A report published on Monday claims that the Rev. Al Sharpton worked for the FBI as an informant on the Mob.
The Smoking Gun claims that Sharpton, now an MSNBC personality, worked on a task force run by the FBI and the New York Police Department. According to The NY Times, the posted several documents that allegedly show how Sharpton dealt with the mob. Sharpton is referred to as “CI-7” - or “Confidential Informant No. 7” - on several affidavits.
Sharpton’s work included mostly going after the Genovese crime family, notes TIME. He allegedly used a bugged suitcase when talking with mobsters and the information he got helped the FBI and NYPD get warrants to bug two Genovese clubs and phones.
“Most of what I’ve looked through does not remind me of anything I was involved in,” Sharpton told the NY Times of what he saw on The Smoking Gun. Sharpton said that after he helped the FBI in its investigation into boxing promoter Don King, he did speak with law enforcement again, since “some guys who claimed to be gangsters in the music business threatened me.”
Sharpton told the Times, “The claim is I helped get the mob, not that I was in the mob. I was never told I was an informant.”
The Smoking Gun said that it contacted Sharpton, who denied working for the FBI in its interview with him.