Rangel tells CBC he’ll fight to keep gavel

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) has no plans to give up his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee despite mounting ethics allegations against him. 

“Mr. Rangel has not considered, nor has it ever been on the table, that he would step aside from his current position as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee,” his attorney, Lanny Davis, said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon.

{mosads}Davis denied “published reports” that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) or any member of the Democratic leadership had pressured Rangel to give up his gavel. The New York Post ran a story Tuesday morning saying that Pelosi had “privately pushed” the lawmaker to give up the chairmanship.

“Indeed, the Speaker told Mr. Rangel that she was pleased at the initiative he has taken to, in effect, authorize an investigation of himself with full transparency and direct reporting to the ethics committee,” Davis said. “She also expressed her appreciation that he is allowing the ethics committee to complete its process.

“Facts should prevail, not innuendo or editorial opinion, nor the partisan actions of the House Republican leadership,” Davis continued.

Pelosi also denied a report that she had privately pushed Rangel to give up his gavel.

Asked during a press conference on energy if she called on Rangel to take a leave of absence from the panel’s top post, she replied: “No.”

“I see no reason for Mr. Rangel to step down,” she said.

Rangel plans to hire a “nationally renowned” accounting firm to conduct an independent review of his financial disclosure reports and income tax returns dating back 20 years, Davis said. The firm will then give the audit directly to the ethics committee to evaluate and use as it sees fit. The ethics panel has Rangel’s permission to make the audit, as well as 20 years of tax returns and financial disclosure reports, public at any time.

In addition, Rangel plans to waive the three-year statute of limitations and pay any back taxes the accounting firm finds that he owes.

Davis called this act unprecedented in his experience in Washington and said Rangel should not be forced to step down, because his omissions and errors were “inadvertent.”

“Mr. Rangel believes, and I strongly believe and his colleagues strongly believe, that making inadvertent errors with no intention to conceal, no personal enrichment, no corruption of the public trust … is not disqualifying,” Davis said.

Earlier Tuesday, Rangel told members of the Congressional Black Caucus that he will fight to hang on to his chairmanship of the panel.

CBC members reacted by rallying around Rangel and expressing confidence that he would be vindicated, according to Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), who attended the meeting Tuesday morning. He said Rangel was confident in his decision to remain as chairman.

“We expressed support for him to remain as chairman,” Clay said. “We think the process ought to take its course. The ethics committee should do its job … We think this is a political ploy by Republicans and he will be vindicated.

“It was a very good meeting,” Clay continued. “[Rangel] told us that a lot of this is symbolism. There are a lot of Republicans who have kept their committee assignments despite serious ethics allegations.”

Clay mentioned Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who remains on the Appropriations Committee even though he is under federal indictment, as well as Reps. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, and Don Young (R-Alaska), the top GOP member on Natural Resources, who are both under criminal investigation.

Reps. Donald Payne (D-N.J.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) confirmed that the meeting took place but would not discuss what was said.

Rangel met with Pelosi and members of the Ways and Means Committee on Monday night to seek their advice on how to proceed. Pelosi later said no decision has been made about whether Rangel should retain his chairmanship.

Those meetings took place the same day Rangel’s hometown newspaper, The New York Times, ran an editorial calling for him temporarily to give up his chairmanship. House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) sent a letter to Pelosi last week calling on Rangel to take a leave of absence.

Last week, Rangel admitted to failing to disclose $75,000 in rental income on a property in the Dominican Republic, and this week several media outlets reported that he had either omitted or misreported several figures on other property sales.

Rangel has sent letters to the ethics committee asking it to review the rental income omission, as well as two separate allegations involving his rental of subsidized apartments and improper use of congressional letterhead to fundraise for a City College of New York education center bearing his name.