Democrat Dirty Laundry: Rangel: Lawlessness and Disorder?

SPIN CYCLE: Pelosi Once Promised to ‘Drain the Swamp’ and Sweep Corruption out of Washington

“‘Drain the swamp’ means to turn this Congress into the most honest and open Congress in history. That’s my pledge — that is what I intend to do,’ Pelosi stated in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams.” (Brian Williams, “Rep. Pelosi poised to make history”, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, 11/08/2006)

RINSE CYCLE: Former District Attorney and Possible Defense Witness Owned Stock in Company Seeking Rangel’s Assistance

Former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau’s office was reported to be “the model for the long-running television series ‘Law and Order’. The series’ first fictional district attorney, Adam Schiff, is said to be based on Morgenthau.” (Carlin DeGuerin Miller, “Real Life “Law & Order” DA Robert Morgenthau Retires at 90,” CBSNews.com, 12/31/09)

As Representative Charles B. Rangel awaits his public hearing on ethics charges, one staunch defender has been the former Manhattan district attorney Robert M. Morgenthau.

It was Mr. Morgenthau who in 2006 first brought together Mr. Rangel, who was seeking donations for a school at City College of New York being built in his honor, and Eugene M. Isenberg, the chief executive of an oil drilling company that was lobbying Mr. Rangel’s Congressional committee to preserve a tax loophole worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The tax break for Mr. Isenberg’s company was saved, City College’s project received an $800,000 donation and now members of the House ethics committee have charged that Mr. Rangel’s actions in the matter violated the Congressional ethics code.

Since those charges were unveiled, Mr. Morgenthau, who has long described the interactions between Mr. Rangel and Mr. Isenberg as a purely legitimate effort to help City College, has said he hopes that the ethics committee will keep in mind the congressman’s decades of public service.

“It’s a pretty amazing career,” Mr. Morgenthau said in an online editorial in The New York Sun that defends Mr. Rangel, and which is now posted on the congressman’s Web site.

What Mr. Morgenthau has never said in his public statements describing his relationships with Mr. Rangel and Mr. Isenberg is that he was an investor in Mr. Isenberg’s oil drilling company at the time he arranged and attended two meetings between the two men, meaning his finances stood to be affected by the fate of the tax break.

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Mr. Morgenthau, who has known both Mr. Isenberg and Mr. Rangel for decades, set up two meetings to talk about a donation and hosted the first at the Manhattan district attorney’s office in September 2006.

After Mr. Isenberg donated $100,000 in December 2006, the three men met for a follow-up discussion about the contribution, this time at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan. That meeting took place on Feb. 12, 2007, the day the bill that affected the tax loophole was up before Mr. Rangel’s committee.

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In releasing the findings of its two-year investigation last month, the ethics committee charged that Mr. Rangel had violated its code by asking Mr. Isenberg for donations at a time when he had business before the Ways and Means Committee.

“Reasonable persons could construe contributions to the Rangel Center by persons with interests before the Ways and Means Committee as influencing the performance of Respondent’s governmental duties,” the investigative subcommittee concluded.

A public hearing on the charges before the ethics committee is expected to begin in September.

Mr. Rangel will be permitted to call defense witnesses at the hearing, so it is possible that Mr. Morgenthau could be called to testify in his behalf. (David Kocieniewski, “Morgenthau Held Stock in Company Seeking Rangel Help,” New York Times, 8/24/2010)

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