Charlie Rangel charged with multiple ethics violations
Tax Cheat
Democrat Charlie Rangel has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for quite some time now. In what should come as no surprise to anyone– although it probably will because of the mainstream media’s unwillingness to cover this story– Charlie Rangel has been charged with multiple ethics violations.
I have written extensively in the past about what charges the House Ethics Committee has been investigating, but as of this moment we do not know which crimes he is being charged with.
Here is a list of all of the possible violations that Charlie Rangel has committed:
- His use of official stationery to raise money for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York.
- Whether he had the Ways and Means Committee consider legislation that would benefit donors to the Rangel Center at the same time the congressman solicited donations or pledges.
- Preservation of a tax shelter for an oil drilling company, Nabors Industries, which has a chief executive who donated money to the center while Rangel’s committee considered the loophole legislation.
- Use of four rent-controlled apartment units in New York City, when the city’s rent stabilization program is supposed to apply to one’s primary residence. This raises the question of how all the units could be primary residences. One was a campaign office, raising the separate question of whether the rent break was an improper gift.
- Whether Rangel, as required, publicly reported information on the financing and rental of his ownership interest in a unit within the Punta Cana Yacht Club in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Rangel also had to pay back taxes on the rental income.
- Whether he intentionally failed to report — when required — hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in assets. The amended disclosure reports added a credit union IRA, mutual fund accounts and stock.
To me the most egregious alleged crimes are those of tax fraud because, up until he resigned as head of the House Ways and Means Committee Charlie Rangel was in charge of writing tax laws. It is utterly unbelievable that Charlie Rangel committed tax fraud and did so unknowingly. He wrote the laws, he knew what they were, he cannot plead ignorance of the law.
Charlie Rangel is running for re-election but under these circumstances it seems as if he should withdraw his name from consideration. It is time for Charlie Rangel to resign.
Charlie Rangel’s lawyers were in negotiations with the committee to settle this out of court. In my opinion, that means that Charlie Rangel was guilty of at least some of these crimes, or he wouldn’t have been seeking a deal in the first place.
During the 2008 presidential election, Democrats promised to run the most open, transparent, and ethical congress in history; if they want to remain true to this promise they must demand that Charlie Rangel step down.
Some will say that the Democrats should not call for Charlie Rangel’s head because he has not been found guilty of ethics violations yet, but to them I would say that the Democrats should pursue Charlie Rangel’s resignation with the same vigor as they did with the likes of Mark Foley and Larry Craig. They called for these men’s resignations before any wrong-doing was proven.
Will Democrats hold their fellow Democrats to the same standard they hold their Republican counterparts to or will they rally around Charlie Rangel? If they rally around Charlie Rangel the voters will know they are frauds who are not serious about reforming Washington, yet if they call for Charlie Rangel’s resignation they may lose the support of the far left, because the far left is willing to look past the corruption on the left. The far left will be upset that the Democrats went after one of their own– even as it becomes more obvious that he was corrupt.
It will be interesting to see if Democrats come out demanding Charlie Rangel resign. Somehow I think that Democrats will rally around Charlie Rangel.
In an interesting side note, Charlie Rangel got into an argument with a reporter who asked him if he should lose his job. Charlie Rangel called that a dumb question, and asked the reporter who he worked for– hoping of course that it was a Fox News reporter so he could accuse the conservative network of conducting a smear campaign against him. Imagine his disappointment when he learned the reporter was from NBC, thereby trouncing his hopes that he could blame his troubles on Fox News.
America's Watchtower 
It’s a shame – he ran for Adam Clayton Powell’s seat when Powell died. It seems to me that the harlem seat should be held by an activist civil rights leader who stands up for his people getting out of that district or making it better.
Unfortunately, it’s become a seat distinguished not only by the civil rights chops of the incumbent, but also by corruption and a sense that the holder of the seat has special entitlements.
Rangel didn’t start out corrupt, but wasn’t corrupted by someone else. No matter what the outside influences might have been, ultimately Charlie Rangel was all too willing to be corrupted.
And now he’s apparently going to drag his family, his district and his party through this charade. I wish he’d see the writing on the wall and gracefully resign. (And I’ll tell you, Rangel can be every bit as gracious as two of the most gracious GOPers I’ve ever seen – Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.)
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Let’s review some of the potential or alleged charges or suspicions.
Misappropriating House stationery and staff:
That would be theft of goods and services provided by the Federal Government wouldn’t it?
Inaccurate financial disclosure reports to Congress:
Lying to Congress is a crime warranting 5 years in prison isn’t it?
Using a rent-subsidized New York apartment as a campaign office when it was labeled as residential:
Isn’t that fraud?
Tax evasion/tax fraud:
Isn’t that a Federal level Felony?
If Rangel lives in a state that collects tax on income that state can independently prosecute for tax evasion can’t they? I think the State of New York charges income tax. I can’t find any news of the New York State Attorney pursuing charges of tax evasion against Rangel. If the New York State Attorney is not moving forward to prosecute Rangel for tax evasion doesn’t that suggest that no tax evasion occurred and Rangel can call the New York State Attorney to testify before the ethics committee in his defense? Can the ethics committee independently call in whoever runs the state tax office in New York to testify?
If we, the American citizen are charged with these same things we face the police, a judge and a prosecutor in a real court of law and we will be prosecuted and if guilty we will lose everything and be imprisoned. If a politician does these things they face a private, mock up, pseudo-court tailored just for them and them alone, an ethics committee. If suspected of tax evasion can we request to appear before the ethics committee? I seems like politicians are above the law because if guilty because the ethics committee hands down nothing but a sheet of paper as punishment called a censure.
It has always been obvious to me that the man in the street commits “crimes” and politicians commit “ethics violations” but the American citizen is convicted while politicians get censured.
It seems that everything we do is a premeditated criminal act that demands imprisonment but politicians only make honest mistakes that require a slap on the wrist.
Why did Traficant face a Federal court on charges of tax evasion but if Rangel faces accusations of tax evasion he has to answer to an ethics committee? Is Rangel receiving protection from Obama?
Many times I have thought that politicians who choose to be corrupt do what they do because they know up front that they will not have to face being charged and prosecuted in a court of law but receive the privilege of a special court known as an ethics committee. It’s the same thing with the police and internal affairs. It’s not like these guys are telling dirty jokes in the lobby or tossing their gum wrappers in the hallway. All these people skate on a myriad of crimes that would land you or me in a jail cell.
The ethics committee should be dissolved and disbanded with any evidence of corruption being handed over to the police who, if finding the evidence solid hand it over to the prosecutor that we can hope hasn’t been paid off.
That is the only way to hold politicians accountable is to take away their private, mock up, pseudo-court tailored just for them. The only time I have ever heard of a politician actually being prosecuted is if one of their counterparts or someone in the opposing political party really wanted them out of the way.
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