Key Documents

Rangel's Letters to Potential Donors

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Washington Post Staff
Friday, July 18, 2008; 11:15 AM

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel has come under fire for soliciting donations from corporations with business interests before his panel, hoping to raise $30 million for the new Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York. Below are copies of several letters he wrote to potential donors:

March 2007 letter requesting a meeting with David Rockefeller; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund donated $50,000 to CCNY

March 2007 letter requesting meeting with Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg, chairman of C.V. Starr Foundation; the foundation donated $5 million to CCNY

March 2007 letter requesting a meeting with Donald Trump; Trump has not donated to the project

June 2005 letter to about 100 foundation leaders seeking "a dialogue with you on the funding of the Rangel Center concept in the coming weeks and months." The letter helped generate contributions totaling more than $1.6 million from four foundations.

-- Compiled by Christopher Lee