WASHINGTON (CNN) – The House ethics committee voted Wednesday to investigate the conduct of Rep. Charles Rangel, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

The New York Democrat has admitted to failing to pay taxes on a rental property he owns in the Dominican Republic but said it was an honest mistake.

He is also accused of improperly using a rent-controlled New York apartment as an office and of using his position as a congressman to benefit a New York educational center that bears his name.

Rangel has denied intentional wrongdoing, and has said he will not step down from his committee chairmanship.

The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct will set up an investigative subcommittee to look into the allegations and "determine whether Rep. Rangel violated the Code of Official Conduct or any law, rule, regulation, or other standard of conduct" as a congressman, it said.

Rep Charlie Rangel plans to hire forensic accountants to investigate his finances.

WASHINGTON (CNN)–A lawyer for Rep. Charlie Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Monday that the powerful New York Democrat would hire forensic accountants to investigate his financial statements that span two decades.

Lanny Davis said the firm, which has yet to be hired, would review Rangel’s tax returns and other financial documents over the last 20 years and compile a report on any financial improprieties or back taxes the chairman owed. Rangel would pay any back taxes he owed with penalties and would wave the normal three-year statute of limitations, Davis said.

The firm will send its report on Rangel’s finances directly to the House Ethics Committee, which is looking into Rangel’s finances after questions were raised about some real estate transactions. Rangel has admitted he owes $5,000 in back taxes after he failed to report income from a rental property in Florida, according to the Associated Press.

Davis said Rangel said asked for the independent investigation because “he never meant to conceal” his finances.

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The DNC is returning a check from Rangel.

(CNN) — The Democratic National Committee will return a $100,000 donation from Rep. Charles Rangel's political action committee, CNN has confirmed.

DNC Spokesman Damien LaVera tells CNN the check is being returned because of Barack Obama's policy not to accept money from political action committees, and is unrelated to the recent apartment controversy surrounding Rangel. News of the returned donation was first reported in the New York Post.

Last month the New York Times reported Rangel currently leased four rent control apartments in the Harlem area, including one that was used for a campaign office — against regulations stipulating rent-control apartments must be used for primary residences. Rangel has denied any wrongdoing, but the New York Democrat said he will give up the apartment he used as an office.

House Republicans introduced a measure late last month to censure Rangel over the apartment use, but the motion was killed by Democrats.

Rangel's office has not returned a request for comment.

Rangel appeared on CNN's Late Edition.

(CNN) — Hillary Clinton supporter Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, attacked the media coverage of Barack Obama’s former pastor on CNN’s “Late Edition”, blaming them for over-hyping the issue and implying that it could hurt the Democratic Party down the road.

“It's disgraceful that he has to make any explanation for anything,” the outspoken congressman told Wolf Blitzer. “The intrusion of the media and Republicans into the sacred relationship that worshipers have with their spiritual leaders, I think, is going to come back to haunt us.”

“To think that we have to go into the lives and the beliefs of rabbis and priests and ministers and imams is absolutely ridiculous,” he went on.

Rangel’s comments defending the privacy of Obama’s relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright goes against what even the Illinois senator has said about the issue. Last Sunday, Obama told Chris Wallace that it is a “legitimate political issue” and that he understands why people are discussing it.

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