By Michael Saul, New York Daily News, January 5, 2009

5 Jan 2009 // Rep. Charles Rangel vehemently denied any impropriety Saturday following a newspaper report chronicling how he sought a donation for a public service center built in his honor from a firm with business before his committee.

"I would never do anything to embarrass my committee, the Congress or my country," Rangel (D-Harlem) told the Daily News. "It's really painful to make the front page of The New York Times with a nothing story because clearly I was supporting expanding educational opportunity for people."

The Times published a story Saturday reporting that Rangel met with officials at American International Group, the insurance giant, in April to discuss a donation, perhaps as large as $10 million, for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York.

Less than a month later, the Times reported, a senior AIG executive who attended that meeting sent a letter to Rangel seeking help on a piece of legislation before the powerful House Ways and Means Committee that Rangel chairs.

Rangel told The News he never received that letter. And AIG has never made a contribution to the center.

"When you consider the jurisdiction of my committee, you can hardly be breathing and not have an issue before my committee," he said.

In a statement, his aides said the law "expressly permits members of Congress to engage in fund-raising activity on behalf of nonprofits ... and recognizes that donations will inevitably coincide in time with legislative activity."

The latest Times story comes amid a swirl of ethical allegations involving Rangel's personal finances and fund-raising activities that are now at the center of a House ethics committee probe.