Al Sharpton says report of FBI cooperation in a mafia spying case is not new
The Rev. Al Sharpton admitted on Tuesday that he helped the FBI investigate New York Mafia figures in the 1980s, but he called it old news and insisted he was more a victim than an informant.
Sharpton sought to downplay a report by The Smoking Gun website identifying him as a confidential informant — cited in court papers only as “CI-7” — who helped bring down a mob boss.
He told a news conference at his Harlem headquarters that he went to federal authorities after low-level mobsters warned he and others they would be harmed if they continued to compete with for a stake in the music business — a claim he recounted in his 1996 book, “Go and Tell Pharaoh.”