Maxine Waters faces ethics charges......WE ARE SHOCKED SHOCKED
The Los Angeles congresswoman plans to fight the allegations in a House trial, a source says. A panel has been investigating her efforts on behalf of OneUnited Bank, which had ties to her husband.

July 31, 2010
A House panel is preparing to accuse Rep. Maxine Waters of at least one ethics violation in her efforts to help a bank with ties to her husband, and the longtime Los Angeles Democrat plans to fight the charges in a House trial, according to a source familiar with the case.

The allegations were presented Friday to Waters, the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is confidential.

Waters, an outspoken legislator who has held elective office in Sacramento or Washington for more than three decades, could not be reached Friday night.

The findings on the investigation into Waters by the Office of Congressional Ethics are expected to be made public on Monday.


That office, an independent watchdog created by Congress, referred the matter to the House Ethics Committee. The committee turned the matter over to a panel of two Democratic and two Republican lawmakers who have been conducting their own probe for months.

The allegations come as Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) faces a House trial on 13 ethics allegations, adding to the political troubles of Democrats confronted with a tough battle to hold onto their House majority in the November midterm election. Rangel, 80, and Waters, 71, are both high-profile, longtime members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

One of Los Angeles' most enduring black politicians, Waters came under scrutiny last year after Massachusetts-based OneUnited Bank, one of the nation's largest minority-owned institutions, received $12 million in bailout funds.

The funding came three months after Waters, a senior member of the committee that oversees banking, helped arrange a meeting between officials of the bank, other minority-owned financial institutions and Treasury Department representatives.

Waters' husband, Sidney Williams, had owned stock in the bank and served on its board.

Waters has previously said that she fully disclosed her husband's ties to the bank.

She has said her efforts were consistent with her longtime work to promote opportunity for minority-owned businesses and lending in underserved communities, such as her South Central Los Angeles district.

As in Rangel's case, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers will be formed to hear Waters' case, probably in the fall, unless she and the committee reach a settlement.

Lawmakers in the past have accepted a reprimand to settle cases. Punishment can be as severe as censure and even expulsion from the House.

: Waters plans House trial to fight ethics charges
Congresswoman denies misusing office to aid bank partly owned by husband


U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., shown speaking at a Feb. 12, 2009, news conference on Capitol Hill, says she will fight ethics charges through a House trial.
msnbc.com and NBC News
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WASHINGTON — Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., plans to go through a House trial to contest charges of misusing her office, NBC News confirmed Friday night.
A House ethics subcommittee says Waters, 71, improperly intervened in 2008 with federal regulators to help get bailout funds for a bank that her husband owned stock in and on whose board he once served, said NBC and other media reports. Waters also once held stock in the bank.
Formal charges are not expected to be announced until next week, according to several congressional officials who spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity because the proceedings remained confidential. Details of the specific accusations of wrongdoing were not available Friday evening, the Times said.
Politico suggested the panel's charging document was delayed because Waters said she would go through with the trial instead of accepting and settling the panel's charges.
The House began its six-week summer recess Friday.
The expected trial, coming just after the start of a similar proceeding on Thursday for Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., would be a modern-day precedent for the House, congressional officials told the Times. At no time in at least the last two decades have two sitting House members faced a public hearing detailing allegations against them, the Times said.
Waters and Rangel are longstanding members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Second senior Democrat to face ethics trial: source

WASHINGTON | Sat Jul 31, 2010 1:58am EDT
(Reuters) - A second senior U.S. Democratic lawmaker intends to fight congressional ethics charges, a source said early Saturday, complicating the party's efforts to retain control of the House in the November elections.

The House of Representatives ethics panel is expected to say as early as Monday that its investigative subcommittee has found evidence Representative Maxine Waters violated the chamber's ethics rules, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The House panel unveiled ethics charges against Representative Charles Rangel on Thursday, and both now face the prospect of a public trial just weeks before voters head to the polls for the November mid-term elections.

The nature of the charges against Waters, who heads the House Financial Services Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee, were not clear early Saturday and a Waters spokesman declined to comment.

The actual charges against Waters are not expected to be unveiled until sometime after lawmakers return in September from their summer recess, the source said.

The revelations come just hours after President Barack Obama called ethics charges against Rangel, "very troubling" and said he hoped the former head of tax writing panel could end his career "with dignity."

Rangel faces 13 counts of violating House ethics rules, including failure to report rental income from a villa in the Dominican Republic and use of a rent-stabilized apartment for his campaign committee.

Rangel this week chose to proceed with a public trial, rather than accepting the ethics charges.

Democrats have urged Rangel to cut a deal to avoid a trial they fear could become a political circus and provide fodder for Republicans seeking to take control of the House.

Neither trial is expected to begin before September and it is still possible deals could be reached to close the cases before a public airing, though that possibility becomes less likely as the elections draw near.

The last time a sitting member of Congress went to a trial before his peers was Ohio Representative James Traficant in 2002.

Democrats won control of the House in 2006, promising to rid the chamber of corruption after a series of Republican ethical problems, including an influence-peddling scandal that resulted in prison time for a top Capitol Hill lobbyist.

Republicans have seized on the charges against Rangel as evidence that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats failed on their promise to "drain the swamp."

Pelosi rejected Republican complaints, citing an overhaul of House rules and requirements for greater disclosure, particularly in lobbying.

"Drain the swamp we did because this was a terrible place," Pelosi said. "We made a tremendous difference, and I take great pride in that."

Waters chooses ethics trial


Maxine Waters has chosen to go through an ethics trial like the one lined up for Charlie Rangel.



Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has chosen to go through an ethics trial, like the one lined up for New York Rep. Charles Rangel, rather than accepting charges made by an ethics subcommittee, a source familiar with the process tells POLITICO.

The back-to-back trials of a pair of black lawmakers represent an unprecedented use of an ethics adjudication system that has rarely been used by House members accused of breaking House rules.

Waters' case revolves around allegations that she improperly intervened with federal regulators to help a bank that her husband owned stock in and on whose board he once served.

Waters denies any wrongdoing.

"Congresswoman Waters has chosen to go through an adjudicatory subcommittee hearing, rather than accept any of the counts from the investigative subcommittee," the source told POLITICO.

In layman's terms, that means she's going to trial.

The ethics committee already has its hands full trying Rangel on charges that he broke House rules and federal statutes by improperly using his office to raise money for an education center bearing his name, maintained four rent-stabilized apartments in New York, failed to report income from a Dominican rental property and under-reported hundreds of thousands of dollars on legally required financial disclosure forms.

The Rangel case opened Thursday but won't truly get under way until the House returns from its summer recess in September.

POLITICO first reported earlier this week that the committee was expected to unveil its charges against Waters before leaving town for the recess.

Her decision to go to trial appears to have postponed the release of the committee's formal charging document, called a "Statement of Alleged Violation."

If a panel of ethics committee investigators can prove charges against Waters to a separate subcommittee of lawmaker-jurors, the full ethics committee will recommend a punishment to the full House.

Texas Rep. Gene Green, a member of the panel that investigated Rangel, told reporters Friday thay investigators had passed a recommendation of a reprimand — the lightest possible punishment — to the adjudicatory subcommittee.

The Waters case also presents a test of the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent body that takes complaints from the public and chooses which ones to forward to the House ethics committee.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have complained that the OCE has unfairly and disproportionately targeted them, and many have signed onto a legislative effort to de-fang the office.

Waters' case was referred to the ethics committee by OCE.


On Feb. 21, 2004, eight days before he was forced out of office and out of Haiti by U.S. Marines, President Jean Bertrand Aristide speaks at a press conference flanked by his wife, Mildred, and Congresswoman Maxine Waters. The Presidential Palace, where they are standing, collapsed in the Jan. 12 earthquake. – Photo: Pablo Aneli, AP

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40489.html#ixzz0vEkBGDId

Ethics Trial Expected for California Congresswoman


Representative Maxine Waters is a 10-term Democrat.


WASHINGTON — Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, will face charges of misusing her office and is expected to contest the claims in a House trial, the second powerful House Democrat to opt for such a public airing in recent days, Congressional officials said Friday.


A House ethics subcommittee has charged Ms. Waters, 71, a 10-term congresswoman, in a case involving communications that she had with the top executive of a bank that her husband owned stock in while it was applying for a federal bailout in 2008, two House officials said.

Charges are expected to be announced next week, several Congressional officials said, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because the proceedings remained confidential. Details of the specific accusations of wrongdoing were not available Friday evening.

The expected trial, coming just after the start of a similar proceeding on Thursday for Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, would be a modern-day precedent for the House, Congressional officials said. At no time in at least the last two decades have two sitting House members faced a public hearing detailing allegations against them.

It would also be an embarrassment for the Congressional Black Caucus. Ms. Waters and Mr. Rangel are two of its most revered and long-standing members, and both have spent decades as key leaders in banking and financial services issues in the House.

Mikael Moore, Ms. Waters’s chief of staff, declined to comment on the case on Friday, saying that the congresswoman had not been formally notified of any action by the ethics committee.

Ms. Waters, at the time the investigation by the House ethics panel began last fall, was accused of intervening on behalf of OneUnited, a Boston-based bank. The Times reported last year that Ms. Waters called Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. in 2008, as the economy was in a free fall, to ask him to host a special meeting with executives from black-owned banks.

As a key House player on the Financial Services Committee, Ms. Waters often called Mr. Paulson. He agreed to arrange the requested meeting, The New York Times reported last year.

What Mr. Paulson did not know at the time was that Ms. Waters’s husband, Sidney Williams, owned stock in and had served on the board of OneUnited, whose chief executive turned the Treasury headquarters meeting into a special appeal for bailout assistance. The executive of the institution, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks, asked for $50 million in federal aid, The Times reported.

After articles on the case by The Times and The Wall Street Journal, the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent watchdog agency, began an inquiry. The office referred the matter to the ethics committee, which charged the subcommittee with opening an examination of Ms. Waters’s activities. The four-member subcommittee, which included two Democrats and two Republicans, was led by Representative Kathy Castor, Democrat of Florida.

Because Ms. Waters — like Mr. Rangel — has refused to agree to a proposed settlement, the case is headed toward a House ethics trial, officials said. “She is fighting it,” one House official said Friday.

Ms. Waters made the call to Mr. Paulson on behalf of the National Bankers Association, a Washington-based organization of minority-owned banks. Its incoming chairman, Robert Cooper, was an executive at OneUnited, which had branches in Miami and Los Angeles, part of which Ms. Waters represents.

Mr. Cooper and his boss, Kevin Cohee, the chief executive at OneUnited, ended up dominating the meeting, participants said, and made an unusual request for a special federal bailout.

The Treasury Department officials, in interviews with The Times, said they were taken aback when they later learned about Ms. Waters’s ties to the bank. She had once owned stock in the bank, and her husband still did. He had stepped down from the board earlier that year.

Mr. Rangel separately is facing charges that he inappropriately used his office staff to try to line up donations for a New York City educational center being built in his honor, and also that he failed to report income from a beachfront property he had rented out in the Caribbean.

The prospect of two trials playing out as the November election approaches will almost certainly be seized upon by Republicans, who already had been attacking Democrats’ moral leadership and questioning whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi had lived up to her promise to “drain the swamp” of ethics violations in Washington.

The case could still be concluded without trial, if Ms. Waters decided to settle. But if a trial were to take place, it is highly unlikely that it would start before September, as the House began its summer recess on Friday.

Second Senior Democrat to Face Ethics Trial: Source


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A second senior Democratic lawmaker may face a public ethics trial this fall, posing a possible setback to the party's efforts to keep control of the House of Representatives in the November elections.

The House ethics panel is expected to say as early as on Monday that its investigative subcommittee has found evidence that Representative Maxine Waters violated the chamber's ethics rules, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The House panel unveiled ethics charges against Representative Charles Rangel on Thursday, and both lawmakers face potential public trials just weeks before voters head to the polls for the November mid-term elections.

Both are leading members of the Congressional Black Caucus, making the cases highly sensitive as Democrats are working to get a big voter turnout by African Americans, one of their traditional constituencies.

The committee had been investigating Waters, a 10-term lawmaker from Los Angeles, after a bank in which her husband had stock sought federal bailout funds.

Waters, who heads the House Financial Services Housing and Community Opportunity subcommittee, reportedly helped arrange a meeting of officials from that bank and other minority-owned financial institutions and Treasury Department officials.

Waters has said the meeting was in keeping with her long record of promoting minority-owned businesses and lending in underserved communities.

The actual charges against the California lawmaker are not expected to be unveiled until sometime after lawmakers return in September from their summer recess, the source said.

She intends to fight the allegations, the source said.

'WITH DIGNITY'

The revelations about Waters come after President Barack Obama on Friday called ethics charges against Rangel "very troubling" and said he hoped the former head of tax writing panel could end his career "with dignity."

Rangel faces 13 counts of violating House ethics rules, including failure to report rental income from a villa in the Dominican Republic and use of a rent-stabilized apartment for his campaign committee.

Democrats have urged Rangel to cut a deal to avoid a trial they fear could become a political circus and provide fodder for Republicans seeking to take control of the House.

Neither trial is expected to begin before September and it is still possible deals could be reached to close the cases before a public airing, though that possibility becomes less likely as the elections draw near.

The last time a sitting member of Congress went to a trial before his peers was Ohio Representative James Traficant in 2002.

Democrats won control of the House in 2006, promising to rid the chamber of corruption after a series of Republican ethical problems, including an influence-peddling scandal that resulted in prison time for a top Capitol Hill lobbyist.

"Like Chairman Rangel, this is another example of Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi's most glaring broken promise: to 'drain the swamp' in Washington," said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Republican leader John Boehner.

Pelosi has rejected Republican complaints, citing an overhaul of House rules and requirements for greater disclosure, particularly in lobbying.

Well, it appears it's open season on the ancient Black leadership of the Congress. After so many years in office, it's not too difficult to find evidence to convict these folks; that's why no one should be in office so long. Ten terms! Wow. And Charlie has been in for what 15 terms! Too many years=too big an ego.

I see that Gore is free and need not face any charges, too.



By WILLIAM McCALL, Associated Press Writer – Sat Jul 31, 6:03 am ET

PORTLAND, Ore. – The case of the Nobel Peace Prize winner and the massage therapist has been closed.

Former Vice President Al Gore was cleared Friday of allegations he groped and assaulted a masseuse in a luxury Portland hotel room in 2006.

A story in a tabloid newspaper led to a monthlong investigation that found no basis for prosecution on claims by Molly Hagerty, who had waited more than two years before giving detectives a statement they initially concluded "did not merit further inquiry."
Gore aides welcomed the news.

"Mr. Gore unequivocally and emphatically denied this accusation when he first learned of its existence three years ago," spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said in a statement. "He respects and appreciates the thorough and professional work of the Portland authorities and is pleased that this matter has now been resolved."

Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk announced the case was closed Friday with the release of a memo that cited "contradictory evidence, conflicting witness statements, credibility issues, lack of forensic evidence and denials by Mr. Gore."

Senior Deputy District Attorney Don Rees said in his memo that Hagerty and her attorneys were uncooperative, witnesses could not remember anything unusual, Hagerty failed a polygraph examination and she would not say whether she was paid by a tabloid newspaper for her story.
Hagerty had claimed unwanted sexual contact by Gore on Oct. 24, 2006, at the Hotel Lucia in downtown Portland, including an "open-mouthed kiss, an inescapable embrace" and the fear she was "on the brink of being forcibly raped."

Gore and his attorneys met with Portland detectives in San Francisco on July 22, telling them he remembered almost nothing about Hagerty and was "completely baffled" by her statements, according to the memo.

There were questions about Hagerty's claims from the beginning.
She first contacted police in 2006 through an attorney, claiming "unwanted sexual contact" by Gore, but the attorney declined to discuss any details. Hagerty then failed to attend meetings scheduled three times with detectives, and the attorney finally said it would be handled as a civil complaint.
Nothing further was heard from Hagerty until January 2009, when she appeared at police headquarters to say she wanted to file a criminal complaint.

An interview with a detective resulted in a 67-page transcript describing the massage therapy session with Gore at the Hotel Lucia.

The memo noted that investigators determined the claims "did not merit further inquiry" and did not refer it to the district attorney's office.

Hagerty requested a copy of the transcript of her interview with detectives last March and told police she intended to "take her story to the news media."

Her claims were published in an online version of the National Enquirer on June 23, resulting in another investigation by Portland police. The story was published by the newspaper on July 5 and Hagerty was featured in the newspaper again on July 12 with photographs of her in what appears to be a law office.

She had also given her story to the Portland Tribune, which said it thoroughly investigated her allegations — including interviewing her — only to determine it wasn't responsible to move forward with a story.

It's still unclear whether Hagerty sought compensation from the National Enquirer, and whether she received payment from any publication.

In a prepared statement, Kohel Haver, a media and entertainment lawyer representing Hagerty, said she was disappointed the district attorney declined to prosecute "but understands their decision."
Haver declined to talk about whether the Enquirer paid Hagerty and said he does not know where she is, adding that "it's been quite traumatic for her."

He said no lawsuit was expected, while the prosecutor's memo indicated another attorney for Hagerty, Judy Snyder, "states there is no viable civil claim due to the lapse of time."

Rees noted in his memo that refusal by Hagerty and her attorneys to answer questions about whether she was paid, and that given "the Enquirer's documented practice of paying for stories, it is logical to assume Ms. Hagerty has been compensated."

The Associated Press does not generally identify people who say they are victims of sex crimes, but Hagerty had made her identity public by giving an interview to the National Enquirer.
___
Associated Press Writer Tim Fought contributed to this story.

Maxine Waters faces ethics charges
The Los Angeles congresswoman plans to fight the allegations in a House trial, a source says. A panel has been investigating her efforts on behalf of OneUnited Bank, which had ties to her husband.


The allegations come as Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) faces a House trial on 13 ethics allegations, adding to the political troubles of Democrats this year. (Charles Dharapak, Associated Press / October 28, 2009)

A House panel is preparing to accuse Rep. Maxine Waters of at least one ethics violation in her efforts to help a bank with ties to her husband, and the longtime Los Angeles Democrat plans to fight the charges in a House trial, according to a source familiar with the case.

The allegations were presented Friday to Waters, the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is confidential.

Waters, an outspoken legislator who has held elective office in Sacramento or Washington for more than three decades, could not be reached Friday night.

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The findings on the investigation into Waters by the Office of Congressional Ethics are expected to be made public on Monday.

That office, an independent watchdog created by Congress, referred the matter to the House Ethics Committee. The committee turned the matter over to a panel of two Democratic and two Republican lawmakers who have been conducting their own probe for months.

The allegations come as Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) faces a House trial on 13 ethics allegations, adding to the political troubles of Democrats confronted with a tough battle to hold onto their House majority in the November midterm election. Rangel, 80, and Waters, 71, are both high-profile, longtime members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

One of Los Angeles' most enduring black politicians, Waters came under scrutiny last year after Massachusetts-based OneUnited Bank, one of the nation's largest minority-owned institutions, received $12 million in bailout funds.

The funding came three months after Waters, a senior member of the committee that oversees banking, helped arrange a meeting between officials of the bank, other minority-owned financial institutions and Treasury Department representatives.

Waters' husband, Sidney Williams, had owned stock in the bank and served on its board.

Waters has previously said that she fully disclosed her husband's ties to the bank.

She has said her efforts were consistent with her longtime work to promote opportunity for minority-owned businesses and lending in underserved communities, such as her South Central Los Angeles district.

As in Rangel's case, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers will be formed to hear Waters' case, probably in the fall, unless she and the committee reach a settlement.

Lawmakers in the past have accepted a reprimand to settle cases. Punishment can be as severe as censure and even expulsion from the House.

House Inquiry on Waters Tied to Bank
By ERIC LIPTON
Published: July 31, 2010

WASHINGTON — When Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, called Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. in late 2008 to ask him to host a special meeting that would feature a California bank executive she knew well, was the request on behalf of a trade association, or a bank in which her husband owned stock?

That question will be among those raised at an ethics trial expected to unfold this fall, House officials predicted Saturday, after Ms. Waters became the second House member to indicate last week that she would challenge an allegation of violating House ethics rules.

The specific charges to be filed against Ms. Waters have not been made public.

But House officials confirmed Saturday that the case involved communications Ms. Waters had in fall 2008 with federal officials that at least indirectly touched on the fate of OneUnited, a Boston-based bank with branches in Massachusetts, Florida and California. At the time of Ms. Waters’s phone calls, her husband, Sidney Williams, had resigned as a board member of OneUnited but still owned stock in it.

OneUnited, like many banks at the time, was in a desperate position after losing $50 million worth of stock it had held in the housing finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, following their federal takeover.

Ms. Waters’s lawyers have argued that her appeals to the Treasury Department were on behalf of the National Bankers Association, a decades-old industry group that represents dozens of banks owned by minorities and women.

The association’s membership includes OneUnited, and the bank’s top executive, Robert P. Cooper, was then the chairman-elect of the group.

“I have been an outspoken advocate for minority communities and businesses in California and nationally for decades,” Ms. Waters said last year, after articles about her intervention with the Treasury Department first appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. “Ultimately, however, these articles only revealed one thing: I am indeed an advocate for minority banks.”

But at a Treasury Department meeting in September 2008 — scheduled as Ms. Waters had requested — OneUnited officials made a direct appeal for bailout money for their bank, rather than just on behalf of the National Bankers Association, participants in the meeting have said. In December, OneUnited received $12 million in federal bailout money, although Treasury officials said last year that it was not as a result of Ms. Waters’s intervention.

Two investigative reports on Ms. Waters’s interactions with OneUnited have been prepared — one by the quasi-independent Office of Congressional Ethics, which found sufficient evidence of a violation to recommend a further inquiry by the House ethics committee.

Officials hinted Saturday that there were other communications by Ms. Waters relating to executives of OneUnited that would soon become public and make their case against her more compelling, although they declined to offer any details.

A summary of the evidence gathered in the preliminary report by the Office of Congressional Ethics is to be released early this week, when House ethics officials are expected to confirm publicly that they, too, have found sufficient evidence to charge Ms. Waters.

Because Ms. Waters, a 10-term lawmaker, has thus far declined to agree to a settlement, the committee is then expected to announce that it is creating an “adjudicatory subcommittee” to hold a trial on the allegations, officials said Saturday.

The committee took the same step on Thursday when it named a subcommittee to hear charges against Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, who, like Ms. Waters, is a prominent and longstanding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The formal charges against Ms. Waters may not be announced until late summer, House officials said, since the House started its recess on Friday and will not be back in session until September. The so-called statement of alleged violations is typically not made public until the adjudicatory subcommittee holds its first meeting.

But the case is already turning into political fodder. Michael Steel, a spokesman for the House Republican leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio, said Saturday that the Rangel and Waters cases were “yet another example of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s most glaring broken promise, her promise to drain the swamp in Washington.”

Ms. Pelosi, in remarks on Thursday even before the news broke that charges were soon to be filed against Ms. Waters, defended the Democrats’ efforts to crack down on ethics violations, saying that she was committed to upholding ethical standards regardless of the political consequences.

“Are there going to be individual issues to be dealt with?” Ms. Pelosi said. “Yes. I never said that there wouldn’t be.” But she added, “We had landmark legislation requiring an unprecedented level of disclosure on all kinds of activities, lobbying activities, the revolving door and the rest.”

In excerpts of a CBS News interview broadcast on Friday, President Obama said that Mr. Rangel had served his constituents well for “a very long time,” but that he found the charges against him “very troubling.”

“He’s somebody who is at the end of his career, 80 years old,” Mr. Obama said. “I’m sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity, and my hope is that it happens.”

Robert Pear contributed reporting.

House ethics panel charges Rep. Maxine Waters
03:19 PM
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A House ethics panel charged California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters today with breaking unspecified ethics rules -- making the 10-term veteran the second lawmaker to face an ethics trial just months before the midterm election.

Waters has been under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics and the ethics committee for requesting a meeting in 2008 with then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to discuss minority-owned banks. The conversation focused on a single bank, OneUnited, according to a 2009 OCE report released today. Waters' husband had been a board member and stock holder in the bank at the time of the meeting.

The House ethics committee statement does not indicate when the committee will disclose the charges.

The new allegations come less than a week after an investigative panel formally charged Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., with 13 ethics violations stemming from donations he solicited for an education center bearing his name and his failure to pay taxes. Rangel has said his lawyers are trying to negotiate a settlement to avoid a lengthy trial.

In statement, Waters said she did not violate House rules.

"Therefore, I simply will not be forced to admit to something I did not do and instead have chosen to respond to charges made by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in a public hearing," she said.

"The record will clearly show that in advocating on behalf of minority banks neither my office nor I benefited in any way, engaged in improper action or influenced anyone," she said