The woman allegedly behind the breakup of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s 23-year marriage was slapped with a subpoena connected to a federal probe into the activist’s finances, The Post has learned.
Marjorie Fields-Harris, the former director of the National Action Network, was among at least seven people served Wednesday with a subpoena by the Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office demanding financial records related to Sharpton’s advocacy group, his private business interests and his 2004 presidential run, according to a source close to the investigation.
At a hastily called press conference at his organization’s Harlem headquarters, Sharpton blasted the joint investigation by the FBI and IRS.
“This is the kind of abuse that people in my community go through every day,” he said. “I’m used to operating under investigation. I’ve never operated when I wasn’t.”
Sharpton was not served with a subpoena.
Fields-Harris, who left the NAN last December, declined comment.
The two were romantically linked as late as 2004 and traveled together frequently throughout his presidential run, staying at luxury hotels and flying first class.
Both left their spouses in early 2003, but never publicly commented on their relationship.
The FBI did not return calls for comment. The IRS also declined to comment on the probe.
Law-enforcement sources said investigators are looking into false financial statements Sharpton may have provided when campaigning for president as well as the “co-mingling” of his personal business ventures with NAN and its officers.
Charlie King, the NAN’s acting national director, called the subpoenas “baffling” and “mystifying,” saying the organization has been working to get its financial paperwork in order.
Sharpton’s official compensation from the NAN has fluctuated from year to year, records show.
He paid himself $4,860 in 2006, according to the group’s tax filings. In 2005, he collected $72,036, and in 2004, he took home $93,636.
“He has a good, full-paying job with his radio show, and he has speaking engagements,” King said when asked how Sharpton affords his designer clothes and apartment at the exclusive Helmsley Carlton House on Madison Avenue.
Earlier this year, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said the NAN was out of compliance with New York’s nonprofit regulations after The Post made inquiries. But, without explanation, Cuomo denied requests to release its public documents pertaining to the organization.
Cuomo, a Sharpton ally who endorsed Fields-Harris for her unsuccessful 2005 run as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, declined to comment on the group’s current legal standing.
Additional reporting by Murray Weiss