The subcommittee that investigated Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has recommended that the embattled lawmaker face just a 'reprimand,' a mild form of punishment similar to that given to Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., when he was rebuked in 1997. Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, told reporters Friday that his four-member investigative subcommittee did not seek the high-level punishments of censure or expulsion, opting for a mid-level sanction that requires the full House to approve it but carries no other penalty. 'The recommendation we had was a reprimand,' Green said, 'and I'll let the full committee make that decision.' Also Friday, President Barack Obama made his first comments about the case since the charges were announced. 'I think Charlie Rangel served a very long time and served his constituents very well,' Obama said in an interview aired by CBS Evening News. 'But these allegations are very troubling. And he'll _ he's somebody who's at the end of his career. Eighty years old. I'm sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity. And my hope is that it happens.' Rangel's legal team held out hope that the lawmaker could reach a settlement with the adjudicatory subcommittee hearing his case, potentially avoiding political fallout from the trial _ planned for mid-September _ on the critical midterm elections. But after huddling throughout Thursday evening and all day Friday, the full ethics committee made no new declarations on the Rangel case. According to Republican counts, 10 House Democrats have now called on Rangel to resign, nine of whom were elected for the first time in 2006 or 2008 and now face difficult reelections in November. 'It's been a long haul,' said Rep. Zack Space, D-Ohio, who in 2006 won the seat vacated by Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges in the Jack Abramoff scandal. 'I think he should resign, out of concern for the institution and the particularity of the allegations.' Green and Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., the top Republican on the investigative subcommittee, are serving as the prosecution in the Rangel trial, which began Thursday in a preliminary hearing with the unveiling of their statement charging the former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee with 13 counts of violating House rules. They are presenting their evidence to an 'adjudicatory subcommittee,' made up of four Democrats and four Republicans who are serving as the judge and jury. The charges include allegations that Rangel violated House rules or federal laws by soliciting donations from people with business before his committee to fund a center named in his honor at City College of New York, not paying taxes on a Caribbean home, improperly using a rent-stabilized apartment in New York as a campaign office, and not properly disclosing more than $600,000 in income and assets. If the panel finds Rangel guilty, it could then impose its own level of punishment. But the recommendation of Green and Bonner would weigh heavily on that decision, much as a prosecutor's sentencing recommendation would influence a judge in a criminal trial. In January 1997, the House voted 395 to 28 to reprimand Gingrich because of the financing related to a college course the then-speaker taught in the 1990s. That reprimand also came with an unprecedented $300,000 fine because the outside counsel who conducted the investigation found that Gingrich had misled the investigation. Green clarified the frenzy that led up to the final hour before Thursday's preliminary hearing, in which various media outlets reported that there was a 'deal' or that Rangel was 'close to a deal.' No such deal or settlement was ever that close, according to Green. Earlier this month, after several face-to-face sessions with Rangel, negotiation talks broke down with Green and Bonner and the other two members of the investigative subcommittee. In the run-up to Thursday's hearing, Rangel's legal team continued talking with the committee's nonpartisan attorneys, but never were close enough to bring Green and Bonner into the talks. 'I was never approached after about two weeks ago. There may have been discussions with other folks,' Green said. 