Democrat Dirty Laundry: Ethics Committee: Rangel's Crooked

Ethics Committee: Rangel’s Crooked

Investigation Finds Notorious Tax-Writing Tax Cheat Broke House Rules

SPIN CYCLE: Speaker Pelosi Vowed that Democrats Would Lead the “Most Honest, Most Open, and Most Ethical Congress in History”

“Our goal is to restore accountability, honesty and openness at all levels of government. To do so, we will create and enforce rules that demand the highest ethics from every public servant, sever unethical ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, and establish clear standards that prevent the trading of official business for gifts.” (Nancy Pelosi’s “A New Direction for America,” Page 21)

RINSE CYCLE: Chief Tax Writer Busted By House Ethics Committee Investigation

An ethics panel has found that  House Ways and Means Chairman, Charlie Rangel broke congressional rules, a source told the AP.

Last year the House ethics committee has 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.

(“Ethics Panel Finds Charlie Rangel Broke House Rules,” Associated Press, 2/25/10)

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