Rangel Found Guilty of Ethics Violations After Protesting Lack of Lawyer
A House ethics panel has found U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., guilty of several ethics violations after he walked out of hearings because he didn’t have a lawyer.
Rangel was found guilty of 11 out of 13 violations involving financial and fund-raising misconduct, according to NPR, the Associated Press and Politico.
Rangel walked out of the ethics trial on Monday after complaining that the proceeding would cost $1 million in legal fees and he needed time to find new lawyers and figure out how to pay them, according to the Politics Daily blog the Capitolist.
Rangel and his former law firm, Zuckerman Spaeder, had parted ways before the ethics trial began, Politico had previously reported. The website cites Federal Election Commission records showing Rangel had paid the firm more than $1.4 million since the ethics probe began in 2008. The law firm told the Washington Post it “did not seek to terminate the relationship.”
In a statement issued Monday, Rangel said he learned only 13 days ago that he had the right to set up a legal defense fund and the right to secure representation pro bono or at a reduced fee. “But setting up a legal defense fund is time-consuming,” he said. “Moreover, it is unrealistic that I could raise the required funds and replace counsel for an adequate representation. Even if I could create and get approval for this fund this past week, too little time would have been afforded to any counsel to familiarize himself with the record and do the work required in a competent manner.”
The congressman had been accused of failing to pay taxes on rental income and raising college contributions from companies that had business before the House Ways and Means Committee, which he had led before resigning from the post.
