The House Ethics Panel announced late Thursday afternoon that two embattled veteran Democrats won’t go on trial for ethics violations until after the Nov. 2 elections, even though Republicans had asked for earlier hearings, according to a usatoday.com report.
The trial for U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., accused of 13 violations of House rules, will begin Nov. 15, nearly two weeks after the midterm elections. It will start on the first day Congress reconvenes in a lame duck session. The trial of U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is set even later, for Nov. 29.
The announcement by U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgen, D-Calif., who chairs the House ethics committee, rejected the GOP request for open hearings before the midterm elections. The two parties couldn’t agree “how and when to proceed,’’ she said in a statement.
Both Rangel and Waters say they are innocent. Rangel’s charges include allegations that he solicited nonprofit donations from companies that did business before his tax-writing committee. Waters is accused of improperly intervening with federal officials on behalf of a bank in which her husband had a financial interest in.
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