Al Sharpton responds to FBI informant revelations

04-11-2014 • Next News Network

The Rev. Al Sharpton has said that a report that he spied on New York Mafia figures for the FBI in the 1980s is old news, and he said that he never considered himself an informant. "In my own mind I was not an informant," Sharpton said. "I was cooperating with an investigation." Sharpton called a news conference at his Harlem headquarters to talk about a story posted Monday on the website The Smoking Gun that said he had recorded conversations with mobsters. The website said Sharpton was recruited by a police-FBI task force to record conversations with Mafia figures using electronic equipment hidden in a briefcase. It claimed he was known as Confidential Informant No. 7 in court papers. Sharpton said he went to the FBI after he was threatened by mobsters working in the music business, a story he recounted in his 1996 book, "Go and Tell Pharaoh." Sharpton acknowledged using a recording device in a briefcase but said he did nothing wrong.