NYT: House Panel Finds Rangel Violated Ethics Rules

A House investigative panel has concluded that Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) violated a range of ethics rules, after a two-year investigation, according to the New York Times.

The investigative panel did not disclose to the Times any details about the nature of the violations that it found, but one House official who has been briefed on the findings told the paper that they included some of the most serious allegations that had been examined.

“All I know is that it was a majority of them,” the House official reportedly said, asking not to be identified by the Times as the ruling is supposed to remain confidential for one week. A lawyer involved in Rangel’s defense, who also asked not to be named, disputed that characterization, the Times reported.

The committee, according to the Times, investigated claims that Rangel improperly rented four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem at a price well below market value; allegations that he improperly used his office to provide legislative favors for an oil-drilling company that pledged a $1 million donation for an academic center named for him; and claims that he improperly failed to report taxable income received from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.

In March, Rangel stepped down from the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee in what he characterized as a temporary move and an effort to spare his Democratic colleagues from being tarred with his problems, according to the Times report.

The findings by the investigative panel -- composed of two House Democrats and two Republicans -- is not the end of the inquiry. The panel, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, announced Thursday that it had created a special subcommittee to rule on the findings, which will meet for the first time next Thursday, the Times reported.