WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Charles Rangel reached a tentative plea agreement on ethics charges on Thursday, but Republicans may reject it and push for a trial that could hurt his fellow Democrats in the November elections.
A long list of ethics charges were read aloud at a congressional hearing on Thursday, at about the same time that attorneys for Rangel and a House of Representatives ethics committee reached a “tentative agreement” on those charges, a congressional source said.
But Republicans may block the proposed deal and demand a trial in September of Rangel, 80, one of the most senior member of Congress and its former chief tax writer, aides said.
The 10-member House Ethics Committee — five Democrats and five Republicans — traditionally accepts staff recommendations on plea agreements. That could change, however, amid what’s been increasing election-year partisanship.
Republican Representative Michael McCaul sounded as if he was not interested in any deals.
“Mr. Rangel … was given opportunities to negotiate a settlement during the investigation phase. We are now in the trial phase,” McCaul said at the opening of the hearing by a House Ethics subcommittee.
“The American people deserve to hear the truth in this case and the charges against him,” said McCaul, a member of the panel. “And that is precisely why we are having this meeting here today.”
Democrats have urged Rangel to cut a deal to avoid a trial that they fear could become a political circus and undermine their bid to retain control of the House in the November elections.
The subcommittee outlined 13 counts of violating House ethic rules against Rangel.
They involve: solicitation of donations to a college center named in his honor; errors of omission on financial disclosure statements; use of a rent-stabilized apartment for his campaign committee and failure to report income from renting out his villa in the Dominican Republic.
“Public office is public trust,” said subcommittee chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat. “Our task is to determine whether Representative Rangel’s conduct met that standard.”
Rangel had sought a deal before the hearing began, but his new goal is to get one before his September trial, an aide said.
The New York lawmaker is running for re-election to a 21st two-year term. He won in 2008 with nearly 90 percent of the vote.
Rangel stepped down in March as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee after the ethics panel, in a separate case, admonished him for corporate sponsored trips in 2007 and 2008 in violation of House gifts rules.
If convicted of the new charges, Rangel could be again admonished or censured. Expulsion would require the approval of the full House and ethics experts say that seems unlikely.
Democrats won control of the House in 2006, promising to rid the chamber of corruption after a series of Republican ethical problems, including an influence-peddling scandal that resulted in prison time for a top Capitol Hill lobbyist.
Republicans have seized on the charges against Rangel as evidence that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats failed on their promise to “drain the swamp.”
