WASHINGTON – Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel said yesterday that he will seek an ethics ruling on whether it is proper for him to continue using congressional stationery to solicit funds for a controversial Harlem center named for him.
However, Rangel said the House Ethics Committee had no business probing his leases on four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem, which critics have blasted as improper.
“I don’t think that’s an issue,” said Rangel, who recently gave up one of the Lenox Terrace apartments. “Where I live and how I live, if it’s legal, I think that’s a personal issue.”
But the Harlem Democrat said he wants a ruling on his use of the letterhead.
“What I’m asking the Ethics Committee to do is to respond to the allegation that I abused my stationery in soliciting funds for the Rangel Center when these people may have business before my committee,” he said yesterday.
The veteran lawmaker has used his office letterhead to seek funds for the center from Donald Trump, Hank Greenberg, former head of the AIG insurance giant, and others – even though congressional rules bar the stationery from being used for solicitations.
Rangel said he wanted to prove that “we’re as clean as the driven snow” and ensure that lawmakers are not afraid to help raise funds for good causes.
He held the 45-minute press conference a day after admitting to The Post that the use of the stationery appeared “dicey” and that he was uncertain exactly what House rules allowed.
The Rangel Center, which would be part of City College, has been a target for Republicans and taxpayer groups since he secured nearly $2 million in “earmarks” last year to build it.
The Post reported a year ago that Rangel was soliciting funds from people who had matters before Congress. The Washington Post revealed this week that he was doing so on congressional stationery.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is preparing its own letter asking the Ethics Committee to investigate Rangel’s letters, doubted the panel would act any time soon.
“They won’t do anything about Rangel because they don’t ever do anything about anybody,” Sloan said.
The committee does not respond to press inquiries.
Last year, Rangel’s office provided The Post with an internal fund-raising document that listed large donations next to AIG, the Verizon Foundation and Eugene Isenberg, CEO of energy firm Nabors Industries.
AIG spokesman Nick Ashooh said that Rangel did meet with the company to talk about a large donation but that it hasn’t given any money to the project.
City College spokesman Ellis Simon described the document as a “prospective donor list.”