Rangel Walks Out of Ethics Trial
The AP reports:
Rep. Charles Rangel walked out of his ethics trial Monday after a House ethics panel denied his request to delay it, and the panel's top lawyer urged the committee to push toward a decision in the case.
The once-powerful 80-year-old congressman from Harlem had pleaded for a delay, arguing that he had run out of money to pay his previous lawyer after spending nearly $2 million. It would be unfair to continue the trial without giving him a chance to find a new defense lawyer, Rangel said.
Chief House ethics counsel Blake Chisam, assuming the role of prosecutor at the rare public airing of in-House issues, played a video of a Rangel speech on the House floor in August. Rangel, former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, acknowledged in that presentation that he'd used House stationery to raise money for a college center named after him, and that he'd been tardy in filing taxes and financial disclosure statements. But he said he never intended to break any rules.
Chisam told an ethics panel of four Republicans and four Democrats that "there are no ... issues as to any material facts in this case. As a result the case is ripe for a decision."
After Rangel stalked out, the proceeding - rare in the annals of the House - went on without him.
