Want to book Jesse Jackson for a speech? Make sure you have $75,000 and a private jet available. That's what the reverend charged for a late-2007 speech in Trinidad, but then never showed for the appearance, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in Chicago.


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The AEI Speakers Bureau is suing Jackson for $100,000, claiming that his no-show cost the firm a $63,932 commission and left them with a $36,068 bill for a chartered private jet. Jackson's signed agreement with AEI, a copy of which you'll find below, called for him to address a November 2007 political rally for the United National Congress.

According to a complaint filed in Cook County Circuit Court, Jackson "cited a desire to avoid the perception of showing favoritism to a Trinidad and Tobago political party as his reason for not fulfilling his contractual duties."

It does not appear that Jackson pocketed his $75,000 fee. In addition to Jackson, AEI arranged paid speaking gigs at the gathering for Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, both of whom flew commercial to Trinidad.

TSMG, http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0501092jesse1.html