Ethics panel brings 13 counts against embattled Rep. Rangel
By Susan Crabtree and Jordan Fabian - 07/29/10 09:11 PM ET
A House ethics committee on Thursday brought 13 charges against Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) as efforts to reach a settlement failed.
Rangel, who did not attend the hour-long meeting, fired back in a 32-page statement, claiming that ethics investigators overstepped their jurisdiction and trampled on his Constitutional rights.
After a weeklong media frenzy, Rangel’s peers somberly announced serious charges against Rangel, a veteran of 20 House terms who was forced to give up the chairmanship of the tax-writing Ways and Means panel earlier this year.
“I think it’s safe to say that none of us enjoyed this assignment — no one wants to investigate their peers,” Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas), who led the investigating panel that reported the charges, said before reciting the allegations against Rangel.
“This is truly a sad day when no one — regardless of their partisan stripes — should rejoice,” said Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the investigative subcommittee and the full ethics panel.
Rangel is accused of improperly using his office to solicit donations for a school of public policy in his name at the City College of New York (CCNY); of using a rent-stabilized apartment in Harlem for his campaign office; of failing to report more than $600,000 on his financial disclosure report; and of failing to pay taxes on rental income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.
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