WASHINGTON — The House ethics committee last night hit Rep. Charles Rangel with the stiff penalty of censure — after the teary-eyed Harlem congressman begged for mercy and told the panel he wasn’t a corrupt politician.
Rangel, 80, would be the first congressman to face such humiliating punishment — the most severe short of expulsion — in 27 years.
Most Washington insiders had expected Rangel to face only a reprimand, the least serious penalty.
The full House of Representatives is expected to consider the recommendation next month and is likely to approve it.
EXCERPTS FROM RANGEL’S STATEMENT BEFORE THE COMMITTEE
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Before the 9-1 committee vote, Rangel sat for several minutes trying to compose himself.
He wiped away tears, placed his hands over his eyes and then his chin before he slowly stood up and said in a barely audible, gravelly voice, “I don’t know how much longer I have to live.
“Thank you for this awkward opportunity to express myself.”
Rangel spoke after Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the panel, asked him to offer his words.
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The censure resolution — likely to be taken up some time after Congress returns from its Thanksgiving break — requires that Rangel stand on the House floor while the speaker rebukes him for his conduct and his colleagues vote on the punishment.
The committee’s chief counsel said Rangel deserved to be censured because the 21-term congressman misused the power of his office and “violated the public trust.”
The committee’s final report said its recommendation of censure “is based on the cumulative nature of the violations and not any direct personal financial gain.”
“The Committee concluded that the eleven violations committed by Representative Rangel on a continuous and prolonged basis were more serious in character, meriting a strong Congressional response rebuking his behavior,” the written report said.
But Rangel remained adamant that, although he made serious mistakes, he had not profited personally.
“I do hope no matter what you decide in the sanction that you might see your way clear to say that this member, that’s honored to serve with all of you, was not corrupt and there’s no excuse of my behavior,” Rangel said.
“I failed in carrying out my responsibilities. I made numerous mistakes,” Rangel also said in a statement released before the committee’s vote.
After about three hours of deliberation, the five Democrats and five Republicans on the ethics committee also recommended Rangel be required to pay any back taxes he still owes the federal government.
The Harlem Democrat had owed $16,775 as of 1990, but he has since paid some of that, so the amount still unpaid isn’t known.
The tough sanctions recommendation came after four days of proceedings. The panel convicted Rangel on Tuesday of 11 of the 12 charges levied against him after an ethics probe of more than two years found a “pattern” of rule-breaking, including dodging taxes, concealing assets and misusing his congressional office to raise money for the City College center that bears his name — all first reported by The Post.
Rangel, who shockingly walked out of his ethics trial Monday, claiming he couldn’t afford a lawyer to mount a defense, maintained all along that his mistakes were innocent missteps and “sloppy” bookkeeping.
At the hearing yesterday, Rangel repeatedly denied he was corrupt, sparking a clash with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas).
McCaul noted that Rangel targeted donors for a CCNY center named after him — donors who had legislative issues that Rangel could influence in his position on the Ways and Means Committee.
Rangel, McCaul added, didn’t pay taxes on his Dominican Republic villa for 17 years.
“Failure to pay taxes for 17 years. What is that?” McCaul asked.
Committee counsel Blake Chisam, who acted as prosecutor, said donations to the Rangel Center were going poorly, then spiked after Rangel rose to chairman of Ways and Means.
Before Chisam commenced his remarks, Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) told committee colleagues that Rangel needed only to “look in the mirror to know who to blame” for his predicament.