Rangel will not give up committee post

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., will hold on to his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee, his lawyer said Tuesday.

In a conference call with reporters, Lanny Davis said Rangel has called for an ethics investigation into his finances and hired a forensic accountant, believing the "facts should prevail," The New York Times reported.

"Mr. Rangel believes, I believe and his colleagues believe that making inadvertent errors with no intention to conceal, no personal enrichment and no corruption of the public trust, is not disqualifying," he said. "He is prepared to let his constituents make the final judgment on his fitness to serve. "

Rangel is under fire for using a rent-subsidized apartment as a fundraising office, failing to pay taxes on income from a Dominican Republic villa he owns and using his House stationery to solicit donations to a school at the City University of New York that is to be named in his honor.

Republicans also accused him Tuesday of violating new House rules on earmarks by failing to put his name on funding for a rail connection between Manhattan and Kennedy International Airport.