House Panel Recommends Reprimand for New York’s Rangel

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Congressional investigators Friday recommended that New York Representative Charles Rangel receive a reprimand for violating ethics rules, according to the chairman of a House investigative subcommittee.

Rangel is charged with violating 13 ethics rules, which include failing to pay taxes on offshore property and improperly soliciting $8 million for an academic center that would bear his name at the City College of New York.

Unless Rangel reaches a settlement on the charges, he could be put on trial by a congressional committee in September as elected officials enter the home stretch for the mid-term elections.

The subcommittee that investigated him discussed settlement options with Rangel’s attorneys during a preliminary hearing this week but they reached no agreement.

As a result, the subcommittee referred the case to the full House Ethics Committee.

“Mr. Rangel was given multiple opportunities to settle this matter,” said Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), a member of the subcommittee. “Instead, he chose to move forward into this public trial phase.”

Rangel did not appear at the preliminary hearing with the subcommittee that investigated him.

Other options the panel considered included a fine, censure and expulsion from Congress.

A reprimand consists of a public statement denouncing the actions of the offender. It carries no jail time or financial penalty. It would require a majority vote of Congress.

Rangel continues to say that he has done nothing wrong.

“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 told reporters. “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.”

He already resigned his position in March as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes the nation’s tax laws.

He resigned after a House ethics panel raised the first set of accusations against him, saying that he had improperly accepted trips to the Caribbean paid by corporations.

A more complete list of charges announced this week accuses him of failing to report rental income on a villa he owned in the Dominican Republic, failing to disclose more than $600,000 in assets, accepting a rent-stabilized apartment in New York for his campaign headquarters and evading federal taxes.

The solicitations of money he made on congressional letterhead for the academic center in New York were allegedly sent to corporations that had business before his committee.

His fellow Democrats say a public trial for Rangel could hurt their election chances in November.

Popular opinion polls show Democrats could lose their majority in Congress as disenchantment grows with the Obama administration.

Nevertheless, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the House subcommittee took “the right course” by recommending a trial for the powerful congressman. Rangel represents a district in the Harlem section of New York City.

“There is a bipartisan committee in the House that’s looking into some very serious charges,” Gibbs said on ABC television’s “Good Morning America” show Friday morning. “We believe that’s the right course and we’re not going to pre-judge the outcome of that trial.”

The committee scheduled to preside over the trial consists of four Democrats and four Republicans.

Karl Rove, former senior advisor to President George W. Bush, said on a talk show Friday that “if this [trial of Rangel] happens in September, this is not good for Democrats. It chews up space they would like to be devoting to other issues, and highlights what people think about Congress, which is it’s led by a bunch of people who think one set of rules apply to them and one set of rules apply to the rest of the American people.”

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