Rangel to face new charges of violating ethics rules

U.S. Representative Charles Rangel of New York will face new allegations that he broke House rules, the chamber’s ethics committee said in a statement.

Rangel, a Democrat, stepped aside in March as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee after the Committee on Standards and Official Conduct admonished him for accepting corporate-sponsored travel in violation of a House rule.

The ethics committee didn’t disclose the nature of the new allegations of ethical wrongdoing by Rangel, 80. A hearing will be convened July 29 by a bipartisan adjudicatory subcommittee, the statement said.

Rangel spokesman Emile Milne didn’t immediately return a phone call or e-mail seeking comment.

An investigating subcommittee has been looking into whether Rangel failed to disclose income from a rental villa he owns in the Dominican Republican and misused four rent-controlled apartments in Manhattan.

Rangel has amended five years of his financial disclosure statements to include more than $500,000 in investments he had previously omitted.

The ethics committee also is investigating whether Rangel preserved a tax loophole for oil driller Nabors Industries Ltd. after its chief executive pledged $1 million to the Charles Rangel Center, a school of public service at City College of New York.

The New York Democrat has also been investigated for inappropriately using congressional stationary to contact potential donors for the Rangel Center.

California Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat and chairwoman of the full ethics committee, will lead the adjudicatory subcommittee that will consider the evidence against Rangel, the statement said. Republican Representative Michael McCaul of Texas will be the ranking member, and six other members will also hear evidence.