The Rev. Al Sharpton and his National Action Network have been hit with a $285,000 fine for violating numerous federal election rules during his 2004 run for President, according to The New York Post. In a finding to be released next month, the Federal Election Commission determined that Sharpton’s Democratic primary campaign accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from private sources.
Sharpton and his former campaign manager Andrew Rivera signed an agreement earlier this month with the Federal Election Campaign Act to pay the fine. The FEC also alleges that they “kept poor records of its activities and expenditures” and commingled funds with Sharpton’s civil-rights group.
The civil rights activist has fired back at The New York Post, insisting that the news rag is trying to smear his name by claiming that this was the largest fine in history.
Sharpton’s camp released a statement on the matter:
“First, the settlement makes clear that there is no evidence of criminality or intentional wrongdoing by National Action Network, Reverend Sharpton or his campaign. Second, even the initial civil fine proposed by the FEC of $500,000 was reduced by nearly 50% once it knew all of the facts. Third, contradicting the Post headline that the settlement is a ‘record 285G fine’ it is, in fact, far from it.
“For example, Freddie Mac paid $3.8 million in fines to the FEC, and the FEC had a $750,000 settlement — almost 3 times the fine here — with the Republican George Bush connected group American Voter Fund. Another right wing group, the Citizens Club for Growth paid $350,000 for campaign violations during the same election cycle, and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had a higher fine than the one here.”
The investigation was initially spearheaded by Virginia-based watchdog group The National Legal and Policy Center, which filed a complaint in 2004 with the FEC.
