CaribWorldNews, WASHINGTON, D.C., Fri. July 23, 2010: Long-time New York Congressman and `Friend of the Caribbean, Congressman Charles Rangel, was yesterday slammed with charges by a House ethics sub-committee.
The sub-committee on Standards Of Official Conduct on Thursday did not detail the charges against Rangel but said they will be debated at a rare public hearing of the ethics panel on July 29th.
Typically, these proceedings are conducted behind closed doors. The panel has been conducting a separate 18-month-long probe into Rangel`s personal finances, including whether he failed to properly disclose rental income on a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic and whether he improperly solicited donations for a center bearing his name at City College of New York and took official actions that aided those donors.
The charge comes just 100 days before crucial mid-term congressional elections for Rangel and just months after he was forced to step down as chairman of the influential House Ways and Means Committee for ethics violations that included taking free trips to the Caribbean from the New York Carib News, a local publication with no links to CaribWorldNews.
Rangel, 80, stepped down as chairman of the tax-writing committee in March after the ethics committee admonished him for taking trips to a Caribbean conference hosted by the paper, that were paid for by private corporations in violation of ethics rules.
Responding to the charges, Rangel said in a statement, `I was notified today, two years after I requested an investigation, that the Ethics Committee will refer the allegations reviewed by an investigations subcommittee to a subcommittee that will review the facts. I am pleased that, at long last, sunshine will pierce the cloud of serious allegations that have been raised against me in the media.`
Rangel has been a long-time supporter of Caribbean issues and recently reaffirmed his support for Jamaica, saying he is looking forward to seeing how he can play a part in the development agenda for the island.
