NEW YORK
Rep. Charles Rangel asked the House Ethics Committee on Thursday to investigate his fundraising for a college research center named after him, saying a probe would prove he did nothing wrong.
But Rangel said any inquiry shouldn’t include another issue that has drawn scrutiny: His four rent-stabilized Harlem apartments, one used as a campaign office despite rules requiring such discounted apartments to be a tenant’s primary residence.
Rangel, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman and one of New York’s most influential politicians, is bristling at recent media scrutiny of his living arrangements and efforts to raise money for the City College of New York’s Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service.
The Washington Post reported last week that the Harlem Democrat had written letters on congressional stationery and sought meetings with business leaders — some with interests before his committee — to help raise corporate and foundation contributions for the center.
House ethics rules bar members from using congressional letterhead and resources to solicit money for charities. House Republican leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, and the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have pressed the House Ethics Committee to look into Rangel’s fundraising for the City College center.
At a Washington news conference last week, Rangel said an investigation would vindicate him. He said the letters weren’t bids for money — just requests for the recipients to “learn more about the program.”
