WASHINGTON — A House investigative committee Thursday charged New York Rep. Charles Rangel with multiple ethics violations, dealing a serious blow to the former Ways and Means chairman and complicating Democrats’ election-year outlook.
The panel did not immediately specify the charges against the Democrat, who has served in the House for some 40 years and is fourth in seniority.
The charges by a four-member panel of the House ethics committee sends the case to a House trial, where an eight-member panel of Republicans and Democrats will decide whether the violations can be proved by clear and convincing evidence.
The timing of the announcement ensures that a public airing of Rangel’s ethical woes will stretch into the fall campaign, and Republicans are certain to make it an issue as they try to capture majority control of the House.
Responding to the charges, Rangel said, “I am pleased that, at long last, sunshine will pierce the cloud of serious allegations that have been raised against me in the media.”
Rangel led the House’s tax-writing Ways and Means Committee until he stepped aside in March after the ethics committee criticized him in a separate case — finding that he should have known corporate money was paying for his trips to two Caribbean conferences.
Officials said that in the current case, the committee and Rangel’s attorney tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a settlement. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity. A settlement would have required Rangel to agree that he violated ethics rules.
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.
• Preservation of 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.
• Use of 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.
• 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.
• Whether he intentionally failed to report — when required — hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in assets.
Rangel had hoped to regain his chairmanship, but the allegations make that virtually impossible this year. He announced a bid for a 21st term recently, days before his 80th birthday.
