Associated Press Writer= WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Charles Rangel, the most stalwart tax-writing lawmaker in Congress and a 34-year seasoned of Capitol Hill, acknowledged Thursday that an ethics panel has accused him of accepting Caribbean trips from a corporation in defilement of House rules. At least four other members of the Congressional Black Caucus who were also on the 2007 and 2008 trips were exonerated by the panel, a congressional horse's mouth ordinary with the findings told The Associated Press. "I don't want to be touch-and-go of the council but communal sentiment dictates that members of Congress should not be held administrative for what could be the wrongdoing or mistakes or errors of crook unless there's why to suppose that associate knew or should have known, and there is nothing in the journal to state the latter," Rangel said at a instantaneously called nightfall release symposium on Capitol Hill.
The find is assured to threaten Rangel's chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee. The tax-writing board will imbibe a leash as Congress determines the kismet of former President George W. Bush's expiring encumbrance cuts. Rangel's ethics troubles also dispense an election-year double bind for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led a Democratic takeover of the House in 2006 on a compete potential to end a "culture of corruption" in the GOP-led Congress. The 79-year-old Rangel, D-N.Y., has been in the House 30 years.
It was unclear whether the findings would alter whether he seeks re-election. The body found that the financing of the Caribbean trips was malapropos for all the lawmakers active but that only Rangel was in the know that a corporation that routinely lobbied Congress picked up the tab, said the congressional solemn who was not authorized to utter in on the record. The cabinet unqualified against issuing routine charges against Rangel that could intimation to just deserts such as a censure.
The ethics commission will emerge its findings in a reveal scheduled to be made consumers Friday. Additional ethics investigations of Rangel's finances and fundraising are still under way, but they are not connected to the ruling on the Caribbean travel.
