|
An attorney for Rep. Charles Rangel said he hopes the House ethics committee doesn’t launch a full investigation into his client.
Rangel attorney Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to President Clinton, noted that the New York Democrat has been “proactive” in seeking guidance from the committee about whether his activity has broken any ethics rules.
As a result, he said, he’s hopeful the panel will not launch a full probe into whether Rangel misused his office and violated House rules by sending letters under congressional letterhead seeking support for an educational center bearing his name, or by renting four rent-controlled apartments in a luxury apartment building in Harlem.
“It’s our hope that since we were proactive and fully transparent — because there isn’t a single fact that has been alleged that involves personal financial gain — that [ethics committee Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs] Jones [D-Ohio] would use the full committee to conduct an inquiry rather than do anything more than that,” Davis said, “but we would have no objection to whatever she decides to do.”
Davis is a contributor to The Hill’s Pundits Blog.
Davis’s comments could be seen as a step back from two weeks ago, when Rangel held a press conference to say he’d welcome an ethics investigation. Rangel spoke days after stories in The New York Times and The Washington Post raised questions about whether he improperly used his power. The Times story focused on his rent-controlled apartments, while the story in the Post centered on whether he’d misused congressional letterhead to seek donations for a City College of New York (CCNY) educational center bearing his name.
When asked about Davis’s comments, Rangel said he was not used to having someone speak for him and wasn’t “going to get into” whether Davis was wrong. He said the only thing he cares about is that the ethics committee reaches a determination one way or the other.
“I don’t care what language is used,” he said in an interview. “I just want to get rid of this whole thing one way or another. I don’t care whether it’s a review or an investigation … whatever language makes you feel comfortable. As long as they agree [on a resolution.] If they reach a conclusion that I went over the line — which I find [a] difficult [argument to make] — then others members who are similarly situated will know what the rules are.”
Rangel added that as a safe incumbent and powerful chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, he’s glad he’s the one “taking the political hit” and “providing the political education,” rather than a new member who could be politically damaged or lose his seat over a similar ethics controversy.
House GOP aides have salivated over Rangel’s ethics controversy and pledged to brand all House Democrats with the same brush, much as Democrats did with then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s (R-Texas) ethics troubles in the 2006 election.
|
