Rangel launches his defense, vows to keep chairmanship

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) has launched an impassioned effort to retain his chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

The 19-term New York Democrat on Tuesday reached out to colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus and the New York delegation to explain his efforts to correct omissions and errors in financial disclosure forms and income tax returns that go back 20 years.

{mosads}Separately, Rangel attorney Lanny Davis held a conference call to announce Rangel’s plans to hire a “nationally renowned” accounting firm to review those records. Davis also said Rangel will waive a three-year statute of limitations and pay any back taxes he is found to owe.

A series of controversies has plagued Rangel over the last few months, leading to calls for his resignation by Republicans and even his hometown newspaper, The New York Times.

But Davis told reporters Rangel has no plans to give up his chairmanship of the top tax-writing committee in Congress.

“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,” Davis said.

Davis and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also denied “published reports” that Rangel was pressured to step down from the committee by Pelosi or any other member of the Democratic leadership.

The New York Post ran a story Tuesday morning saying that Pelosi had “privately pushed” the lawmaker to step down from the chairmanship.

Davis said Pelosi has applauded the way Rangel has responded to the ethics charges so far, including his request for an ethics committee review and plan to hire an accounting firm to conduct an audit of his tax returns and financial disclosure records.

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

Pelosi, speaking at a Tuesday press conference, said, “I see no reason for Mr. Rangel to step down.”

Some members said Rangel had told them privately that the only Democratic leader who has not been supportive is House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.). However, Rangel said in a brief interview with The Hill that this was false.

“I never said Rahm was not with me,” Rangel said. “There was a suggestion as to how we might handle [the ethics controversy] differently. It had to do with getting to read from the same page.”

Davis said the accounting firm will conduct an independent review of Rangel’s financial and tax records, and 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 and 20 years of his tax returns and financial disclosure reports public upon completion of its review.

Davis said Rangel’s decision to waive the statute of limitations and pay any back taxes was “unprecedented” in his experience in Washington. He 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.

Rangel separately told members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the New York delegation that he will fight to hang onto his chairmanship of the panel. His colleagues reacted by rallying around him.

“We expressed support for him to remain as chairman,” said Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), a member of the CBC. “We think the process ought to take its course. The ethics committee should do its job … This is a political ploy by Republicans and he will be vindicated.”

Several Republicans had kept their committee assignments despite serious ethics allegations against them, Rangel told colleagues.

CBC members did have some words of wisdom for Rangel: Stop talking to the media and let your attorney deal with reporters instead.

Rangel met with Pelosi and members of the Ways and Means Committee on Monday night to seek their advice on how to proceed after the editorial in the Times. 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.