Rangel files suit to overturn censure

New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to overturn a House decision in 2010 to censure him for financial wrongdoing.

The 82-year-old Rangel says the House censure vote, which blemished the Harlem lawmaker's four-decade-long career in the House, should be vacated because staff and members of the House Ethics Committee withheld evidence of misconduct in conducting the probe against him.

The lawsuit says there would have been a "different outcome" to the case if the committee had not suppressed material pointing to misconduct in the investigation.

The House in late 2010 voted to censure Rangel for various financial actions, including failure to pay all his taxes, filing misleading financial statements and improperly seeking money from corporate interests.