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Sharpton Sues HBO, Others for $1 Billion

Aired July 24, 2002 - 14:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, he is speaking out again. Al Sharpton is suing HBO now, and accusing the network of waging a smear campaign against him. It all stems from a 19-year-old FBI videotape.
CNN's Michael Okwu joins us live from outside the state supreme court in Lower Manhattan -- tell us about this videotape, Michael.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you that Al Sharpton is suing for a lot of money. We can start with a billion dollars, and if you think you heard that incorrectly, I will repeat it. A billion with a "b." He is suing HBO, "HBO Real Sports," and its parent company, AOL Time Warner, which, of course, happens to be also the parent company of CNN. Now all of this stems from a airing last night on HBO "Real Sports" of a 1983 FBI surveillance tape in which Al Sharpton appears to be having a conversation about a drug deal with an undercover agent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. AL SHARPTON, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: So what kind of time limit are we dealing with, with this?

FBI AGENT: The coke?

SHARPTON: Yeah.

FBI AGENT: Could be -- about the same time I have four million coming to us.

SHARPTON: End of April.

FBI AGENT: End of April, six weeks from now.

Is that a good time, you think?

SHARPTON: Probably.

FBI AGENT: Now I can get pure coke...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OKWU: Now, the tape shows Sharpton responding to the amount of cocaine involved, as well as the amount of money that they could stand to make from distributing the cocaine. Sharpton said the conversation was taped as part of a government investigation into whether boxing promoter Don King had any ties to organized crime. Now HBO aired it as part of a segment about Michael Franzese, a former Colombo crime family boss who organized gambling for professional athletes. Sharpton, who is considering, of course, a run for the U.S. presidency said that HBO aired this in spite of the fact that there was another tape in which it was very clear, he says, that he was not accepting any kind of a drug deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Ten years ago when the Senate subcommittee hearings occurred, they said to me, when tapes came out, Well, how did you know the President Stromberg (ph)? Isn't he a tough guy? I said I wanted to act tough to get this guy off of me, who continually was trying to bring what had started as a legitimate proposal for help into something illegitimate.

And I wanted to do whatever I could to protect my family, to scare him back off of us, and now everyone seems to want to forget those stories and that tape.

I will not bend or buckle or bow to a smear campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OKWU: Now, yesterday, HBO spokesman Ray Stallone issued a statement saying, -- quote -- "we believe we have an informative segment airing on 'Real Sports' that is focused on telling the Michael Franzese story. HBO Sports stands by its reporting."

Now, we should mention that Franzese is also named in the suit, as well as Bernard Goldberg, who is the correspondent who procured and then, of course, put together that segment for HBO "Real Sports." For his part, Al Sharpton this morning said that he is not embarrassed by anything at all. He is a man who usually has very colorful quotes, did not -- did not offer to more (ph) colorful quotes this morning saying that he is a civil rights activist who says he would rather fight than switch, and he said that the only thing he is embarrassed about is having to explain to his two teenage daughters why he was wearing such a cheap-looking cowboy hat -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, that brings up two questions, Michael. First of all, we have never seen him in a cowboy hat, so I was curious. Did his comment -- was this a disguise, why was he dressed this way, and second of all, 19 years ago, was he a reverend then?

OKWU: Well, I will take the first part of that first. I don't believe that it was a disguise. He says that it was him in that tape. He doesn't dispute that at all. In fact, he says that the reason why he was not -- why he looked to be playing along was that he wanted to walk out of that meeting safe and sound. He wasn't sure whether the person he was talking to was armed, so he just sort of went along with it. He wearing the cowboy hat maybe because it was the 1980s and that was his taste at the time, and what was your second question, Kyra? I didn't quite hear it.

PHILLIPS: Was he a reverend 19 years ago? OKWU: Was he a?

PHILLIPS: A reverend. A minister.

OKWU: Yes. Yes, he was a minister at the time, and in fact, he said that the whole reason that he was -- that he had a meeting with this particular fellow at the time was because he had contacts in the community, and that a record promoter who had an office next to his was wondering whether this person could talk to Sharpton about spreading the word about some of the deals that he was involved with. He did not say at that time, of course, that he was a drug dealer. It only came out later in that meeting, according to Al Sharpton.

PHILLIPS: Well, it will be interesting to see how this all plans out. Michael Okwu. Thank you.

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