Rangel sets up defense fund

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Censured U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Tuesday he has created a legal defense fund to help retire his legal bills and cover new ones.

Rangel said the money raised would not only go to pay the costs he ran up defending himself against House ethics charges that led to his censure but to hire lawyers to represent him as he faces new charges leveled by the Federal Election Commission, The Hill reported.

The FEC is looking into allegations by the National Legal and Policy Center that Rangel improperly used funds from his National Leadership PAC to pay for his legal counsel in his ethics case.

"The repeated filings of allegations, no matter how unsubstantiated, by the National Legal Policy Committee, a politically motivated right-wing group dedicated to eviscerating civil rights and labor union protections, have led me to this action," Rangel, a 20-term congressman, said in a statement.

The creation of the Charles B. Rangel Legal Defense Trust was first reported by the Politics Daily Web site.