Stone associate in plea negotiations
WASHINGTON — Conservative writer and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi is in plea negotiations with special counsel Robert Mueller, according to Corsi and another person with knowledge of the talks.
The talks with Corsi — an associate of President Donald Trump and GOP operative Roger Stone — could bring Mueller’s team closer to determining whether Trump or his advisers were linked to WikiLeaks’ release of hacked Democratic emails in 2016, a key part of his long-running inquiry.
Corsi provided research on Democratic figures during the campaign to Stone, a longtime Trump adviser. For months, the special counsel has been scrutinizing Stone’s activities in an effort to determine whether he coordinated with WikiLeaks. Stone and WikiLeaks have repeatedly denied any such coordination.
Corsi confirmed the plea negotiations after they were first reported by the Washington Post on Friday. “It’s true. Your story is accurate,” he said, declining to comment further.
David Gray, an attorney for Corsi, declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Mueller. An attorney for Trump declined to comment.
Stone said in a statement that he was not aware of any plea discussions involving Corsi.
Last week, Corsi said his efforts to cooperate with prosecutors had broken down and that he expected to be indicted on a charge of lying. He described feeling under enormous pressure from Mueller.
In a webcast and a series of interviews, Corsi said he had spoken to prosecutors for 40 hours and feared that he could spend much of the remainder of his life in prison. After two months of interviews, Corsi, 72, said he felt his brain was “mush.”
“Trying to explain yourself to these people is impossible,” he added.
Since then, Corsi has resumed talks with Mueller’s team about a possible deal that could result in him agreeing to plead guilty in exchange for leniency, according to the person familiar with the situation.
Corsi told the Daily Caller that prosecutors are focused on whether he had developed a source with inside information about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s plans. He said he developed a theory that Assange had access to hacked emails belonging to Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and that WikiLeaks would release them in October 2016.
Stone is under scrutiny because he made a series of comments during the campaign that suggested he was in contact with Assange and knew of WikiLeaks’ plans.