The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted by a margin of 333 over 79 to censure former Ways and Means Committee Chair Charlie Rangel for a series of ethical violations, and now the shameless Congressman has filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission for his 2012 re-election bid as reported by S. A. Miller for the New York Post: "An ethics panel last November convicted Rangel on 11 of 12 charges after a two-year investigation found a 'pattern' of rule-breaking, including dodging taxes, concealing assets and misusing his post to raise money for the City College center that bears his name."
In 2006 Rangel attempted to derail a criminal prosecution against plaintiffs class action law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP and several of its partners as then reported by Mike McIntire for The New York Times: "The statement, signed by Representatives Gary L. Ackerman, Carolyn McCarthy and Charles B. Rangel, all of New York, and Robert Wexler of Florida, contained several passages that appear to be lifted directly from a 'class action press kit' distributed by a national trial lawyers group. All but Mr. Wexler have received campaign contributions from Milberg Weiss partners." Notwithstanding the efforts by Rangel and others, the indicted partners subsequently all pleaded guilty, and the firm agreed to pay a $75 million fine and employ a compliance monitor.
Meanwhile, new allegations of unethical conduct continue to dog that dog Rangel as reported by Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein for the New York Post: "The Federal Election Commission is investigating a complaint that Rep. Charles Rangel improperly used his National Leadership PAC to fund his legal defense on ethics charges for which he was censured."
