An explosive new report by The Smoking Gun claims that the Rev. Al Sharpton is a former paid FBI informant.

The report published Monday claims that Mr. Sharpton regularly interacted with members of four of New York City’s five organized crime families, specifically leaders of the Genovese family, and he secretly recorded their conversations.

After the news came to light, Mr. Sharpton admitted helping law enforcement officials by keeping tabs on Mafia contacts in the 1980s.

“I was not and am not a rat, because I was not with the rats,” Newsday quoted Mr. Sharpton as telling reporters. “I am a cat. I chase rats.”

Mr. Sharpton indicated he would cooperate again if he felt his life was threatened.

Mr. Sharpton was known by the FBI as “CI-7” — short for confidential informant No. 7 — and began working for the agency in the mid-1980s, the report said.

From the report: “[The Smoking Gun’s] account of Sharpton’s secret life as ‘CI-7’ is based on hundreds of pages of confidential FBI affidavits, documents released by the bureau in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, court records and extensive interviews with six members of the Genovese squad, as well as other law enforcement officials to whom the activist provided assistance.

“Records obtained by TSG show that information gathered by Sharpton was used by federal investigators to help secure court authorization to bug two Genovese family social clubs, including Gigante’s Greenwich Village headquarters, three autos used by crime family leaders and more than a dozen phone lines.”

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