“For more than four years, the fact that Sharpton was working as an informant was known only to members of the Genovese squad and a small number of other law enforcement agents. As with any Mafia informant, protecting Sharpton’s identity was crucial to maintaining the viability of ongoing investigations. Not to mention keeping him alive.” The Smoking Gun provides a detailed look at what they say were Al Sharpton’s days as FBI informant CI-7.

+ Sharpton called the report old news and added: “I was not and am not a rat because I wasn’t with the rats. I’m a cat. I chase rats.” (Is this a subtle insinuation that Dr. Seuss was somehow involved?)

+ Whether or not he was an informant, this was his hair. I miss the 80s.