Rev. Al Sharpton Sues Republican National Committee For Libel

Jet, April 17, 2000

The Rev. Al Sharpton has filed a $30 million libel suit against the Republican National Committee (RNC) charging that the organization libeled him by calling him "a murderer" and saying he had incited riots and protests in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, NY, in 1991.

Sharpton said the Republican National Committee falsely painted him as "a murderer."

He said he has no problem with Republicans calling him bad names--but "murderer" should not be on that list.

"They have a right to call me names, they have no right to accuse me of a crime," Sharpton said outside RNC headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he announced the filing of the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington. "To accuse me of murder is slander."

At issue is a letter to the editor published in the Washington Post in which Jim Nicholson, RNC chairman, blamed Sharpton for inciting riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in 1991 that led to the death of Hasidic scholar Yamkel Rosenbaum.