Right-wing conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi said he would rather die in jail than take a plea deal for allegedly lying to special counsel Robert Mueller.
Corsi, a key part of Mueller’s investigation into whether there was a connection between WikiLeaks and President Trump’s inner circle, plans on fighting the charge that he lied under oath to Mueller’s team. Mueller’s team believes Corsi had knowledge of emails hacked from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s personal Gmail account and shared information with Trump confidant Roger Stone.
“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,” Corsi told Fox Business Network on Friday.
Corsi has said he did not willfully mislead federal investigators during questioning. He revealed earlier this week that he had rejected a plea deal from Mueller.
Corsi’s legal team on Thursday said it was planning to file a criminal complaint against Mueller that would claim Mueller and his team were asking the conspiracy theorist to lie, the Hill reported. Larry Klayman, the founder of the conservative watchdog organizations Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, who joined Corsi’s legal team this week, would not disclose what lie the special counsel had allegedly asked Corsi to tell.
The proposed agreement, according to draft court documents, would have required Corsi to plead guilty to one count of lying to federal investigators regarding an email titled “Get to Assange,” that he received from Stone in July 2016.
“Get to [Assange] [a]t Ecuadorian Embassy in London and get the pending [WikiLeaks] emails,” Stone wrote, according to the draft documents.
Corsi told investigators he did not follow through on the request. Eight days later, he wrote back to Stone: “Time to let more than [Podesta] to be exposed as in bed w enemy if they are not ready to drop HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton],” Corsi wrote. “That appears to be the game hackers are now about.”
In October, a month before the 2016 presidential election, WikiLeaks began releasing Podesta’s emails. Corsi said it was only a suspicion that WikiLeaks had obtained Podesta’s emails and that his prediction was based on publicly available information.
Corsi has testified before Mueller’s grand jury on two occasions since being subpoenaed in August.
Klayman, Corsi’s lawyer, said if Mueller indicts Corsi, it would create an opportunity to challenge the special counsel’s authority.
