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A confidential informant on the NYC Genovese mafia family
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documen...harpton-764312
A confidential informant on the NYC Genovese mafia family
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documen...harpton-764312
Al Sharpton's Secret Work As FBI Informant
Untold story of how activist once aided probes of NYC
APRIL 7--When friends and family members gathered recently at the White House for a private celebration of Michelle Obamas 50th birthday, one of the invited partygoers was a former paid FBI Mafia informant.
That same man attended Februarys state dinner in honor of French President Francois Hollande. He was seated with his girlfriend at a table adjacent to President Barack Obama, who is likely unaware that, according to federal agents, his guest once interacted with members of four of New York Citys five organized crime families. He even secretly taped some of those wiseguys using a briefcase that FBI technicians outfitted with a recording device.
The high-profile Obama supporter was also on the dais atop the U.S. Capitol steps last year when the president was sworn in for a second term. He was seated in front of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two rows behind Beyonce and Jay Z, and about 20 feet from Eric Holder, the countrys top law enforcement officer. As head of the Department of Justice, Attorney General Holder leads an agency that once reported that Obamas inauguration guest also had La Cosa Nostra contacts beyond Gotham, and engaged in conversations with LCN members from other parts of the United States.
The former mob snitch has become a regular in the White House, where he has met with the 44th president in the East Room, the Roosevelt Room, and the Oval Office. He has also attended Obama Christmas parties, speeches, policy announcements, and even watched a Super Bowl with the First Family (an evening the man has called one of the highlights of my life). During these gatherings, he has mingled with cabinet members, top Obama aides, military leaders, business executives, and members of Congress. His former confederates were a decidedly dicier lot: ex-convicts, extortionists, heroin traffickers, and mob henchmen. The mans surreptitious recordings, FBI records show, aided his government handlers in the successful targeting of powerful Mafia figures with nicknames like Benny Eggs, Chin, Fritzy, Corky, and Baldy Dom.
Later this week, Obama will travel to New York and appear in a Manhattan hotel ballroom at the side of the man whom FBI agents primarily referred to as CI-7--short for confidential informant #7--in secret court filings. In those documents, investigators vouched for him as a reliable, productive, and accurate source of information about underworld figures.
The ex-informant has been one of Obamas most unwavering backers, a cheerleader who has nightly bludgeoned the presidents Republican opponents in televised broadsides. For his part, Obama has sought the mans counsel, embraced him publicly, and saluted his commitment to fight injustice and inequality. The president has even commented favorably on his friends svelte figure, the physical manifestation of a rehabilitation effort that coincided with Obamas ascension to the White House. This radical makeover has brought the man wealth, a daily TV show, bespoke suits, a luxury Upper West Side apartment, and a spot on best seller lists.
Most importantly, he has the ear of the President of the United States, an equally remarkable and perplexing achievement for the former FBI asset known as CI-7, the Rev. Al Sharpton.
A lengthy investigation by The Smoking Gun has uncovered remarkable details about Sharptons past work as an informant for a jointorganized crime task force comprised of FBI agents and NYPD detectives, as well as his dealings with an assortment of wiseguys.
Beginning in the mid-1980s and spanning several years, Sharptons cooperation was fraught with danger since the FBIs principal targets were leaders of the Genovese crime family, the countrys largest and most feared Mafia outfit. In addition to aiding the FBI/NYPD task force, which was known as the Genovese squad, Sharptons cooperation extended to several other investigative agencies.
TSGs account of Sharptons secret life as CI-7 is based on hundreds of pages of confidential FBI affidavits, documents released by the bureau in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, court records, and extensive interviews with six members of the Genovese squad, as well as other law enforcement officials to whom the activist provided assistance.
Like almost every other FBI informant, Sharpton was solely an information source. The parameters of his cooperation did not include Sharpton ever surfacing publicly or testifying on a witness stand.
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Untold story of how activist once aided probes of NYC
APRIL 7--When friends and family members gathered recently at the White House for a private celebration of Michelle Obamas 50th birthday, one of the invited partygoers was a former paid FBI Mafia informant.
That same man attended Februarys state dinner in honor of French President Francois Hollande. He was seated with his girlfriend at a table adjacent to President Barack Obama, who is likely unaware that, according to federal agents, his guest once interacted with members of four of New York Citys five organized crime families. He even secretly taped some of those wiseguys using a briefcase that FBI technicians outfitted with a recording device.
The high-profile Obama supporter was also on the dais atop the U.S. Capitol steps last year when the president was sworn in for a second term. He was seated in front of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two rows behind Beyonce and Jay Z, and about 20 feet from Eric Holder, the countrys top law enforcement officer. As head of the Department of Justice, Attorney General Holder leads an agency that once reported that Obamas inauguration guest also had La Cosa Nostra contacts beyond Gotham, and engaged in conversations with LCN members from other parts of the United States.
The former mob snitch has become a regular in the White House, where he has met with the 44th president in the East Room, the Roosevelt Room, and the Oval Office. He has also attended Obama Christmas parties, speeches, policy announcements, and even watched a Super Bowl with the First Family (an evening the man has called one of the highlights of my life). During these gatherings, he has mingled with cabinet members, top Obama aides, military leaders, business executives, and members of Congress. His former confederates were a decidedly dicier lot: ex-convicts, extortionists, heroin traffickers, and mob henchmen. The mans surreptitious recordings, FBI records show, aided his government handlers in the successful targeting of powerful Mafia figures with nicknames like Benny Eggs, Chin, Fritzy, Corky, and Baldy Dom.
Later this week, Obama will travel to New York and appear in a Manhattan hotel ballroom at the side of the man whom FBI agents primarily referred to as CI-7--short for confidential informant #7--in secret court filings. In those documents, investigators vouched for him as a reliable, productive, and accurate source of information about underworld figures.
The ex-informant has been one of Obamas most unwavering backers, a cheerleader who has nightly bludgeoned the presidents Republican opponents in televised broadsides. For his part, Obama has sought the mans counsel, embraced him publicly, and saluted his commitment to fight injustice and inequality. The president has even commented favorably on his friends svelte figure, the physical manifestation of a rehabilitation effort that coincided with Obamas ascension to the White House. This radical makeover has brought the man wealth, a daily TV show, bespoke suits, a luxury Upper West Side apartment, and a spot on best seller lists.
Most importantly, he has the ear of the President of the United States, an equally remarkable and perplexing achievement for the former FBI asset known as CI-7, the Rev. Al Sharpton.
A lengthy investigation by The Smoking Gun has uncovered remarkable details about Sharptons past work as an informant for a jointorganized crime task force comprised of FBI agents and NYPD detectives, as well as his dealings with an assortment of wiseguys.
Beginning in the mid-1980s and spanning several years, Sharptons cooperation was fraught with danger since the FBIs principal targets were leaders of the Genovese crime family, the countrys largest and most feared Mafia outfit. In addition to aiding the FBI/NYPD task force, which was known as the Genovese squad, Sharptons cooperation extended to several other investigative agencies.
TSGs account of Sharptons secret life as CI-7 is based on hundreds of pages of confidential FBI affidavits, documents released by the bureau in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, court records, and extensive interviews with six members of the Genovese squad, as well as other law enforcement officials to whom the activist provided assistance.
Like almost every other FBI informant, Sharpton was solely an information source. The parameters of his cooperation did not include Sharpton ever surfacing publicly or testifying on a witness stand.
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