IS AL SHARPTON INVOLVED IN A MONEY LAUNDERING RING WITH P DIDDY AND WYCLEF JEAN?

Al Sharpton’s record in public life is dubious, to say the least. Yet being an irresponsible public figure and being a criminal are quite different things, and one does not necessarily imply the other. As such, recent news that Sharpton is suspected of potentially being involved in a money laundering ring requires us to seriously examine the evidence for the charge. And in this case, Sharpton’s guilt is decidedly ambiguous. For those wondering how we know about this process, it was revealed two days ago during testimony at Rosemond’s trial by one of the IRS Agents present at the sessions.

Now, back to the story. The Smoking Gun has a superb writeup describing some of the more notable questions asked during these “proffer” sessions, as well as some of the names of people under suspicion. At least one will be very familiar to readers: Rosemond was also asked about his business relationship and financial transactions with [Al Sharpton]. Van Driessche testified that he had “known through my investigation that he had some type of business relationship with Al Sharpton, and I just wanted to determine what the extent of that was.” Rosemond told investigators that he “did in fact give Al Sharpton about $10,000 as a donation or a contribution.”
When cross-examined by Shargel, Van Driessche agreed that the Sharpton questions posed to Rosemond by federal investigators involved whether the hip-hop figure engaged in cash transactions with the activist/MSNBC host and if he knew about Sharpton doing “anything wrong.”
Shargel also asked the IRS agent if he knew that Rosemond “represented Reverend Sharpton in an effort to find an outlet for his popularity and his talent, right?” Van Driessche replied, “I knew they had an arrangement, but I didn’t know the exact details.” So to all appearances, Sharpton was represented by Rosemond in Rosemond’s capacity as a promoter, and also received donations from Rosemond. More may have happened, but it will be difficult to prove anything illegal happened with only this testimony to go on. At best, Sharpton is actually innocent of any wrongdoing. At worst, he is extremely lucky.

The same cannot be said for at least one of the other people mentioned in Van Driessche’s testimony – those being Grammy Award-winning recording artist Wyclef Jean and Rapper Sean “P Diddy” Combs.