Charlie Rangel's Conflict of Interest

Meredith Jessup | September 03, 2009 12:20 PM

Despite being one of the nation's legislators working to actually write the country's tax code, U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel has failed to report over $1 million in outside income and $3 million in "business transactions." And now the New York Democrat is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee. One problem: Rangel has made campaign donations to a total of 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats sitting on the Ethics Committee charged with investigating him.

Dubbed "Charlie's Angels," the three Democrats on the committee who received funds from Rangel within the last year are Reps. Ben Chandler (KY), G.K. Butterfield (NC) and Peter Welch (VT). However, only one has stepped forward with concerns over a potential conflict of interest. Rep. Welsh's spokesman stated, "In an abundance of caution, [Welch] has returned all campaign contributions to Rangel,"--a total of nearly $20,000.

Rangel says he's expecting for a quick ruling on the ethics charges being levied against him--a pretty confident expectation for this power-peddling Dem.