- Jesse Jackson biographer Kenneth R. Timmerman said Tuesday
night that there's "a strong possibility" the celebrated civil
rights leader could soon find himself under indictment for illegally funneling
tax-exempt money into Democratic Party political campaigns.
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- "Jesse Jackson has been using nonprofit dollars
for political campaigns, especially during campaign 2000 and campaign 1996.
That's just flatly illegal," Timmerman told Fox News Channel's Bill
O'Reilly.
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- When asked whether the financial wrongdoing could lead
to a Jackson indictment, Timmerman contended, "I think there's a strong
possibility. The evidence is against him."
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- Timmerman's book, "Shakedown: Exposing the Real
Jesse Jackson," is the first investigative biography of the controversial
Reverend since 1976.
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- During his interview with O'Reilly, Timmerman unveiled
a series of allegations that could erode Jackson's image even more than
last year's revelation that he had bedded an assistant at Operation PUSH
and fathered her child.
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- Timmerman described how Jackson began financing his civil
rights empire starting with a 1982 meeting with black businessmen in St.
Louis where he proposed what amounted to a civil rights protection racket.
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- "You've got to pay if you want to play," Jackson
allegedly told the group. "I'm going to be here and broker your business
deals with the white community and with major businesses, but you've got
to pay me and pay into my organization."
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- When a local black newspaper covered the meeting under
the headline "Minister or Charlatan?" Jackson sued - only to
back off when the paper called for him to produce his financial records.
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- Of Jackson's extortion tactics, friend and attorney Ron
Daniels told O'Reilly, "I like the premise of [Timmerman's] book,
'Shakedown.' Because if he means by shakedown the ability to use economic
sanctions to make major corporations invest more in the black community,
then we need more shaking down."
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