After accusing the House ethics committee of denying his right to a lawyer, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) threatened to leave the hearing.
Rangel parted ways from his lawyers last month. He told the committee today that they quit, not sure he could pay the already $2 million legal bills he had racked up over the committee's two-year investigation. He also claimed the committee told him only two weeks ago that he could set up a legal defense fund to pay his lawyers, and that he didn't have enough time to create such a fund and hire counsel.
"I've been a lawyer long enough to know it's very, very unwise to represent yourself," he told the committee. Rangel also claimed that lawyers in New York had offered to represent him for free -- but the ethics committee told him that would constitute an illegal gift.
He then announced that he would leave the hearing. Without counsel, that would mean he would put up no defense.
They then met in executive session and decided that they would indeed proceed with the hearing anyway.
Good for them.
