FBI probe of Sharpton ‘Bogus’

By Herb BoydSpecial to the NNPA from the Amsterdam News NEW YORK (NNPA) – Angered by a headline in the New York Post, the Rev. Al Sharpton called a press conference in front of the paper’s headquarters and charged that the story was “bogus.” The Post’s story, as Sharpton explained, was based on one that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer. One of the most damaging assertions in the Post’s story states that “an FBI wiretap picked up [La-Van] Hawkins telling [Ronald] White he believed they had raised more than $140,000 for Sharpton in the previous quarter – but Hawkins fretted because Sharpton had reported only about $50,000 on his federal election filing. ”He’s a train wreck – a plane crash waiting to happen,” Hawkins told White about Sharpton, according to the paper. “That’s a very important sentence,” Sharpton said. “And since they used this as the basis of their story, they should tell the whole story.” Sharpton then recited the part omitted by the Post, quoting from the Inquirer: “[La-Van] Hawkins apparently was referring to news reports that Sharpton had raised $54,000 in the second quarter of 2003. It is unclear whether Hawkins understood the details of the campaign-finance reports, because Federal Election Commission records show that Hawkins and his associates made major contributions in the first quarter of 2003.” Sharpton then related that several weeks ago the Post erroneously reported that he and William Thompson, the city’s comptroller, were under a federal probe for a scheme to defraud the pension fund, which is overseen by Thompson. “A prosecutor stood in federal court and said there was no wrongdoing,” Sharpton continued. “In fact, they dropped our names from the situation. The Post didn’t report that. … I challenge not only the Post to come forward and print the whole article, but the FBI should release the tape, if they have a tape, and my FEC filings and I’ll show you that everything … was properly filed. And there was no probable cause for an FBI probe of anything.” At the top of the Post’s story it indicated that Sharpton was the target of a criminal investigation and had been secretly videotaped pocketing campaign donations from “two shady fund-raisers in a New York City hotel room and then asking for more,” the Post reported. All the FBI had to do was to consult the filings, Sharpton said, “and they would have seen there were no grounds for a probe.” He went on to say, “If it takes the FBI two years to check their findings and report them, then I should have been president so I could have had an FBI director who understands how to look into things,” Sharpton snapped. He said he had not seen the alleged videotape of him accepting money from La-Van Hawkins and the late Ronald White, who died last November. Hawkins and White were characterized as shady by the Post, a description Sharpton disputed. “Funny, they weren’t considered shady in 2003, when Mr. White wanted to help our campaign,” Sharpton began. “Mr. White was a lawyer, a director of a bank, and close to the mayor [John Street] of Philadelphia, and Mr. Hawkins. How was I to know that a year and a half later they were going to be prosecuted? So, I guess when James Brown introduced me to Richard Nixon I was supposed to know that he was going to be snared in Watergate the next year. And I guess when I met Bill Clinton I should have known that later he was going to have problems. Not only must I be a preacher, I must also be a prophet.” In the Post’s story it was stated that Sharpton had accepted money from Hawkins and White to help qualify for matching federal funds. Also, according to the Inquirer, the two men were seeking to curry favor with Sharpton in order to give them a leg up in various business endeavors, including the pension fund. The conversations between Sharpton and White were captured during a wiretap of their phone calls. The FBI has declined to comment on this issue. “What is absolutely erroneous in all this is that if someone wanted me to help them, I am not a public official … they could hire me,” Sharpton said. “I have a consulting firm. I would not need an election campaign to curry favor for them.” He added: ”Can you imagine what would happen if it was a White presidential candidate?” Sharpton asked. He said he believed he was a target of the FBI, but said that he did not know why, since “I have done nothing wrong.” He said that it might stem from the fact that White was a central figure in the Philadelphia City Hall probe. Hawkins, a fast-food mogul who hails from Detroit, is currently on trial in Philadelphia on charges of helping White to funnel a $10,000 payment to Philadelphia’s ex-treasurer Corey Kemp in an attempt to influence government contracts.