L.A. Times to investigate validity of documents in Tupac report
The Smoking Gun website reports that the records the paper used to uncover new details in the rapper's murder were largely fabricated. An internal investigation will be launched.
Los Angeles Times Editor Russ Stanton said today he will launch an internal investigation into the authenticity of documents used in a story last week asserting that the newspaper had uncovered new evidence implicating associates of rap impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs in a bloody 1994 assault on hip-hop superstar Tupac Shakur.
Stanton ordered the review after the editor of the celebrity-centric website, The Smoking Gun, told the newspaper that he had reason to doubt The Times' account and in particular the FBI records that were supposed to buttress the story.
The website this morning posted a story saying the records -- purportedly statements by an unnamed informant to an FBI agent, which the newspaper posted on its website -- appeared to be forgeries. The Smoking Gun ( www.thesmokinggun.com "> www.thesmokinggun.com ) said the documents seemed suspicious for multiple reasons, including the fact that they appeared to be written on a typewriter, rather than a computer, and included blacked-out sections not typically found in such documents.
Tupac Shakur: An article in Thursday's Section A on The Times' plan to investigate its March 17 report on rapper Tupac Shakur gave the wrong first name for the lawyer for rap talent manager James Rosemond. He is Jeffrey Lichtman, not Marc.
The purported FBI reports were filed by Sabatino with a federal court in Miami four months ago in connection with a $16 million lawsuit he filed against Combs. Sabatino, who is serving time in prison for fraud, claims he is due the money for a business deal gone bad.
"The Times appears to have been hoaxed by an imprisoned con man and accomplished document forger, an audacious swindler who has created a fantasy world in which he managed hip-hop luminaries," the report on the website says.
"Questions have been raised about the authenticity of documents that we relied on for a story on the assault of Tupac Shakur in New York," Stanton said in a statement. "We are taking this very seriously and have begun our own investigation."
The Times broke the story last week, saying that it had uncovered new details about the sensational 1994 beating and shooting of Shakur, an unsolved crime that fascinated many -- even beyond the hip-hop community -- because it triggered a long-running war between rival rap music factions.
