Or maybe John Edwards was right when he proclaimed there were two Americas. Right now I do see two Americas. One for law-abiding taxpayers and another for criminal Democrats.
Rep. Charles Rangel failed to report as much as $1.3 million in outside income -- including up to $1 million for a Harlem building sale -- on financial-disclosure forms he filed between 2002 and 2006, according to newly amended records.Seems to be enough evidence for prosecution.
The documents also show the embattled chairman of the Ways and Means Committee -- who is being probed by the House Ethics Committee -- failed to reveal a staggering $3 million in various business transactions over the same period.
This week, Rangel filed drastically revised financial-disclosure forms reflecting new, higher amounts of outside income and numerous additional business deals that had not been reported when the reports were originally filed.
In 2004, for instance, Rangel reported earning between $4,000 and $10,000 in outside earnings on top of his $158,100 congressional salary.
But the amended filings show that after the sale of a property on West 132nd Street, his outside income that year was somewhere between $118,000 and $1.04 million.
The forms filed by House members provide for a range of value on such transactions, so the precise number isn't publicly known.
Rangel also lowballed his income by as much as $70,000 in 2002, $46,000 in 2003 and $117,000 in 2006, records show.
Only in 2005 did Rangel reveal his total outside income.
Members of Congress are required to disclose all their assets and outside income in an effort to expose possible undue influences.
Rangel's office insists the Harlem Democrat did not conceal any outside income from the IRS and is paid up on his taxes.
The Post revealed yesterday that Rangel is in arrears on New Jersey property taxes -- for property that for more than 15 years he failed to disclose to Congress and the public.
Another area of wide discrepancy in his financial-disclosure forms is where he's required to list financial transactions.
Every year between 2002 and 2007, Rangel failed to include all his deals for the year, according to records.
Rep. Charlie Rangel's multimillion-dollar "oops" this month raises plenty of good questions, but this may be the best: How can Democrats continue to close their eyes to such sleaze?Can't be long until this thug plays the race card.
And, more to the point, this: Will prosecutors follow up on any of it?
Rangel's "corrections" to his financial-disclosure statements from 2002 through 2007 are stunning, even by the low standards of this "error"-prone paperwork-filer -- who, by the way, happens to be in charge of writing the nation's tax laws.
The Harlem Dem now admits that he failed to disclose several million dollars in income and business deals during those years -- including up to $1 million from the sale of a building on 132nd Street.
How could that happen?
Charlie won't say.
Even stranger, city records show that Rangel still owns the building.
How can that be, if Rangel sold it, as he now claims? Maybe the records are wrong, but Charlie's not talking.
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