Right-wing conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi shared a tip with Roger Stone, a confidant of President Trump, which indicated WikiLeaks had information that could hurt Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, according to draft court documents.
“Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps,” Corsi wrote in an email on Aug. 2, 2016, appearing to refer to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is claiming asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. “One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.”
The message was included in a draft court filing, known as a statement of the offense, sent to Corsi by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office when it offered the former Washington bureau chief of right-wing publication Infowars a plea deal, NBC News and CNN reported Tuesday. Corsi rejected the proposed agreement, in which he would have been required to plead guilty to one count of lying to federal investigators regarding an email titled “Get to Assange” that he received from Stone on July 25, 2016. He has argued that he never intentionally misled prosecutors.
“Get to [Assange] [a]t Ecuadorian Embassy in London and get the pending [WikiLeaks] emails,” Stone wrote, the draft court papers allege.
Corsi told investigators he denied the request; however, the writer told the Daily Caller on Tuesday he passed the note onto Ted Malloch, an academic-turned-informal Trump campaign adviser. Corsi had previously repudiated claims he had involved a third party in their efforts.
Eight days after the July missive, Corsi sent the Aug. 2, 2016, email to Stone.
“Time to let more than [Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta] to be exposed as in bed w enemy if they are not ready to drop HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton],” Corsi added in that message. “That appears to be the game hackers are now about.”
One of Mueller’s team’s main lines of inquiry relates to whether or not Trump associates had prior notice of WikiLeaks’ dumps. Several people connected to Stone have become central to Mueller’s probe, but he has yet to be contacted by the special counsel.
“None of which proves that I had advance knowledge of the source where the content of the allegedly hacked or allegedly stolen emails produced by Wikileaks,” Stone told the Washington Examiner when asked about the draft court documents.
On Oct. 7, 2016, WikiLeaks released emails stolen from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman, by a group allegedly connected to Russian intelligence. That same day the Washington Post had published the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape from 2006 in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women.
Corsi has testified before the Russia grand jury on two occasions since being subpoenaed in August. Mueller’s team has been looking at whether he had a source who warned him that WikiLeaks had obtained the messages. Corsi has said he suspected WikiLeaks had Podesta’s emails, but claims his prediction was based on publicly available information.
Mueller’s statement of the offense also alleges that Corsi tried to wipe potentially incriminating documents from his computer between Jan. 13, 2017, and March 1, 2017, deleting messages exchanged with Stone and Malloch before Oct. 11, 2016.
Stone additionally asked Corsi on Nov. 30, 2017, to write about Randy Credico, a comedian and radio host, whom Stone credits with being his intermediary with WikiLeaks.
“Are you sure you want to make something out of this now?” Corsi replied. “Why not wait to see what [Credico] does? You may be defending yourself too much — raising new questions that will fuel new inquiries. This may be a time to say less, not more.”
Malloch and Credico have also been subpoenaed and were scheduled to appear before the grand jury.
