Sharpton angrily denounces investigation at news conference By PAT MILTON EW YORK (AP) - The Rev. Al Sharpton angrily denounced federal authorities for serving subpoenas on members of his civil rights organization, suggesting that the Justice Department was retaliating against him for his political activism. "I have probably been under every investigation known to man and I can't remember a time that I've not been under investigation," Sharpton said at a hastily called news conference at the Harlem headquarters of the National Action Network. "So when this latest story surfaced, it was my inclination to not even respond. The issues raised are issues that we've learned over and over again, particularly when we are approaching an election season." Sharpton called the news conference to respond to media reports that federal authorities have subpoenaed financial records and employees in an apparent probe of his 2004 presidential bid, nonprofit civil rights group and for-profit businesses. As many as 10 Sharpton associates were subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in Brooklyn Dec. 26, his lawyer told the Daily News. They were told to provide investigators with financial records from the campaign and roughly six Sharpton-related businesses, as well as personal financial documents of Sharpton and his wife, the newspaper said. The FBI and Internal Revenue Service are seeking the records, which go back to 2001, according to the Daily News. Sharpton said he thought the timing of the investigation was suspicious, coming just weeks after he led a march on the Justice Department to demand federal intervention in the Jena Six case and better enforcement of hate crimes. He criticized federal investigators for conducting their sweep in the early morning at the homes of his civil rights workers, including "four single mothers." "To swoop down on them in front of their children ... to serve a subpoena about stuff two or three years old ... even I would have thought that they would not have handled a matter like this in such a disrespectful and insensitive way," he said. Carl Redding, Sharpton's chief of staff for eight years during the 1990s, said FBI agents awoke him at 6:30 a.m. with a subpoena to testify and to bring records to the grand jury, but would not tell him the reason for the investigation. Several staffers from the National Action Network also got subpoenas to testify, said Sharpton lawyer Michael Hardy. Sharpton himself did not receive a subpoena, the Daily News said. Sharpton spokesman Charlie King said the minister and the National Action Network were cooperating with the probe, and Sharpton reiterated that message on Thursday. "Most of my staff has been questioned by every investigator in the world," he said. "They have never not given documents, they have never not answered questions." Sharpton agreed in 2005 to repay the government $100,000, plus interest, for taxpayer money he received during his failed effort to win the Democratic presidential nomination the year before, though he denied wrongdoing. The Federal Election Commission had determined that he spent more of his own money on the campaign than the qualifications for federal matching funds allow. In 1993, Sharpton pleaded guilty to not filing a state income tax return in 1986.

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