Rangel Investigator Under Inquiry For.... Ethics Violations

Jillian Bandes | September 13, 2010 7:45 AM

The Congressman appointed to investigate Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) for alleged ethics violations allegedly has ethics problems of his own, according to a report from

Roll Call.

Rep. Michael McCaul, (R-Tex.), serves on the Committee for the Standards of Official Conduct, and is investigating Rangel's violation of Congressional gift rules, failing to disclose assets and inappropriately using Congressional perks. Rangel's trial will begin this month, and has already stepped down from his lofty perch as head of the House Ways and Means Committee.

According to Roll Call, McCaul "appears to have failed to fully disclose dozens of stock transactions worth millions of dollars on his annual financial disclosure reports for 2008 and 2009."

A Roll Call analysis of McCaul’s annual reports found the Texas Republican did not fully detail the 2008 sale of Clear Channel stocks owned by his spouse, including the date of the transaction.

McCaul blamed his accounting firm for his failure to disclose, and called the issue a "clerical error." Still, it's worth getting these matters cleared up before one of the biggest Congressional ethics trials in recent memory.