U.S. House ethics investigators outlined 13 allegations of wrongdoing against New York Democrat Charles Rangel, including soliciting donations from companies with business before Congress.
The allegations, spelled out at a meeting of a House ethics subcommittee, say Rangel sought donations to an academic center bearing his name from companies with business before the House Ways and Means Committee. Rangel stepped aside as chairman of the tax-writing panel in March after the ethics committee cited him for accepting corporate-sponsored travel.
Rangel “denies each and every allegation” of the new charges, his lawyers said in a statement filed with the committee. Rangel didn’t dispense political favors, “did not intentionally violate any law, rule or regulation” and didn’t “misuse his public office for private gain,” they wrote.
A public hearing on the charges, which won’t occur before Congress returns from summer vacation in September, could be politically embarrassing for Democrats seeking re-election.
“The chips will have to fall where they may politically, but holding the highest ethics standards is a top priority for us,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters earlier today.
Ethics panel member Mike McCaul, a Texas Republican, called the new charges “very serious.”
‘Sad Day’
“This is truly a sad day, which no one, regardless of their partisan stripes, should rejoice,” said Alabama Republican Jo Bonner, the ranking member on the investigatory subcommittee. Rangel had chances to settle the matter during the investigation, Bonner said. “Instead he chose to move forward into this public trial phase.”
Rangel didn’t attend the panel’s brief meeting today in Washington. He said yesterday he was trying to settle the complaint and that his lawyers were in discussions with ethics committee attorneys.
Asked today whether his lawyers had negotiated a settlement of the charges with committee lawyers, Rangel told reporters, “I have no idea. I know one thing, until someone tell me that there is, there isn’t.”
The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct is the only House panel with an equal number of Democrats and Republicans.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, “There is a bipartisan panel that is looking into this and into these serious charges. We think that is important to do and I don’t want to prejudge that outcome.”
Verizon, AIG
Ethics investigators charged that Rangel sought funds from Verizon Communications Inc., American International Group Inc. and Nabors Industries Inc. as well as Donald Trump and David Rockefeller for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York. Some had business before the Ways and Means Committee at the time, when Rangel was its ranking Democrat though not chairman, investigators said.
Rangel is accused of getting $2.4 million in appropriations from Congress earmarked for the planning and construction of the Rangel Center.
Rangel is also accused of using an official House letterhead from 2005 to 2007 to solicit donations for the center from more than 100 private foundations, including the New York Life Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the AT&T Foundation and the Goldman Sachs Foundation.
‘Glossy Brochure’
Enclosed in the solicitation letters was a 20-page “glossy brochure” that requested a $30 million donation or $6 million a year, according to the 40-page charging document released by the committee.
The investigative panel bringing the charges concluded Rangel stood to gain from the establishment of the Rangel Center. He “knew an office was planned for him and he said nothing to correct any statements made by CCNY or dissuade CCNY from the notion of the ‘well-furnished office,’” the panel said.
Investigators said Rangel failed to report rental income on his vacation villa in the Dominican Republic on his financial disclosure forms and his tax returns. They also said Rangel didn’t report stock ownership in companies such as Bell Atlantic, Verizon, PepsiCo Inc., and Yum! Brands Inc.
According to documents released by the committee, Rangel used a rent-controlled apartment in New York as a campaign office in part because he was on a “special handling list” maintained by the management company that noted his status as a member of Congress.
Statements Amended
Rangel, 80, referred his own case to the ethics committee two years ago, saying he expected to be vindicated. He has amended five years of his financial disclosure statements to include more than $500,000 in investments he previously omitted.
Rangel has served in Congress since 1971. He won election after successfully challenging Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in the 1970 Democratic primary. He is being challenged this year by Adam Clayton Powell IV for the party’s nomination.
Earlier today, Pelosi said Rangel’s case didn’t diminish the high ethical standards Democrats promised when they campaigned in 2006 on a pledge to “drain the swamp” of ethical wrongdoing in the Republican-controlled House that led to the conviction of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and two Republican lawmakers.
“Drain the swamp we did because this was a terrible place,” Pelosi told reporters. “Will there be individual issues to be dealt with? Yes. I never said there wouldn’t be, but that we would have a process to deal with it.”