Al Sharpton Denies Secret Past as FBI Informant

On Monday, The Smoking Gun published a lengthy exposé claiming that the Reverend Al Sharpton, current host of PoliticsNation on MSNBC, acted as an informant for the FBI — complete with code name “CI-7” — for several years beginning in the mid-1980s. In an interview with The New York Daily News, Sharpton acknowledged aiding an FBI investigation but denied the majority of the report.

The Smoking Gun reports that Sharpton secretly taped conversations with members with various mobster acquaintances, leading to the arrest of members of the Genovese crime family. According to court documents obtained by the site, information provided by Sharpton was used by the FBI to bug members’ phones, cars and social clubs.

In the interview with the Daily News, Sharpton portrayed himself as a victim of threats from Gambino family member Joseph (Joe Bana) Buonanno. “If you’re a victim of a threat, you’re not an informant — you’re a victim trying to protect yourself,” he explained.

“I encourage kids all the time to work with law enforcement,” he continued. “You’re acting like it’s a scandal for me to do that?”

“I was never told I was an informant or I had a number or none of that,” Sharpton added. “Whether or not they used some of the other information they got during that period for other purposes, I don’t know.”

[photo via The Smoking Gun]

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