Panel hits Rangel with 13 alleged ethics charges

WASHINGTON — The House ethics committee Thursday laid out 13 charges of ethical violations committed by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., accusing him of a pattern of "indifference and disregard" for the law and the rules of the House.

The unveiling of the charges sets the stage for a rare public trial by the committee this fall, a potential embarrassment for the Democratic leadership during election season. The unveiling came as Rangel's lawyers suggested they were trying to reach a settlement.

The charges, agreed upon after a two-year inquiry, were read in a public session of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, as the ethics committee is formally known.

Rangel, 80, who stepped down this year as chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee over a separate matter, did not attend the meeting but issued a written response denying "each and every allegation."

In the report, the committee said it substantiated the major matters from which the 13 charges stem: that Rangel improperly used his office to solicit donations for a school to be named in his honor; failed to pay taxes on and report rental income from his Dominican Republic villa; filed incomplete financial-disclosure forms; and improperly accepted from a Manhattan developer rent-stabilized apartments, one of which he used as a campaign office.

But while those alleged infractions had been widely reported, the committee unearthed new details. The committee said Rangel also asked corporate executives for contributions to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service and sought donations from lobbyists whose corporations had business before Congress.

In some cases, he asked for contributions of up to $30 million from businesses with issues before the Ways and Means Committee, the report said.

In addition, Rangel, when he secured a rent-stabilized apartment for his office in Harlem, signed an application saying the apartment would be the primary residence for his son, Steven Rangel, the report said. Steven Rangel never lived in the apartment.

A trial is unlikely to begin until September, the heart of campaign season.

At the trial, a subcommittee of the ethics committee, made up of four Democrats and four Republicans, would serve essentially as a jury and seek to determine whether there is "clear and convincing evidence" of Rangel's wrongdoing. The committee could penalize him or recommend that the House discipline Rangel.

His lawyers said Thursday the congressman did not seek to gain personally from any of the actions the committee examined.

In one of the bigger accusations, the committee charged Rangel with ethics violations for his solicitation of Eugene Isenberg, chief executive of Nabors Industries, an oil company that was seeking a tax break from the Ways and Means committee when he pledged $1 million to the Rangel Center at the City College of New York.

Rangel met with Isenberg and his lobbyist to discuss the tax break, which the congressman had previously opposed, in February 2007, the day it was being considered by Ways and Means Committee.

The tax break passed, with Rangel's vote, saving Nabors more than $500 million.

Soon after, City College cashed a $100,000 check from Isenberg.

Rangel and Isenberg have said the contribution was unrelated to the tax issue.