Ethics Panel Finds Charlie Rangel Broke House Rules

charlie-rangelIts been a very bad day for marxistcrats all around. They get destroyed at the health care summit, and now this! It must have been very painful, but NBC (via the AP) is reporting that the House ethics committee has concluded that Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel knowingly accepted Caribbean trips in violation of House rules that forbid hidden financing by corporations A congressional source familiar with the findings but not authorized to be quoted by name said at least four of members of the Congressional Black Caucus on the trips in 2007 and 2008 have been exonerated.

Last year the House ethics committee expanded its investigation of Rangel to include his revisions to financial statements that revealed assets and income not previously reported.

Earlier the Harlem Democrat had withstood a GOP sponsored resolution that called for Rangel to to surrender his chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

The ethics committee was also looking into Rangel’s use of multiple rent-stabilized apartments, his fundraising on behalf of the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College in New York, and his failure to pay taxes on a Dominican Republic vacation home.

Rangel is also being investigated in a separate ethics committee probe of Caribbean trips in 2007-08 by five members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The committee has authorized nearly 150 subpoenas in the investigation of Rangel, has interviewed some 34 witnesses and reviewed more than 12,000 pages of documents.

Rangel is one of the most influential members of Congress because the committee he chairs writes laws setting tax rates and oversees Medicare and Social Security benefits. The decision is certain to raise questions whether he can continue that role in an election year in which Congress must deal with several expiring tax laws.

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February 25, 2010 · Filed Under Charlie Rangel, Corruption


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