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WASHINGTON — Rep. Charles Rangel shockingly walked out on Day One of his House ethics trial yesterday — leaving stunned committee members no choice but to deliberate without him.
“I’m not being treated fairly,” the Harlem Democrat complained, saying the committee was needlessly rushing to finish the case this year and forcing him to stand trial without a lawyer.
“Fifty years of public service is on the line,” he added.
“I respectfully withdraw from these proceedings,” he said moments before his dramatic exit.
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But neither Rangel’s protest nor his absence from the proceedings stopped the panel from agreeing to the “uncontested facts” of the case and beginning closed-door deliberations on the 13 charges of misconduct against him.
The discussions lasted most of yesterday and were expected to continue today. A final verdict is expected by year’s end.
The case is the culmination of a more than two-year investigation that found a “pattern” of rule-breaking by the 40-year congressman and, until recently, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
“There’s a lot of pain that I feel, because I’ve fought in the wars. I’ve prosecuted with the US Attorney’s Office. I’ve served as the legislator in the state,” Rangel, a Korean War vet, said in a 10-minute plea to delay the trial.
“I am so proud of my record in the Congress. I love this Congress. I love this country. I think I’m entitled to more than is being suggested,” he told the four Democrats and four Republicans on the subcommittee panel hearing the case.
Rangel spent about $2 million on his legal team but said his lawyers quit over concerns that he couldn’t come up with another $1 million for the trial.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the House ethics committee and presiding officer at the trial hearing, reminded Rangel that whether he showed up with a lawyer was not the committee’s concern
“The retention of counsel is up to the respondent,” she told Rangel.
“Whether you are to hire it at your own expense, through your campaign committee, or through a fund is your decision, not the committee’s decision.”
Rangel went AWOL from the hearing even before the panel decided to deny his request for a postponement.
He retreated to his Capitol Hill office, where he holed up throughout the day.
The committee lawyer presenting the case against Rangel said it was so clear that there was no need to call witnesses.
He also noted that the key facts were unchallenged by Rangel, who gave up his chance to present a defense by walking out.
While the trial went on without him, Rangel issued a written statement from his office accusing the committee of violating “the most basic rights of due process that is guaranteed to every person under the Constitution.”
Meanwhile, Congressional Black Caucus members last night talked about the possibility that Rangel might seek the ranking spot on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, Roll Call reported.
Rangel wouldn’t comment about whether he’d seek the post, but three other lawmakers — including Democratic Rep. Yvette Clarke from Brooklyn — told Roll Call the issue was discussed.
The case against Rangel was presented to the panel by House ethics committee chief counsel Blake Chisam. He laid out the facts in an 80-page motion for a summary judgment and with about 550 evidentiary exhibits.
The most damning evidence against Rangel was his own words. For each set of charges, Chisam played video of Rangel giving a rambling House floor speech in August in which he admitted that each infraction was either “sloppy” bookkeeping or misconduct.
In one clip, Rangel admits using the congressional stationery to solicit donations for the Rangel Center at City College.
“So there has to be a penalty for grabbing the wrong stationery and not really doing the right thing,” he says.
At the hearing, Chisam said he found “no evidence of corruption” by Rangel, noting that the rule-breaking did not enrich Rangel or provide him other ben efits. He said Rangel was mostly guilty of being “over zealous” and “sloppy.”
The litany of charges against Rangel include using a rent- regulated Harlem apartment as a campaign office and failing to disclose and pay taxes on rental income from his vacation villa in the Dominican Republic.
The ethics committee also accused Rangel of failing to disclose more than $600,000 in income and abusing his office by using the congressional stationery for the Rangel Center solicitations, including those to corporations that had business before the House Ways and Means Committee, which he chaired at the time.
Rangel was forced to give up the chairmanship in March after being admonished by the ethics committee for taking two corporate-paid Caribbean trips in violation of the House gift ban. That wrongdoing was first reported by The Post.
The Post was also the first to report on Rangel’s solicitations for the City College center and his corporate solicitations, as well as his missing disclosures and the villa tax dodge.