Reprinted with permission from AlterNet.
On Monday morning, MSNBC reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has offered a plea deal to Jerome Corsi, a longtime right-wing conspiracy theorist with ties to President Donald Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone. Under the agreement, Corsi would reportedly cop to one count of perjury related to his testimony about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.
But CNN promptly reported that Corsi will not sign the agreement, and would rather take it to trial.
“They can put me in prison the rest of my life,” he told reporters on a phone call. “I am not going to sign a lie.” He added that he does not know what will happen next.
Corsi, who has worked for the right-wing conspiracy theory sites WorldNetDaily and InfoWars, wrote a book that sought to prove President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and was a proponent of the Pizzagate and QAnontheories alleging a massive, secret sex trafficking ring — and worse — at the highest levels of government.
Mueller has reportedly been investigating Corsi in an attempt to ascertain how close Stone was to Assange and WikiLeaks as they distributed stolen emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman — likely obtained from a hacker affiliated with the Russian military. The Justice Department is reportedly considering a charge against Assange in a separate investigation, although the details have not been disclosed.
Stone previously bragged about having a backchannel to WikiLeaks, but has walked that back as his legal liability mounts.
So far, Mueller has been a master at wrangling pleas and cooperation agreements from suspects, including Trump’s campaign manager. It remains to be seen what will happen if he takes Corsi to trial. But it is clear that Mueller is closer than ever to getting to the bottom of what really happened between WikiLeaks and Trump’s allies.
Matthew Chapman is a video game designer, science fiction author, and political reporter from Austin, TX. Follow him on Twitter @fawfulfan.
