[Posted Dec. 19, 2007]

FBI, IRS Investigating
Sharpton and His Network

(Taylor Media Services)

     FBI and IRS agents hit at least ten employees and associates of the Rev. Al Sharpton with subpoenas early last Wednesday morning demanding they submit financial records and testify before a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, New York on the day after Christmas. Reportedly, the federal authorities are investigating Sharpton’s 2004 presidential campaign, his civil rights group—the National Action Network and for-profit businesses he runs.
     Sharpton suggested that the investigation amounted to a government attack on his civil rights efforts saying, “They have been investigating us for the past 20 years.” However, Sharpton’s chief of staff for eight years during the 1990s characterized last week’s delivery of the subpoenas at six o’clock in the morning as more “like a sting or a raid. They converged on everybody.” The New York Post reported the subpoenas also demanded personal financial documents concerning Sharpton and his wife. However, neither Sharpton nor his wife was subpoenaed.
      A Sharpton spokesman, Charlie King, said the minister and the National Action Network were cooperating with the investigation but added that they had “zero idea” as to what the authorities were looking for. The FBI has refused to comment.
     

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