SEE thread about why Rangel is important to us and others in the Caribbean

Evidence of Ethics Violation in Rangel Case

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Representative Charles B. Rangel faced questions in Washington after a House investigative committee found that Rangel violated a range of ethics rules on Thursday.
By ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON — After a nearly two-year investigation, a House investigative panel has found that Representative Charles B. Rangel probably violated a range of ethics rules, dealing a serious blow to Mr. Rangel, a Harlem Democrat, in the twilight of his political career.
Related

Document: House Statement on Rangel (pdf)
The investigative subcommitee did not disclose any details about the nature of the violations that it found evidence, but one House official who has been briefed on the findings said that they included some of the most serious allegations that had been examined.

“All I know is that it was a majority of them,” the House official said, asking not to be identified as the ruling is supposed to remain confidential for one week.A lawyer involved in Mr. Rangel’s defense, who also asked not to be named, disputed that characterization, adding that the case is not over yet.

“He has not been found guilty of anything,” the lawyer said.

The committee had been investigating claims that Mr. Rangel improperly rented four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem at a price well below market value, despite rules forbidding House members from accepting gifts worth more than $50.

It also had been investigating allegations that he improperly used his office to provide legislative favors for an oil-drilling company that pledged a $1 million donation for an academic center named for Mr. Rangel and improperly failed to report taxable income received from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.

The case involving the 80-year-old representative has been closely watched by both parties and House candidates across the country. Republicans have sought to highlight Mr. Rangel’s problems to underscore what they see as Democratic arrogance and corruption.

In March, Mr. Rangel stepped down from the powerful chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee in what he characterized as a temporary move and an effort to spare his Democratic colleagues from being tarred with his problems.

The findings by the investigative subcommittee — composed of two House Democrats and two Republicans — is not the end of the inquiry. The full House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, announced Thursday that it had created a special subcommittee to rule on the findings, which will meet for the first time next Thursday.

This is the first time since 2002 that the Standards committee has taken such a step. The last case involved former Representative James Traficant Jr., who was expelled from Congress after taking bribes.

The case could end with a simple admonishment of Mr. Rangel, which is the most common action by the Standards Committee, or a more serious action, including even his expulsion from the House.

Mr. Rangel could not be immediately reached for comment. But his office released a statement saying he would “be glad to respond to the allegations at such time as the Ethics Committee makes them public.”

“I am pleased that, at long last, sunshine will pierce the cloud of serious allegations that have been raised against me in the media,” the statement read. Already this year, Mr. Rangel had been admonished by the Standards Committee on a separate matter involving trips he and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus took to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008 that were indirectly paid for by corporate sponsors such as Pfizer, Verizon and AT&T, in violation of House rules.

But the allegations in the so-called CaribNews case were relatively tame compared to the broad range of wrongdoing that has been the subject of the special investigative committee that concluded its work Thursday.

The investigative panel began its work in September 2008 after newspaper reports about Mr. Rangel’s multiple rent-stabilized apartments, which he maintained even though he had received tax breaks in Washington after claiming that he kept his primary residence in the capital.

The investigative panel also examined whether Mr. Rangel had improperly used his position as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee to preserve a tax loophole worth more than half a billion dollars for a an oil company that had pledged a $1 million donation for an academic center named for Mr. Rangel. Also on its agenda was a question of whether Mr. Rangel unreported taxable income the congressman received from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.

On the news this monring they interviewed people in his riding. Some said they would still vote for him even if he was guilty. Which is why all democracies eventually fail: STUPID VOTERS!

since you have a trailer park doctorate, maybe you could devise a new sociopolitical system. maybe you already have something in mind. like a monarchy, in which you are the king, who forces his will on everyone else.

No, what William wants is a Christian theocracy and for all of us to live in it...not much different then the socieities in the Middle East that he constantly bashes.

absolutely correct, cibaeno. he will be the protestant Ayatollah, just like he is on the forum.

NO Cibby, as a BPatist I am toitally opposed to any type of theocracy. There is a group of mostly Presbyterians in the USA who are promoting that. I oppose as historically all attempts at theocracy of a marriage between the state and religion (as in Europe before and after the reformation) results in baptists getting killed. Some TEN THOUSAND dies in Holland for the principle of seperation of church and state, and if you know your history, Baptists brought that great concept into being on Rhode Is.

Jesus was the first religious teacher in history to advocate a separation of church and state with his "Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God's".

As for "bashing" societies in the MIddle East. Are you really that ingnorant of the stated goal ofEVERY Muslim and of ISlam and the Koran : TOTAL WORLD DOMINATION - the jihad goes on till everyone submits to Allah.

Don;t you know that? Those who remain with their heads in the sand will cost the West the very freedom you have now!

YOu call it "bashing" when I expose them who who they are and what they are doing? Your kind of insanity is what will do in the weak and wimpy west

Good Bye Good Time Charlie

Charlie did it to himself
Last Updated: 12:31 AM, August 25, 2010
Posted: August 25, 2010

In Charlie Rangel's eyes, every minute of his time on earth has been a blessing for the people of New York.
"My dignity is 80 years old," he said, taking a slap at fellow Democrats Monday during a debate with the five challengers seeking his seat in Congress.
Rangel even responded to a particularly high-ranking critic, refusing President Obama's month-old request that he "end his career with dignity" at the end of his current term.
"Frankly, he has not been around long enough to determine what my dignity is," Rangel said of the baby-boomer Obama.

Charles Rangel
Now, it's entirely possible that we missed it, but was there something dignified in the years Rangel was dodging taxes and violating a slew of city, state and federal laws?
We wonder: What on earth would he have to do to be considered undignified?
If Rangel manages to claw his way out of a heap of ethics charges for an unbelievable 21st term in office, New Yorkers just might have the bad luck to find out.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/charlie_did_it_to_himself_GbbMIPhPhLCIDq5lz73cEJ#ixzz0xbjYwK1i