Man of the cloth, TV anchor, philanthropist — and FBI informant? The feds referred to the Rev. Al Sharpton in court documents as “CI-7,” shorthand for Confidential Informant No. 7, throughout his four-year service as an assistant with a joint FBI-NYPD task force known as the “Genovese squad,” according to The Smoking Gun.
Although Sharpton denies being an informant as previously reported, The Smoking Gun has obtained hundreds of pages of documents, including secret court filings and FBI memos that provide new details of Sharpton’s cooperation in taking down New York City’s Genovese crime family, which dominated organized crime activities in New York City as part of the Mafia (or Cosa Nostra).
Newsday first disclosed that Sharpton became an FBI informant in 1988 after he was caught on tape with a drug kingpin discussing cocaine deals — an accusation Sharpton has long disputed, according to NY Daily News.
The feds allegedly threatened Sharpton with charges, thus successfully converting him into an informant.
The Smoking Gun report said investigators gave Sharpton a customized Hartman briefcase that was used to record conversations about mob hits, extortion schemes, and the activities of Genovese crime boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante.
Sharpton had 10 face-to-face meetings with Joseph “Joe Bana” Buonanno, a Gambino family member, and reported his findings to officials. FBI agent John Pritchard paid Sharpton small amounts for the info, according to the report.
Sharpton told Daily News that he contacted authorities only after receiving death threats from Buonanno and others over his activism in the music industry, saying “If you’re a victim of a threat, you’re not an informant, you’re a victim trying to protect yourself.”
He also denied carrying a wired briefcase and said that he was never paid for services, but occasionally, reimbursed for car travel. “I encourage kids all the time to work with law enforcement,” Sharpton said. “You’re acting like it’s a scandal for me to do that?”