In a 9-1 vote, the panel also recommended that Rangel, D-N.Y., the former chairman of the powerful, tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, pay back taxes dating to the early 1990s.
The committee's recommendation now goes to the full House, which is likely to consider the recommendation after the Thanksgiving holiday. Rangel could be the first member of the House to be censured in almost three decades.
Before tearfully placing himself on the mercy of the committee, Rangel insisted he did nothing deliberately wrong or for personal financial benefit.
"There has never been any corruption or personal gain in my actions, as the committee's chief counsel noted," Rangel said in a written statement. "Neither has there been any intent on my part to violate House rules. My actions may have been sloppy, or even stupid, but never corrupt."
Still, Rangel said, "There is no excuse for my acts of omission and failures to abide by the rules of Congress. I have made many mistakes that I will forever regret, and I apologize for them."
A special trial-like ethics subcommittee panel Tuesday found Rangel, 80, guilty of failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in income and assets, improper use of several rent-controlled apartments in his Harlem district, questionable fundraising efforts for a City College of New York center that bears his name, and failing to pay taxes on his Dominican Republic property.
He argued that the panel denied him due process by not postponing the trial because he didn't have legal representation after his lawyers dropped him prior to the proceedings because of his inability to pay after already spending $2 million on his defense.
His postponement request refused, Rangel walked out of the trial Monday. Rangel's actions, and his explanations Thursday, didn't wash with Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., the ethics committee's ranking Republican.
Censured Members Of Congress
Comments