Rep. Charles Rangel before walking out of his own House ethics hearings on Monday. Photo by AP.

It took over 2 years and numerous twists and turns to get to the House ethics hearings of Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY, but when all was said and done it was over in a flash: Just over 24 hours after the trial’s opening statements, the congressman on Tuesday was found guilty of 11 violations of House ethics rules.

Rangel was found guilty of a number of ethical lapses, among them failure to pay taxes, questionable use of rent-controlled apartments in Northattan and promising “pay for play” deals in campaign fundraising.

If this was Rangel’s last stand, it seemed, at first, a confusing one. There had been much speculation as to what the congressman would do to defend himself, having parted ways from his lawyers a few weeks ago. Rumors were rampant the onetime assistant U.S. attorney would use his much-lauded argumentative skills to defend himself.

But in a bit of political theater, the Democratic congressman of 40 years spoke before the House ethics committee on Monday only to declare himself unable to afford legal counsel. A wounded-sounding Rangel told the 10-member bipartisan committee and a throng of reporters, “as someone who would like to preserve the right of members to be judged by their peers, with counsel, I respectfully remove myself.”

Rangel then picked up a large overstuffed binder, shook a few hands, and walked out of his own ethics hearings. With no defense testimony or presence, the proceedings followed fairly swiftly, leading up to Tuesday’s announcement that the committee had found the congressman guilty of all but two of the charges against him.

From the hallways of Congress to the streets of Harlem, which Rangel has represented for so many years, many wondered why the once-powerful politician had declared himself silent, even if in the loudest of ways possible. “He’s a lawyer, right?” asked Morningside Heights resident Adam Bricknell. “Why couldn’t he just defend himself?”

The House ethics committee had similar questions, pointing out that Rangel had months to set up a legal defense fund. Rangel split with his lawyers at the Washington firm Zuckerman Spaeder because he could not afford to pay them, he said. And, he told the committee, he could not afford new representation. One of the charges against Rangel was that he provided incomplete financial disclosure forms to Congress, making it difficult to gauge the current state of his finances.

Rangel’s failure to secure counsel and his dramatic and abrupt withdrawal from the proceedings began to make sense after the committee, acting as a de facto jury, found Rangel guilty on 11 counts.

In a statement to the public full of righteous indignation, Rangel denounced the committee’s findings, saying: “How can anyone have confidence in the decision of the ethics subcommittee when I was deprived of due process rights, right to counsel and was not even in the room?” His performance Monday set the stage for Tuesday’s defense; the claim that he didn’t have a fair hearing.

This past August, Rangel declared that come what may, he was “not going away.” That familiar blustery tone seemed replaced by recent public silence on the ethics charges, and his victimized tone on Monday. But while Rangel may have walked away from the hearings, he hasn’t gone anywhere.

Rangel called the committee’s handling of the ethics charges unfair, and made sure to emphasize that even the committee’s chief counsel, Blake Chisam, the equivalent of a prosecutor in the case, said that Rangel wasn’t corrupt, just sloppy.

The committee will meet on Thursday to decide on Rangel’s punishment. The New York Times reports that ethics experts say that the octogenarian will most likely face a letter of reprimand or a formal censure.

While Rangel’s power may be diminished in the House, his legacy  at home seems intact:  In the streets of his local Northattan on Tuesday, residents may have seemed aggrieved and annoyed with the congressman, but they didn’t seem surprised.

“Typical Rangel,” said barber Sean Anderson. The men gathered in Anderson’s barbershop seemed to find Rangel more amusing than anything else. Tony Mason, who stopped in for a morning shave, remarked, “If nothing else, he always gives us something to talk about.”