Ética - Rangel Charles B.

uly 22, 2010

House Panel Finds Evidence That Rangel Violated Ethics Guidelines

By ERIC LIPTON

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

The investigative panel did not disclose any details about the nature of the violations that it found, but one House official who has been briefed on the findings said that they included 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 RepresentativeJames 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.