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Benefited. maxine waters insists she is innocent and that she plans to clear her name. the new york democrat charlie rangel also faces an ethics trial with election day less than three months away. jim angle live in d.c. tonight. jim, back to congressman waters we learned more details about the charges today, right? that s right, shep. waters is accused of intervening to seek help for a bank on whose board her husband served and in which she had a financial interest in the form of $350,000 worth of stock. it was a conflict of interest because house rules clearly prohibit members of congress from getting involved in matters in which they have a financial interest. waters went so far as to call freshry secretary hank paulson personally to ask for a meeting between treasury officials and the bank. democrat barney frank told investigators he warned waters to, quote, stay out of it. but she didn t. the bank got 12 million in aid. adding to the smell of improprietor here is the fact ....
long time congressman charlie rangel is facing an ethics trial. rather than take a plea deal he says he got guidance from a higher power. how lucky you are when god tells you that you don t have to take a plea. that you can tell them that let the facts speak for themselves. i exaggerated, i really didn t talk with god. she hasn t talked with me recently. all right let s ask father yeah, he said she hasn t talked to me recently. let s ask father jonathan morris, a message from god, lots of people pray and decide on their direction. and i would give him the benefit of the doubt. talking to god. ....
Rangel the former chairman of the ways and means committee now facing a trial in the house, now maxine waters. give us the political context what this means for democrats. obviously this is very tough for democrats. what you have is kind of a double whammy here because like charles rangel who is facing an ethics trial it is very much the same thing here. sources familiar with this process say that maxine waters insisted on having her day in court. that she refused to negotiate a settlement. and of course as you have these things going on in parallel, it is a nightmare for democrats politically. these ethics trials are very rare. they are public spectacles. kind of media circuses. the last one was in 2002. and this of course is the last thing democrats want to deal with as they try to minimize their losses in november. political fallout could be severe. we ll watch this very, very closely. thanks very much for that. it sparked a huge controversy during the presidential campaign. n ....
Facing an ethics trial of course. shannon bream is live with this story. do we know what the charges against the congresswoman are? reporter: here is what we know so far. we know she s been under investigation since last year for questions about whether she illegally helped the bank that her husband was connected to to get federal bail out money. back in 2008 the ten-term congresswoman put together a meeting between bank executives and officials from the treasury department. the bank did wind up getting $12 million in tarp money, waters says there was nothing illegal about that meeting. any time we could be hearing from investigators within the house ethics committee to find out if they are going to forward any charges to an a jude ka torrey subcommittee. we are learning like her colleague on the hill rangel she also would like to go ahead with a public trial versus some kind of setment from within the committee, jenna. jenna: let s talk a little bit about what is going on with range ....
Himself. good at talking about what i have done. that s what got him elected. he s now switching to saying here s what the country can do. it may not be morning in america but things can be better because of the hard work of the american people. that s a more effective message. we know that some of the reporting this morning indicating the president will try to frame this message from afar. it s striking when you think back to the election in 2008, he was going into red states and blue states alike and he was so popular in these districts. you have close districts for democrats and they may not want him there because he s more of a negative and then you add to that the situation with charlie rangel. new york congressman now facing an ethics trial. charges against him. the president was asked about congressman rangel and he to say support was tepid was an understatement. this is what he said to cbs. i think charlie rangel served a very long time and served his constituents very we ....