House panel denies Rangel's plea to postpone ethics trial

WASHINGTON — Denied his plea for a delay, Rep. Charles Rangel walked out of his ethics trial Monday, leaving the panel's top lawyer to cite Rangel's own words from previous proceedings to argue that the 20-term New York Democrat violated House rules.
Chief House ethics counsel Blake Chisam, assuming the role of prosecutor at the rare public airing of in-House issues, played a video of a Rangel speech on the House floor in August. Rangel, former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, acknowledged in that presentation that he'd used House stationery to raise money for a college center named after him.
Rangel also said in the August speech that he had been tardy in filing taxes and financial disclosure statements, but that he had no intention of breaking any rules.
Chisam told an ethics panel of four Republicans and four Democrats, "There are no ... issues as to any material facts in this case. As a result the case is ripe for a decision." stalked out of the proceeding after imploring the panel for a delay until he could obtain a new lawyer. The panel declined his request after a closed session and the proceeding — rare in the annals of the House — went forward without Rangel's participation.
Chief counsel: Rangel 'sloppy' with finances
Chisam, responding to a question, said he does not believe Rangel's conduct was corrupt, but rather, that the 80-year-old congressman was "overzealous ... and sloppy in his personal finances."
Several members of the committee angrily
Vermont Democratic Rep. Peter Welch said that no law firm should be "taking the money ... and kicking their client by the side of the road." The committee's chief counsel, Chisam, then read aloud the 13 charges of alleged financial and fundraising wrongdoing that have been brought against the 80-year-old Democrat from New York's Harlem district.
In imploring the ethics panel to continue the proceedings, Rangel had said earlier Monday that "50 years of public service is on the line."

Cliff Owen / AP Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., chair of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct committee opens adjudicatory hearings into Rep. Charles Rangel's alleged ethics violations on Capitol Hill on Monday.

In his statement, Rangel said he had run out of money to pay his previous attorney after spending nearly $2 million. The silver-haired congressman then left the proceedings and his eight colleagues adjourned briefly to closed session to consider — and then deny — his request for a continuance.
Rangel had insisted he wouldn't attend any further hearings without legal representation. And in fact, he passed on the opportunity to respond to a summation of the charges by Welch to the panelists. The committee counsel, acting as prosecutor, said the charges were "ripe" for consideration.
13 counts of misconduct
Rangel has been accused in 13 House counts of financial and fundraising misconduct that violated the chamber's rules.
***********336699]Story: Rangel: 'I look forward' to ethics fight [/COLOR]
The panel was sitting as a jury in a House committee room for a proceeding that was open to the public. It was only the second time this type of hearing was held under a revamped system of in-house ethics policing adopted by lawmakers two decades ago.
If the panel finds that Rangel broke the rules, the House ethics committee could recommend that the House vote to condemn Rangel's conduct.
"My family has caught hell" in the investigation that has lasted two and a half years, Rangel said.
The congressman said his lawyers had indicated to him that it could cost another $1 million to defend him at the ethics proceeding. He said it's unfair to continue the trial without allowing him to obtain an attorney.
The ethics committee chairman, Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., had told Rangel that the panel might not have time to judge his conduct before this Congress adjourns. A postelection lame duck session commenced on Monday.
Rocky