Did anyone not see this coming?

Via NYDN:

He helped the FBI secretly record mobsters with a bugged briefcase, but the Rev. Al Sharpton said Tuesday that he’s no rat.

Facing stunning new details of his work as a federal informant, Sharpton said he “did what was right” when he helped an FBI-NYPD task force known as the “Genovese Squad” go after Mafia figures in the 1980s. […]

Sharpton claimed that video simply recorded a failed sting.

The author of the Smoking Gun story, William Bastone, said Sharpton’s claims don’t hold water.

“The idea that he made the recordings because this guy supposedly threatened him …. It’s just totally crazy,” Bastone said.

“He may not like considering himself a confidential informant, but that’s what he was. He wasn’t doing this out of the goodness of his heart.”

Sharpton cast the new attention on his work with the feds as racist. He said that while blacks who help law enforcement are called snitches, “We make heroes in other communities who fight crime.”

Sharpton’s cooperation with the FBI had been reported as far back as 1988, but The Smoking Gun revealed that he had 10 face-to-face meetings — all