Rangel paid lawyers $928k in last year


Chairman Charles Rangel is facing a multi-pronged investigation by the House ethics committee.
Photo: AP

Embattled House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, facing a multi-pronged investigation by the House ethics committee, shelled out nearly $280,000 to four different law firms over the last quarter, according to his newest campaign disclosure report.

Overall, Rangel has paid $928,000 to his attorneys during the last year as his personal finances have come under scrutiny on a variety of fronts.

But despite his ethics troubles, Rangel remains a prolific fundraiser, raising nearly $405,000 in the period from April 1 to June 30, according to the latest report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

More than half that total - nearly $236,000 - came in the form of PAC contributions from corporations, trade associations and labor unions, including AFSCME, Boeing, General Electric, Pepsico, Raytheon, and UPS.

Rangel still has more than $831,000 in cash in his campaign account as of June 30. Federal election law allows lawmakers to use campaign funds to pay their legal bills if they stem from an investigation related to their official duties.

Rangel also reported receiving $88,150 in "bundled" funds via the National Beer Wholesalers Association, American Council of Life Insurers and Association for Advanced Life Underwriters. Lawmakers must disclose bundled funds worth more than $15,000 from any one source during a six-month period.

Just last month, the House ethics committee empanelled an investigative subcommittee to look into Caribbean trips taken by Rangel and four other lawmakers in 2007 and 2008. The subcommittee will determine whether the trips, sponsored by the Carib News Foundation, complied with House rules barring corporate funded travel.

The House ethics committee is also investigating allegations that Rangel used Ways and Means post to raise money for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College in New York. The New York Times reported last year that Rangel helped preserve a tax break benefitting a million-dollar donor to the Rangel Center.

In addition, Rangel has faced questions over his use of four rent-subsidized apartments in Harlem and his failure to fully pay his taxes on a Dominican Republic resort home.

Rangel and House Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), had hoped the investigation into the New York Democrat would be finished by now, but the ethics investigation could drag on for months or even into next year, according to House insiders.

GOP leaders attempted several times earlier this year to force Rangel to give up the Ways and Means gavel while the ethics committee investigates him, but Democrats remained united behind Rangel and fought off the Republican efforts.

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