Rep. Charles Rangel returns to Congress on November 15th, the same day his ethics hearing is slated to begin. AP Photo
UPDATE: In a dramatic twist, Rep. Charles Rangel walked out of his congressional ethics hearings this morning. During opening remarks, Rangel said that it would be unfair to try him without a lawyer. Rangel says he cannot afford a new lawyer after paying his old legal team over $1 million dollars.
“I object to the proceeding since I don’t have counsel to advise me; I’m going to have to excuse myself from these proceedings,” Rangel said.
Because he says he cannot afford a lawyer, Rangel wanted the trial postponed, despite the fact that Republicans are set to take control of the House and chairmanship of the committee in January.
If it was a delaying tactic it did not work. Ethics committee chairwoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Ca) said that the hearing would continue without Rangel. After Rangel left, committee lawyer Blake Chisam laid out his case against the congressman, according to the New York Times.
There is some good news for Rangel, Chisam doesn’t believe that he is corrupt. “I believe the congressman, quite frankly, was overzealous in many of the things he did. And sloppy in his personal finances,” Politico reported Chisam as saying.
Democrats may have felt awash in a red tide as Republicans toppled them in many congressional races last week, but one seat was never in question: that of New York’s 15th district in the House of Representatives. The seat belongs – almost literally, it seems – to Democratic Rep. Charles B. Rangel, who has represented Northern Manhattan in Congress for the last 40 years.
But Rangel’s easy reelection victory last week won’t be celebrated for long. Next Monday, the House Ethics Committee is slated to open a hearing on 13 charges that Rangel violated House rules. Among the allegations: Rangel failed to pay taxes, made questionable use of rent-controlled apartments in Northattan and promised “pay for play” deals in campaign fundraising.
Whether the trial will go forward as planned is still a bit of a mystery. Rangel recently split with his attorneys at the Washington firm Zuckerman Speader. He had paid the firm over $1 million from his campaign account, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Both Rangel and the House Ethics Committee have been silent on the subject of the pending hearings, refusing to answer questions about whether or not they will go forward, and if they do, who will represent the accused Congressman.
Rangel, a high school dropout who rose to become the first African American to chair the influential House Ways and Means Committee, has denied wrongdoing. But he now may face a more hostile ethics procedure than he might have before the November elections – particularly if the proceedings spill over to 2011, when Republicans will formally take control of the House and all its committees.
Specific charges against Rangel accuse him of failing to include $600,000 in assets on his congressional financial disclosure statements. Other charges allege that he owes unpaid taxes to the federal government and that he failed to report income from rental properties that he owns in the Dominican Republic.
Closer to his Harlem home, accusations include the use of congressional resources to raise money for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at New York’s City College, making him seem not only unethical but self-aggrandizing as well.
Particularly galling to some in Rangel’s upper Manhattan district are allegations that he made illegal use of rent controlled apartments in Harlem, including leasing one as his campaign office at well below market rates.
For many, the list of allegations is evidence of an entrenched political figure who felt so secure in his House seat that he had begun to believe the rules didn’t apply to him. But Rangel also remains one of Harlem’s most beloved political figures.
Northattan resident Luke Reynolds put it like this, “he might be a crook, but he’s our crook.”
Rangel is “no dirtier than most” politicians, said Upper West Sider Steven McAdams. “And at least he’s got, you know, personality.”
Political pundits have speculated that Rangel and the House Democrats want a quick ethics proceeding, starting right now, before the House switches its flag from red to blue in January. But it would be almost impossible for a new legal team to be up to speed as Rangel’s defenders by Monday. And that has fueled speculation that Rangel may represent himself.
That wouldn’t surprise many of his constituents, who reelected the congressman they see as their native son. “He’s got a mouth on him and always has,” said Harlem resident Daphne Anderson. “If anyone could talk his way out of his troubles, its him.”
Earlier this year, Rangel refused to negotiate a settlement on the ethics charges, forcing the House to hold formal proceedings against him, “I’m not asking for leniency, I’m asking for exposure of the facts,” he said. “If I can’t get my dignity back here, then fire your bet shot at getting me expelled. I am not going away. I am here.”
And Rangel showed that he was very much still here on election day, his quirky and upbeat personality on full display as he voted in the morning, hamming it up for the cameras, and as he watched his own win on a night where Democrats suffered huge losses.
In the wake of the election, Rangel has been out and about in front of the media. But on the subject of the hearings he has been consistently evasive. When a TV reporter asked him about his looming ethics trial as he celebrated his election victory, Rangel’s usually friendly demeanor shifted to heavy-handed sarcasm. “I’m certainly glad that you brought that up,” he said, “because quite frankly I wasn’t thinking about that tonight.”
And on Veterans Day, speaking to a group of reporters, Rangel again refused to answer any questions about the ethics trail, “I don’t think I’m at liberty to discuss that right now” he said. “Plus I’ll be available Monday in Washington.”
That’s the day that Congress returns for its lame duck session, the same day the Rangel hearings are set to start. Rangel and his staff didn’t respond to phone calls about the hearings and whether or not the congressman will defend himself. And Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, the head of the Ethics Committee, has not yet commented on whether the trial will move ahead on schedule.
Lofrgren scheduled the date of Rangel’s ethics committee unilaterally, after warring with the Committee’s Republicans, under the leadership of soon-to-be chair Jo Bonner of Alabama.
The House Ethics committee has already admonished Rangel for violating house gift rules when he accepted trips to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008. If found in violation of the rules again, he could be given admonishing letter, or a formal reprimand. More severe punishments include censure or even expulsion from Congress. The lighter punishments only need a majority of the committee to pass, while expulsion requires a full two-thirds vote.
