After a two-year investigation, a truncated trial conducted partly without the defendant and several hours of deliberations, a House ethics subcommittee found Rep. Charles Rangel guilty of 11 ethics violations. The findings will be sent to the full committee, who will make a recommendation to the House regarding Rangel’s punishment.
“We have tried to act with fairness, led only by the facts and the law, and I believe we have accomplished that mission,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the California Democrat chairing the adjudicatory subcommittee–composed of four Democrats and four Republicans–that served as the jury for the rare trial, the first of its kind in the House since Rep. James Traficant’s in 2002. Rangel had been accused of 13 charges, including misusing rent-controlled apartments, using his office to solicit donations to an educational center and improperly filing taxes and financial statements. The committee found he had violated all but one charge; two of the counts were rolled into one in the final verdict.
The decision wasn’t a surprise. After Rangel yesterday walked out of the Longworth House Office building serving as a de facto courtroom, the subcommittee lawyer acting as the matter’s prosecutor spent just minutes cycling through the evidence against Rangel. After playing video clips of a speech in which the Harlem Democrat admitted wrongdoing, the lawyer, Blake Chisam, called no witnesses, an apparent testament to the strength of the case against a defendant who openly copped to breaking some rules. After leaving the room to deliberate, the committee agreed yesterday afternoon that the facts of the case were not in dispute, ending the fact-finding portion of the trial.
Buffeted by scandal, Rangel relinquished the Ways and Means gavel earlier this year but was elected this month to a 21st term representing his Harlem district. He is unlikely to suffer the same fate as Traficant, a Democrat who was subsequently expelled from the chamber for taking bribes. Among the punishments he could face are a formal reprimand or censure.