Democratic House representative Charles Rangel will be formally reprimanded by the House for violating rules regarding receiving gifts.

According to the House's Ethics committee, who made the announcement Thursday (February 25), the other five Congressional Black Caucus members committed no wrongdoing.

However, Rangel “violated the House gift rules by accepting payment for reimbursement for travel to the 2007 and 2008 conferences,” it said in a written statement.

The Ethics committee said to CNN,

"The committee does not find sufficient evidence to conclude, nor does it believe that it would discover additional evidence to alter its conclusion, that Representative Rangel had actual knowledge of the memoranda written by his staff.

However, the report finds that Representative Rangel was responsible for the knowledge and actions of his staff in the performance of their official duties."

The Ethics Committee states that the issue revolves around the fact that Rangel omitted information about who paid for the 2007 and 2008 Caribbean travel for Rangel and several of his colleagues.

According to the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee,  Rangel will have to repay the costs of the trips, but at press time the statement did not indicate how much that would be.

Rangel, who whole-heartedly insists that he did no wrong doing, states that the decision was a bit harsh due to lack of evidence that there was any wrong doing at all.

"I don't want to be critical of the committee but common sense dictates that members of Congress should not be held responsible for what could be the wrongdoing or mistakes or errors of staff unless there's reason to believe that the member knew or should have known," Rangel told reporters late Thursday night. "And there's nothing in the record to indicate the latter."