Rangel. *Photo credit: nypost.com

NEW YORK, CMC – Democratic Congressman and ardent legislative advocate for the Caribbean Charles B. Rangel said he wants no “special breaks” in a forthcoming public trial over alleged ethics violations.

A United States House of Representatives’ investigative panel said it has found “substantial reason to believe” that Rangel, 80, violated a range of ethics rules.

The panel said that the popular congressman will now face a public trial before the House of Representatives’ Ethics Committee.

Rangel, the former chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters, at an event at Harlem Hospital on Saturday, that he will face the committee because “it’s the American thing to do”.

“I think I owe it to the process to find out what the investigative committee found out,” he said.

“Maybe, just maybe, I have evidence to prove that it’s not substantive,” he added. “But I don’t want any special breaks.”

Lawyers for Rangel were reportedly working with a House committee on a deal that could forestall Thursday’s announcement of specific charges and pre-empt a lengthy ethics trial that could begin September 15, the day after New York’s Democratic Primary elections.

But Rangel dismissed the settlement talks as premature.

“It’s so inappropriate,” he said. “Do you want deals, or do you want the truth?

“I don’t know how I could make a deal when nobody knows what they’ve found,” he added.

Rangel will be the first member of Congress to be forced to face a public ethics trial since 2002, when Congressman James A. Traficant Jr. was expelled after a corruption conviction.

Political observers say the finding has dealt a very serious blow to Rangel in the twilight of his political career. Rangel was first elected to the US Congress in 1970.

While the panel did not disclose details about the nature of the violations, Congressional Democrats with knowledge of the investigation told reporters that the committee found evidence to support allegations that Rangel wrongly accepted four rent-stabilized apartments in Manhattan.

In addition, the committee found evidence to support the allegation that Rangel failed to report or pay taxes on rental income from his beachfront villa in the Dominican Republic.

In March, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct admonished Rangel for trips he and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus took to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008 that were indirectly paid for by corporate sponsors, such as Pfizer, Verizon and AT&T, in violation of House rules.

The trips, made to St. Maarten and Antigua and Barbuda, were organised by the New York-based CaribNews newspaper.

“I am pleased that, at long last, sunshine will pierce the cloud of serious allegations that have been raised against me in the media,” said Rangel earlier in a statement, adding that he looks forward to publicly defending his name.

But while at least one Democratic congressperson, has called on Rangel to step down for the sake of the party, most Democrats, and many Republicans, view Rangel, a Korean War veteran, as likeable and extremely effective.

“When he walks into a room, you know he’s the guy, he’s just the guy, and that’s what Charlie (Charles Rangel) is to our delegation,” said Bronx congressman Jose Serrano.

“Charlie is the man around whom we all gathered,” added Eliot Engle, another Bronx congressman and also Caribbean advocate.

From his 40 years in the House of Representatives, Engle said Rangel is unsurpassed in knowing how to work the system.

“You go to him and you say ‘Charlie, I’m having a problem with this thing,’ and he’ll always have time to talk to you,” Serrano said.

“He’ll say ‘Did you try this?’ And then he’ll have five other ways you might try to get it done,” he added.

“That’s why whenever you see Charlie, there’s always a crowd around him. Everybody wants to learn from Charlie,” Serrano continued.