Right-wing author and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi filed a federal lawsuit late Sunday night that accused special counsel Robert Mueller of “illegal and unconstitutional surveillance” of his phone and electronic records and of leaking grand jury information.
In the 14-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Corsi also accused the Justice Department, FBI, CIA, and National Security Agency of violating his Fourth Amendment rights.
Corsi, on behalf of his lawyers David Gray of New Jersey and Judicial Watch founder Larry Klayman, said he has been “directly affected and victimized by the unlawful and unconstitutional and other illegal and criminal conduct.”
Corsi, 72, is demanding $100 million in “general and compensatory damages” and $250 million in punitive damages from the law enforcement agencies.
For months, Mueller’s team has investigated whether Corsi knew in advance that WikiLeaks had obtained emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta, which were stolen by Russian intelligence officers. In the summer of 2016, during the height of the presidential campaign, WikiLeaks published troves of Democratic National Committee emails.
In his lawsuit, Corsi said Mueller’s team has unfairly targeted him because it has “misrepresented the investigative research” that Corsi conducted into the Clinton emails, and because of Corsi’s “investigative deduction” that the emails would “probably be released at a later date.”
“Based on these misrepresentations by Defendant Mueller and his leftist and Democrat partisan prosecutorial and ethically and legally conflicted staff, Defendant Mueller has threatened to indict Plaintiff Corsi and effectively put him in federal prison for the rest of his life, unless Plaintiff Corsi would provide the false testimony that they demanded, even after being informed that the testimony desired would be false,” the suit said.
The special counsel has “demanded” that Corsi “false testify” that he acted as a liaison between Roger Stone — an ally of President Trump — and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, wrote Corsi’s defense team.
The lawsuit also alleged that Mueller’s team has leaked grant jury information about Corsi.
Late last month, a draft court filing was leaked to NBC News that was prepared by Mueller’s team as part of plea deal negotiations with Corsi that fell apart.
The draft court filing showed emails sent by Corsi to Stone about WikiLeaks roughly 10 weeks before the group published Podesta’s hacked emails in October 2016.
“These leaks are meant to pressure Plaintiff Corsi into providing the false testimony that Defendant Mueller and his staff seek by portraying Plaintiff Corsi negatively through the media, as well as to destroy him if he does not comply,” Corsi’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. “These leaks are also intended to send a message to other supporters of the president that they had best comply with the unlawful demands of Defendant Mueller and his prosecutorial staff or be indicted or at the least irreparably smeared and destroyed in the public domain.”
Corsi told Fox Business Network on Nov. 30: “If I have to die in jail over this to get the point across to the American people this is not the standard of justice in America I grew up with, I’ll die in jail. I will not swear before a judge to a lie.”
