Rep. Rangel’s involvement with AIG is the topic of this Times article.
Federal statutes and House ethics rules forbid members of Congress from asking for anything of value from a person or company with business before them.
[Ways and Means Committee counsel Janice] Mays said those rules did not prohibit members of Congress from raising money for nonprofit organizations, even from people or companies with interests before the government. And she said Mr. Rangel’s representation to the ethics committee last summer concerned only those instances in which he had written to potential donors on Congressional stationery, not those he might have met with personally in seeking donations.
A review of Congressional records indicate that A.I.G. had interests in a number of issues before Mr. Rangel — both prior to Mr. Greenberg’s gift and the congressman’s solicitation of A.I.G., and afterward.