02
Feb
Rep. Rangel spent over a half million on lawyers last year.
Rep. Rangel is a leading black race hustler and played a large role in removing banking safeguards that led to the housing crisis.
Rep. Charles Rangel’s ongoing ethics probe is taking a serious toll – on his campaign war chest.
In the last three months of 2009 alone, Rangel shelled out $574,348 on lawyers, according to his latest federal election filings. That’s 84% of his total campaign spending during the same period.
Ever since Rangel ran afoul of several ethical rules last year – from unreported income on a Dominican Republic villa to using office letterhead to raise money – his five teams of lawyers have chewed through campaign cash faster than Rangel can raise it.
During all of 2009, Rangel raised about $1.3 million, but spent more than $1.5 million on lawyers out of the $2.2 million he spent in total.
Rangel tried to blame the violations on sloppy bookkeeping and asked a House ethics panel to investigate his actions amid the outcry from GOPers.
The powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee ended the year with $770,589 in his account – and that’s off his normal fund-raising pace by about $2 million.