request after a closed session and the proceeding went forward without Rangel’s participation.
After Chisam’s remarks and some questioning the trial recessed. The House ethics panel then discussed in closed session whether it’s necessary to hear from witnesses. Chisam said the facts were so clear there was no need to call witnesses. Panel members apparently agreed and began deliberations.
Chisam, responding to a question, said he does not believe Rangel’s conduct was corrupt, but rather, that the 80-year-old congressman was “overzealous…and sloppy in his personal finances.”
Rangel has been accused in 13 House counts of financial and fundraising misconduct that violated the chamber’s rules.
The panel was sitting as a jury in a House committee room for a proceeding that was open to the public. It was only the second time this type of hearing was held under a revamped system of in-house ethics policing adopted by lawmakers two decades ago.
If the panel finds that Rangel broke the rules, the House ethics committee could recommend that the House vote to condemn Rangel’s conduct.
The congressman said his lawyers had indicated to him that it could cost another $1 million to defend him at the ethics proceeding. He said it is unfair to continue the trial without allowing him to obtain an attorney.
The ethics committee chairman, Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat, had told Rangel that the panel might not have time to judge his conduct before this Congress adjourns. A postelection session commenced on Monday.
Rangel said that his fate should not depend on the congressional calendar, but on fairness.
“I am being denied the right to have a lawyer right now, because I don’t have the opportunity to have a legal defense fund set up,” he said.
Key charges portray Rangel as a veteran congressman who thought he could ignore rules on disclosing his assets, and improperly used official resources to raise money for a college center that was a monument to his career.
But an allegation that caught the American public’s eye was his failure to declare rental income to the tax authorities from a resort unit he owned in the Dominican Republic.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
