A day after recommending censure for Rep. Charles Rangel, the House ethics committee announced Friday that it was not ready to hold its trial of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who was charged with inappropriately helping a bank in which her husband was a large shareholder. In a vaguely worded statement, the committee announced that there were "materials discovered that may have had an effect" on the initial investigation and the charges filed against Waters. She has said she did nothing wrong in helping the nation's largest minority-owned bank get a meeting with Treasury officials during the financial meltdown of 2008.
The trial panel, formally known as an "adjudicatory subcommittee," has effectively sent the case back to the investigative subcommittee to reopen the probe, rather than going ahead with a trial that was slated to begin Nov. 29.
The ethics committee voted 9-1 Thursday to recommend the full House censure Rangel (D-N.Y.), a vote that is likely to happen the week of Nov. 29.
