According to Charles Rangel, he has spent $2,000,000 of campaign funds to defend against charges that he violated ethics rules. Now he says he is out of money and his lawyers have dropped him. He walked out of the panel hearings saying he doesn’t have a lawyer and isn’t being treated fairly.
The funny thing is, when you ask “what is the worse that can happen” it doesn’t seem that bad for him. If he is found guilty he probably won’t get booted from the House. He’ll probably just get a public reprimand. This may be why he can’t afford a lawyer. The consequences are low enough that he doesn’t want to spend any of his own money on it. Now that he has exhausted the money others have given him he feels he is “broke” or at least broke when it comes to spending money to avoid a reprimand. I have a feeling that if he were defending himself from going to prison, he might be able to find the money or perhaps well that vacation property he has been accused of not paying income taxes on.
It would seem that this would be a pretty easy thing to look at the facts and see if he violated the rules or not. I think he’d save face by simply working with the committee to try to get things over with as quickly as possible instead of drawing things out and spending all of this money on it. It seems he’d benefit from having less media exposure instead of more.
I agree with you totally. The law protects him as if he is someone who is worth protecting. He has shamed his office, his constituents, the legislative body he is a part of, and his country with his actions.
No matter his party, he is, and will continue to be a criminal that has been elected.