Jerome Corsi Praises Special Counsel After Stone Indictment
Jerome Corsi on Friday praised the special counsel’s probe as “thorough and complete” following the indictment of his former associate, political operative Roger Stone.
Corsi’s statement is a softening of sorts for the right-wing author. He is suing Special Counsel Robert Mueller for $350 million for allegedly violating his Fourth Amendment rights through what he claims is unlawful surveillance.
Corsi has also accused Mueller’s office of leaking secret grand jury information.
“In sum, it would appear that the Special Counsel’s investigation has been thorough and complete and the Stone Indictment is accurate with regard to references to Dr. Corsi, consistent with Dr. Corsi’s testimony and interviews,” Corsi’s lawyer, Larry Klayman, said in a statement after Stone was indicted.
Corsi claimed that the indictment “confirms that Dr. Corsi has not been and is not being accused of any illegality.”
Stone, 66, was indicted on five counts of lying to Congress, one count of witness tampering, and one count of obstructing with an official proceeding.
The charges center mostly on Stone’s testimony to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Sept. 26, 2017.
Mueller’s team alleges that Stone lied about his interactions with Trump campaign officials and other associates, including Corsi, regarding WikiLeaks.
Corsi, who is best known as the leading force behind the false “birther” conspiracy theory, asserted that he has “fully cooperated with the Special Counsel and his prosecutors and testified truthfully to the grand jury.”
Corsi has met with prosecutors for more than 40 hours since being subpoenaed on Aug. 28. He has also testified at least twice before Mueller’s grand jury in Washington, D.C.
Stone, a longtime GOP political operative who met Corsi in February 2016, is not accused of conspiring to hack or disseminate Democrats’ emails.
Stone denied coordinating with Russians or WikiLeaks, or of having direct contact with WikiLeaks during the campaign. Notably, he is not charged with lying in those denials.
Though Corsi and Stone worked closely together during and after the campaign, the Mueller probe has led to their falling out in recent weeks.
That largely stems from Corsi’s public claims about what he told Mueller’s grand jury.
Corsi has said in interviews, as well as in his book, “Silent No More, that he told Stone in August 2016 that he believed that WikiLeaks possessed emails that had been stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
If accurate, Corsi’s claim would undercut Stone’s longstanding assertion that he did not know that WikiLeaks had Podesta’s emails until they were published on Oct. 7, 2016.
Corsi has claimed that he rejected a plea deal submitted by Mueller’s office in November. The draft of the plea deal, which Corsi released, would have required Corsi to admit to making false statements about his communications with Stone regarding WikiLeaks.
Corsi maintained that he did not willingly lie about the emails and said that he refused to “bear false witness” to the special counsel. Corsi has accused Mueller of leading a witch hunt and of targeting his family.
He also accused Mueller’s team of illegally leaking grand jury information to reporters, including this reporter. That claim, which Corsi has made in TV appearances and in an amended filing in his Mueller lawsuit, is false.
Both the draft plea offer and Stone’s indictment refer to one email that Corsi sent Stone on Aug. 2, 2016 which referred to Podesta as well as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
“Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging,” Corsi wrote in the email, seemingly referring to Julian Assange, who is living under asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
“Time to let more than Podesta to be exposed as in bed w/ enemy if they are not ready to drop HRC,” he said. “That appears to be the game hackers are now about.”
Stone has claimed that he did not view Corsi’s email as a suggestion that WikiLeaks had Podesta’s emails.
“I had no idea that Podesta’s emails had been stolen until they were published,” Stone told The Daily Caller News Foundation on Nov. 28. “It makes a reference to Podesta, but even that’s not a veiled reference to his emails.”
Notably, Friday’s indictment does not accuse Stone of lying to Congress when he denied having advance knowledge that Podesta’s emails would be released.
Corsi has claimed that he deduced on his own in August 2016 that WikiLeaks likely had possession of Podesta’s emails.
He has also said that prosecutors do not believe his claims and that they suspect that someone close to WikiLeaks must have provided him information about what materials the group had.
Through Corsi appeared to express confidence that he is not , Mueller’s grand jury did hear testimony on Thursday from Corsi’s stepson, Andrew Stettner. Klayman told reporters that Stettner, who is also his client, testified about Corsi and not Stone.
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A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.
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