Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said he will seek an investigation of what he said was an attempt to extort him by the head of a nonprofit organization who Reed says secretly recorded him almost three years ago and tried to obtain $30,000 from the city with edited, profanity-laced audio clips of the mayor.

Reed said there were previously initial talks with the Montgomery County district attorney’s office about an investigation into the demands for money. Reed said the city decided not to press for an investigation then but will do so now after the release of the audio clips, which were published by news outlets this week.

“We did not move forward,” Reed said. “But we were wrong to do that in hindsight. And so we will take those next steps now.”

The man Reed accuses of extortion, Charles Lee, founder of the nonprofit That’s My Child, said he did not record or leak the recording. Lee said he was at the meeting where Reed made the comments heard in the recordings to a group of political activists following the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020.

The edited audio clips make Reed sound dismissive of his need for support of Black voters, apathetic about the city’s relationship with Maxwell Air Force Base, and cynical about whether white people in Montgomery will substantially invest in the city’s future, among other things.

Reed said the message the clips purport to convey is at odds with his approach to his job as mayor and his views of the city’s residents.

“I’m the mayor of every citizen of this community,” Reed said during a news conference today at City Hall. “I respect their concerns and dreams. And I know I need to earn their trust, as well as their votes.”

The mayor called on the media to be skeptical and careful about how it characterizes an edited, secretly made recording. Reed noted that his voice is the only one heard on the recordings and that his comments lack context.

“You take something that’s been remixed and hijacked and you purport it to be authentic,” Reed said. “That’s not only dangerous for me as a mayor. That’s dangerous for any elected official, any public official and anyone else who’s in a private conversation with someone who may have ulterior motives.”

Reed said the meeting with Lee took place in June 2020 as part of an effort to avoid violence in Montgomery in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, which caused protests across the nation, some of which turned violent. Reed said he sought out meetings with community leaders to help maintain the peace.

“To say that the level of tension was high was an understatement,” Reed said.

Reed said he met with Lee at the office of the Alabama Democratic Conference in Montgomery on June 1, 2020. The ADC is a Black political organization led for decades by Reed’s father, Joe Reed.

Reed said the conversation with Lee veered away from the topic of maintaining peace in the city to what he said was Lee’s request for $30,000 for his organization.

“During the course of that meeting, it became very, very clear to me that Mr. Lee did not come here as a helper to calm the community,” Reed said. “He came out of the interest of personal gain. He came to shake me down. He came to extort the mayor of the city.”

Reed said Lee made threats about working to hurt Reed’s support in the Black community and threatened to help stir up destructive protests.

Reed said he became angry that someone would take advantage of a crisis. He said he regretted the profanity heard in the clips.

“You hear me frustrated, you hear me angry, and you hear a level of tension in my voice,” the mayor said.

Reed said he should have walked out of the meeting with Lee when the subject of money came up but did not want to walk out of a meeting with someone he considered a community leader. Reed said a third person who came with Lee was present for part of the meeting. He said no one else was there.

Later that day, June 1, 2020, Reed spoke to a large crowd outside E.D. Nixon Elementary School and urged that protests in the city remain peaceful. Others spoke at the event, including Lee. That evening, a protest on Dexter Avenue near the State Capitol drew a large crowd but did not result in violence or arrests.

Reed said he considered seeking legal action against Lee after the meeting but decided against it.

“I decided not to prosecute at that time because I believed that after talking to community leaders and civic leaders that it was the right thing to do,” Reed said. “I was wrong. We should have prosecuted then and we should have called into question what Mr. Lee’s motivations were.”

Reed said he later became aware of the audio recording, which he said has been shopped around for the last couple of years. Reed said the intent is to press for an investigation now.

“We’re going to protect the integrity of the mayor’s office at all times. We’re going to protect the integrity of the city government at all times.

AL.com reached out to the office of Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey to ask if there was investigation into Reed’s allegations but has not received a response.

Asked if he would like to have the full, unedited audio of the meeting with Lee released, Reed said he “absolutely.”