Surprise Surprise: Rangel Is Found to Have Violated House Ethics Rules

Rangel Is Found to Have Violated House Ethics Rules

Excerpt:

A House panel on Tuesday found Representative Charles B. Rangel guilty of 11 counts of ethical violations, ruling that his failure to pay taxes, improper solicitation of fund-raising donations and failure to accurately report his personal income had brought dishonor on the House.

After a public hearing on Monday that was truncated by Mr. Rangel’s walking out in protest, an adjudicatory subcommittee of the House ethics committee deliberated for four hours before finding him guilty of all but one of the 13 counts against him. (Two other counts, involving Mr. Rangel’s misuse of House franking privileges, were merged into one.)

In a somber tone, Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and the chairwoman of the panel, announced its findings just before noon. Ms. Lofgren described the contentious process as “difficult and time consuming” and said the committee hoped to decide on a punishment within days.

Comments:

• Am repeating the drain the swamp image from a previous post. ('cause I like it!)
  
• The charges
  
• Rangel responds: ‘I Was Deprived of Due Process’
  
• All CFG Charles Rangel posts
  

And do you know what changes?

While the committee has the power to recommend expulsion, that is highly unlikely. Ethics experts and committee members have said that Mr. Rangel, 80, is more likely to face a letter of reprimand or a formal censure. ... While Mr. Rangel has been weakened by the long-running scandal, he will nonetheless retain the power to determine his own political fate. He has remained defiant throughout the process — at one point making a rambling defense of his actions on the floor of the House — and is all but certain to brush aside calls for his resignation from Republicans and government ethics advocates. Just this month he won re-election to a 21st term.

Hey Nancy .... pick this out of your swamp!

Rangel charged with multiple ethics violations

Excerpts:

A House investigative committee on Thursday charged New York Rep. Charles Rangel with multiple ethics violations, a blow to the former Ways and Means chairman and an election-year headache for Democrats.

...

Nancy Pelosi had once promised to "drain the swamp" of ethical misdeeds by lawmakers in arguing that Democrats should be in charge.

...

The investigation of Rangel has focused on:

• His use of official stationery to raise money for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York.
  
• Whether he had the Ways and Means Committee consider legislation that would benefit donors to the Rangel Center at the same time the congressman solicited donations or pledges.
  
• Preserved a tax shelter for an oil drilling company, Nabors Industries, which has a chief executive who donated money to the center while Rangel's committee considered the loophole legislation.
  
• Used four rent-controlled apartment units in New York City, when the city's rent stabilization program is supposed to apply to one's primary residence. This raises the question of how all the units could be primary residences. One was a campaign office, raising the separate question of whether the rent break was an improper gift.
  
• Whether Rangel, as required, publicly reported information on the financing and rental of his ownership interest in a unit within the Punta Cana Yacht Club in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Rangel also had to pay back taxes on the rental income.
  
• Intentionally failed to report — when required — hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in assets. The amended disclosure reports added a credit union IRA, mutual fund accounts and stock.

Comment: See earlier post Charles Rangel's Special Deal

Rangel insults Palin

Rep. Rangel Calls Palin 'Disabled'

Excerpt:

In a CBS 2 HD exclusive interview Rep. Rangel called Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin "disabled."

The question was simple. Why are the Democrats so afraid of Palin and her popularity.

The answer was astonishing.

"You got to be kind to the disabled," Rangel said.

That's right. The charman of the powerful House Ways & Means Committee called Palin disabled -- even when CBS 2 HD called him on it.

CBS 2 HD: "You got to be kind to the disabled?

Rangel: "Yes."

CBS 2 HD: "She's disabled?"

Rangel: "There's no question about it politically. It's a nightmare to think that a person's foreign policy is based on their ability to look at Russia from where they live.

Comment: I hope that this creates a backlash against the Dems and that more of the Hillary voters come on over!

Chief Dem taxman doesn't understand own taxes!

Rangel Failed to Report $75,000 in Income

Excerpts:

Mr. Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes the federal tax code, bought the beachfront villa at the Punta Cana Yacht Club and has received twice-yearly payments from the resort, which rents the property for $500 or more per night.

...

the congressman did not realize he had to declare the money as income, and was unaware of the semiannual payments from the resort because his wife, Alma, handled the family finances and conferred with their accountant, John Viardi, on tax matters.

The money was never sent to the Rangels directly, according to Mr. Davis and resort records, but was used to defray the mortgage the company gave them when they bought the villa and $23,000 in subsequent construction costs in 2003.

The confusion was magnified, Mr. Davis said, by the fact that the statements from the resort were sent only intermittently. The congressman declined to be interviewed, but issued a brief written statement.

“I have asked my accountant to review all the data recently made available to me by the Punta Cana Hotel in the Dominican Republic concerning my investment 20 or so years ago in purchasing a unit in that hotel for occasional use over the years,” the statement said. “Once my accountant obtains and verifies the facts, I will follow his recommendations.”

Mr. Davis said that Mr. Rangel had paid scant attention to the villa’s finances until Sunday, when The New York Post reported that the congressman had failed to declare the rental income for 2006 and 2007 on his Congressional financial disclosure forms. “This is all news to him,” Mr. Davis said. A review by The New York Times of the records dating back to 1996 showed that the congressman also did not report the income in 1996 through 2000. Mr. Davis said on Thursday that Mr. Rangel would most likely file amendments to the disclosure forms as well.

The disclosure is a sworn statement, and intentionally filing a false report is a felony that carries a possible five-year prison sentence, but in most cases the House ethics committee does not punish members for errors or omissions.

Comment: Here's the operative phrase - "the congressman did not realize he had to declare the money as income" Maybe if we had a flat tax or at least a simplified tax code, the Dem's chief tax bean-counter could figure it out. The average tax-paying American schmoe doesn't have the luxury of tax accountants and attorneys, but we have to figure it out!

Charles Rangel's special deal!

For Rangel, Four Rent-Stabilized Apartments

Excerpt:

Mr. Rangel, who has a net worth of $566,000 to $1.2 million, according to Congressional disclosure records, paid a total rent of $3,894 monthly in 2007 for the four apartments at Lenox Terrace, a 1,700-unit luxury development of six towers, with doormen, that is described in real estate publications as Harlem’s most prestigious address.

The current market-rate rent for similar apartments in Mr. Rangel’s building would total $7,465 to $8,125 a month, according to the Web site of the owner, the Olnick Organization.

More:

Rangel Defends Use of Rent-Stabilized Apartments

Excerpt:

Mr. Rangel, who is the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said his living arrangements were fair and legal and that he was paying the maximum rent allowed on all four rent-stabilized units, in the Lenox Terrace complex at West 135th Street and Lenox Avenue. “I didn’t see anything unfair about it,” he said. “I didn’t even know it was a deal.”

He did say, however, that he was evaluating the use of one of the four apartments as a campaign office, saying, “I have to take another look” at that situation. If the use of the apartment as a campaign office is a problem, he said, he would “go to another place and get a different office. Period.”

“That is something that I have to look into, but as it relates to me and my family, I’m not looking into that at all

Comment: Another reason that congressional approval ratings have plummeted to tie a historical low