Rangel: Prove I Did Wrong And I'll Quit

26 Nov 2008 // NEW YORK (CBS) ― New questions are being raised about Congressman Charles Rangel's efforts to raise money for a City College school named in his honor.

But the congressman told CBS 2 HD in an exclusive interview he's so sure he did nothing wrong he'd quit if anybody found he did.

Rangel sat in his Harlem office Tuesday, talking by phone to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

They chatted about House business, not published reports questioning his efforts to secure a donation for the Charles Rangel School of Public Service at City College from a man whose oil drilling company benefitted from a tax loophole Rangel reportedly help to preserve.

"I never asked him for a nickel," Rangel said.

Rangel said he never asked the man for money -- a fact confirmed by a representative of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau who was there -- and said the man got the tax break three years before he became chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

"I have all the committee records, all of these things are there," Rangel said. "The issue never even came before me."

The Harlem congressman also said he would quit if this or any of the numerous other ethical questions raised in recent months -- from his rent stabilized apartment to his holdings in the Dominican Republican -- resulted in Congressional charges.

"If I thought for one minute that I would be bringing disgrace to the Committee to the Congress or the country I would step aside," Rangel said.

Baruch College professor Douglas Muzzio said it's unlikely the House Ethics Committee will find any criminality in Rangel's actions.

"It may not be criminal. It may not even be consciously unethical but it smells bad," Muzzio said.

Rangel pointed out that he asked for the Ethics Committee investigation and he thinks it will give him a "clean slate."

"I got to be boomin' with Obama in January, so I can't have this hangin' around," Rangel said.

The Ethics Committee is supposed to report back by the end of the year.

Rangel blames all his recent bad press on Republicans who, he said, are trying to wound him.