UPDATE: Al Sharpton held a press conference Tuesday to dismiss a report that he was a paid informant for the FBI.
The civil rights activist and MSNBC host called the allegations “old news,” that he had discussed in his 1996 book “Go and Tell Pharaoh,” the AP reported. He reiterated that he never considered himself an “informant” for the FBI, though he did go to the authorities after being “threatened” by mobsters in the music business.
Contrary to his earlier interviews with the New York Daily News and the New York Post, however, he did admit to carrying a bugged briefcase. Sharpton said he had tried to record mobsters repeating their threats against him, the Observer reported.
“In my own mind I was not an informant,” he told reporters. “I was cooperating with an investigation.”
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