Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel better be prepared for the fight of his political life, a former congressional colleague warned, because the House ethics panel that convenes today to hear 13 charges against him won’t pull any punches.

The eight-member subcommittee of four Democrats and four Republicans will gavel in Rangel’s trial at 9 a.m. today. It’s the first such trial held in the Capitol since 2002.

But, even with his party still controlling the House, Rangel should expect a brawl, predicted former Alabama Rep. Earl Hilliard, who tangled with the committee nine years ago.

“Those guys — they came as if you had committed a capital offense,” recalled Hilliard, who spent more than a year battling charges that he improperly used $56,000 in campaign funds.

“Those guys act like prosecutors all the way. I haven’t met a prosecutor yet that didn’t have an agenda,” said Hilliard, a Democrat who came under committee scrutiny when Republicans controlled the House.

Rangel is facing 13 ethics violations, including failure to pay taxes on his vacation home in the Dominican Republic, use of a rent-regulated Harlem apartment as a campaign office and use of congressional stationery and other resources to raise money for the Rangel Center at City College.

“I haven’t given it much thought, to tell you the truth,” Rangel told The Post outside the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Harlem when asked the about the upcoming hearing.

He then gave a toothy grin and double thumbs-up.

“I think that says it all,” he added. “I go back to Washington, DC, tomorrow stronger because of God and the people of Harlem.”

Hilliard reached a settlement before a trial. He was slapped with a letter of rebuke.

But the process was still an ordeal for him.

“Some things you just want to forget,” he said.

Additional reporting by Chuck Bennett