The House ethics committee today released its formal charges against Rep. Maxine Waters, charging the California Democrat with three counts of violating ethics rules.

The charges allege that Waters and her chief of staff, who is also her grandson, took steps to get federal assistance for a bank in which Waters' husband held stock and had served on the board of directors. Waters, a 10-term lawmaker and a senior member of the House panel that oversees the banking industry, has denied wrongdoing and asked for a speedy hearing to resolve the case.

The 10-page "statement of alleged violation" sets the stage for a trial by a subcommittee of the ethics panel later this fall.

An investigatory committee said Waters recognized she had a conflict of interest after helping to set up a meeting attended by Treasury Department officials and representatives of the bank, OneUnited. She agreed to steer clear of helping the bank further at the urging of House Finance Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., the committee's report said. Waters, however, "did not instruct her chief of staff, Mikael Moore, to refrain from assisting" the bank, investigators concluded.

The bank went on to receive more than $12 million in federal bailout money, the report said.

The ethics subcommittee alleged Waters violated rules that bar members from dispensing special favors and from exerting their influence to boost their own finances. Additionally, the investigators allege her conduct violated the requirement that lawmakers "behave ... in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House."

Waters is the second House member in recent weeks to face an ethics trial. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has been charged with 13 ethics violations; he has denied any wrongdoing.

(Posted by Fredreka Schouten)