NEW YORK — Sure, the Rev. Al Sharpton admits that he helped the FBI investigate New York Mafia figures in the 1980s, recording conversations, but insisted he wasn’t an informant.
Sharpton downplayed a report by The Smoking Gun website identifying him as confidential informant “CI-7” who helped bring down a mob boss. He said that he went to federal authorities after mobsters warned him and others they would be harmed if they continued to compete for a stake in the music business — which he recounted in his 1996 book, “Go and Tell Pharaoh.”
Sharpton said that after the FBI targeted him in a failed sting, he “fought back and said, ‘I’m being threatened. These are the kinds of guys you should be going after.’ “
For about two years, Sharpton said, he used a bug hidden in a briefcase, trying to get the mobsters to repeat the threats and talk about other crimes.
“In my own mind, I was not an informant,” Sharpton said. “I was cooperating with an investigation.”
