Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi is in plea talks with Mueller
- The far-right political commentator Jerome Corsi is in plea talks with the special counsel Robert Mueller.
- Corsi is one of the central figures in Mueller's investigation into whether members of President Donald Trump's campaign had advance knowledge of Russia's hack of the Democratic National Committee and WikiLeaks' subsequent dissemination of stolen emails.
- Corsi is close to the longtime GOP strategist Roger Stone, and he said last week that Mueller's office told him he would be indicted for perjury.
Jerome Corsi, a far-right conspiracy theorist and close associate of GOP strategist Roger Stone, is in talks with the special counsel Robert Mueller about a possible plea deal.
The news comes after Corsi said last week that Mueller's office told him he would be indicted for perjury.
"I fully anticipate that the next few days I will be indicted by Mueller for some form rather [sic] of giving false information to the special counsel ... or [however] they want to do the indictment," Corsi said on a YouTube livestream this month. "But I'm going to be criminally charged."
Corsi was served a subpoena in August by Mueller to testify before a grand jury. Mueller was reportedly investigating whether Corsi had prior knowledge of the Hillary Clinton campaign's hacked emails - which were later delivered to and published online by the radical pro-transparency group WikiLeaks - and whether he passed those emails on to Stone.
Stone, a former adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign, is under scrutiny by the special counsel for his connection with Julian Assange (WikiLeaks' founder) and Guccifer 2.0, a Russia-linked hacker believed to be a front for the GRU.
Read more: Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi says Mueller told him he will be indicted for perjury
Corsi, formerly the Washington bureau chief of conspiracy-theory-website InfoWars, suggested Mueller had material evidence for his case.
"When they have your emails and phone records ... they're very good at the perjury trap," Corsi told NBC producer Anna Schecter.
In 2016, days before a trove of emails were leaked, Stone made several statements on Twitter that eventually attracted attention from investigators. Stone previously tweeted "it will soon [be] Podesta's time in the barrel," in reference to John Podesta, Clinton's embattled campaign manager, whose emails were breached.
Corsi later claimed to be the inspiration behind Stone's tweets that suggested Podesta's brewing troubles. One person familiar with the situation said Mueller's team was reviewing communications with Trump's associates, in which Corsi and Stone appeared to take credit for the release of the hacked emails, according to NBC News. The source added that there has yet to be evidence of their potential involvement in the email's hack or subsequent release to the public.
Corsi denied having prior knowledge of the emails. Stone reportedly described his alleged ties with Russia as a "left-wing conspiracy theory" and claimed Corsi did not tip him off about WikiLeaks' possession of the emails prior to its public release.
"For the record, I have never had any communication of any kind with Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, or Guccifer 2.0, or any Russian agents of any kind, including those mythical Russian agents who the Democrats believe wanted to throw the election for Trump," Corsi reportedly wrote on InfoWars in March 2017.
Stone, meanwhile, casts doubt on Mueller's investigation and has indicated that the special counsel does not have enough proof against him or Corsi. He pointed out that he has taken two polygraph tests and passed both. He also said his attorneys have reviewed all his written communications with the far-right commentator. And he said Corsi had been "squeezed hard" by prosecutors but "refuses to do anything but tell the truth."