Ethics Trials for Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters Will Be After Election

The House ethics committee announced Thursday that it has scheduled formal public trials of Reps. Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters to take place weeks after the November elections during Congress' lame-duck session.

The trial for Rangel will begin on Monday, Nov. 15, while Waters' trial will begin two weeks later on Monday, Nov. 29.

Both Rangel and Waters have been formally charged by the committee with multiple violations of House rules, but the question of when to hold trials of the two senior Democrats fell victim to partisan arguing during the week Congress adjourned for the duration of the election season.

House Republican leader John Boehner joined the five GOP members of the House Ethics Committee in calling for the trials before the election, saying Rangel and Waters "deserve a chance to clear their names."

"If I recall, both Mr. Rangel and Mrs. Waters asked the ethics committee for a speedy trial so that they could clear their names," Boehner said. "And I think the fact that the five Republican members of the ethics committee have had to resort to sending a letter to the chairman indicates that all is not well."

The day before Boehner's comments, the committee co-chairman, Rep. Joe Bonner of Alabama, joined his four fellow committee Republicans in sending a scathing letter to the committee's chairwoman, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), accusing her of deliberately delaying the trials until after the elections, when any political fall-out for House Democrats could be minimized.

"It is in the best interest of transparency and fairness . . . that the House Ethics Committee stop stalling and complete these trials before the November election," Bonner and the committee members wrote.

Because House rules specifically prevent any member of the committee from speaking about ethics matters without first consulting the members of the other party on the committee, Lofgren has not discussed the charges against Waters and Rangel, nor her thinking in scheduling their trials.

Bonner sent his letter to Lofgren and released a copy to the media while Lofgren was on an airplane.

According to House rules, both Rangel and Waters will be able to mount a formal defense and present their own evidence and witnesses at the trials, which will be heard and decided by a subcommittee of the ethics committee, made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans.

If Rangel or Waters is found guilty, the committee will make a recommendation to the full House about the nature of a punishment, which could range from a formal reprimand to expulsion. Sources close to the ethics process do not expect expulsion to be recommended in either case.