Image via WikipediaCharles Rangel ethics trial begins - John Bresnahan - POLITICO.comIt comes down to this moment for Rep. Charles Rangel: standing alone before a jury of his peers, fighting for his personal reputation, if not his 40-year political career.
On Monday, an eight-member, bipartisan “adjudicatory subcommittee” of the House ethics committee will begin a weeklong trial for the 80-year-old Rangel on 13 ethics charges, including allegations that he leaned on lobbyists and corporations for millions of dollars in contributions to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at The City College of New York.
The New York Democrat is also accused of failing to disclose $600,000 of income and assets on his annual financial disclosure forms, illegally maintaining multiple rent-controlled apartments in a luxury Harlem apartment building and failing to pay income taxes on a vacation villa in the Dominican Republic.
He faces this rare trial as a diminished figure, without his once-powerful House Ways and Means Committee chairmanship, without much support from his colleagues and without even a defense lawyer.
“It’s going to be a spectacle,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group. “It has lots of potential to be pathetic for Rangel and the committee.”
The stakes are high for both Rangel and the ethics committee, which is not used to taking a case this far. Rangel stepped down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in March, but he’s still a well-liked member of the House with friends on both sides of the aisle, although those ties have been severely strained by the long-running scandal and its political fallout.
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