House ethics panel begins deliberations in Rangel trial

WASHINGTON - Shortly after veteran Rep. Charles Rangel of New York walked out of his ethics trial in protest, a House panel began closed-door deliberations Monday on 13 counts of alleged financial and fundraising misconduct that could bring formal condemnation.

Rangel (D-Manhattan) pleaded in vain with colleagues to give him time to raise money for a lawyer before taking up the charges. Rangel left when they said no, and the rare proceeding - only the second for this type of hearing in two decades - went on without him.

An ethics committee panel of four Democrats and four Republicans was sitting as a jury in the case late Monday. The official acting as prosecutor said the facts were so clear there was no need to call witnesses, and panel members apparently agreed.

If the panel members decide Rangel, 80, violated any House rules, the full committee will hold a hearing to decide punishment. The most likely sanction would be a House vote deploring his conduct.

Rangel implored the ethics panel for further delay, saying that "50 years of public service is on the line. Earlier this fall, he had pleaded for a quick decision before the November elections. He won re-election.

"I truly believe I am not being treated fairly," Rangel said.

But the panel essentially decided that the 2 1/2-year-old case had gone on long enough - and Congress had little time left to deal with it in the lame duck session that commenced Monday.

Rangel said he had run out of money after paying his previous attorneys $2 million and needed time to set up a legal defense fund to raise another $1 million.

After Rangel left yesterday's hearing, ethics committee chief counsel Blake Chisam pushed for a decision on the 13 counts of fundraising and financial conduct that allegedly violated House rules. Chisam played a video of Rangel's speech on the House floor in August in which he acknowledged using House stationery to raise money for a college center named after him and that he'd been late in filing taxes and financial disclosure statements. He said then that he never intended to break any rules.