Rev. Al Sharpton now has a new title under his belt, according to Monday’s report by The Smoking Gun – an FBI informer.
The Smoking Gun obtained a collection of documents that suggested Sharpton was an FBI informer who was working under the title of CI-7, short for confidential informant No. 7.
The documents revealed details of Sharpton’s dealings with big-name mob figures, such as secretly taping conversations via a wired briefcase.
Sharpton, however, disputed the documents and downplayed his involvement with the mob.
“The claim is I helped get the mob, not that I was in the mob,” he said during a phone interview with the New York Times on Monday. “I was never told I was an informant.”
There have been rumors that the civil rights activist worked with the FBI back in the 1980s during the investigation of boxing promoter Don King.
The documents presented by The Smoking Gun, however, included dealings that Sharpton said he wasn’t familiar with.
“Most of what I’ve looked through does not remind me of anything I was involved in,” he added.
Sharpton said that he reached out to law enforcement after the Don King investigation because he was approached by some suspicious figures in the music industry.
Source: The Smoking Gun
“Some guys who claimed to be gangsters in the music business threatened me,” he said. “That’s when I reported this and involved the squad that was investigating the underworld.”
Another document on the website claimed that CI-7 had “reported that Vincent Gigante had developed a stranglehold on Morris Levy’s recording industry enterprises, in effect turning Levy into a source of ready cash” for the Genovese family and its leaders.
The Genovese family was led by a big-time mobster Gigante, who was also known as The Chin.
Sharpton also claimed that there was no proof that the information he provided led to the mobster’s arrest.
“If you throw 100 things in front of a judge, we don’t know what makes the judge sign a warrant,” he said.
Back in 1992, when he was running for Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, Sharpton denied allegations that he had consorted with mobsters or provided any information that actually led to their convictions.
Law-enforcement officials claimed that wasn’t necessarily the case.
According to some officials, the civil rights activist had several encounters with mobsters and mafia dealings because of his involvement and contacts in the music industry.
