According to court papers filed Thursday, special counsel Robert Mueller believes a conservative author and conspiracy theorist alerted political consultant Roger Stone during the 2016 presidential campaign that thousands of emails stolen from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman would be released to the public.
The court papers were part of a plea offer made to Jerome Corsi.
According to court documents, Corsi, in the midst of the 2016 presidential campaign, told Stone that WikiLeaks was about to release a trove of emails hacked from John Podesta, Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign chairman.
Who is Corsi and how does he fit into the Mueller investigation?
Here is what we know about him:
- Corsi was born in East Cleveland, Ohio in 1946.
- He graduated from St. Ignatius High School and earned a degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1969. He earned a doctorate in political science from Harvard in 1972.
- He worked in banking and finance, and in 1995, after the fall of the Soviet Union, he launched a mutual fund to invest in Poland. The 20 or so investors in the fund lost $1.2 million.
- Corsi was sued by two of the investors, but they collected no money from him. No federal charges were brought against him.
- After the failure of the mutual fund, Corsi remained in finance as a financial services marketing specialist.
- In 2007, Corsi said he was going to run as a Republican or Independent for then-Sen. John Kerry's Massachusetts Senate seat in the 2008 election. He did not run for the seat as a Republican, but was nominated by the Constitutional Party as its candidate, but left the race in July 2007.
- Corsi was a senior staff writer for the far right website WorldNetDaily. In 2017, he became Washington bureau chief for InfoWars. He is no longer working there.
- Corsi is a "birther," one who does not believe that President Barack Obama was born in the United States.
- In 2004, Corsi wrote a biography of John Kerry called "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry." Kerry was plagued by the accusations made in the book. Kerry lost the 2004 presidential election to George W. Bush.
- In September, Corsi appeared before the grand jury in Mueller's special counsel investigation. Corsi said he disclosed to investigators that he had told Stone that Assange had Podesta's emails. "But I maintained and still do that I figured it out," he said, adding: "I made it sound maybe like I had a source, but I didn't. And I don't think Stone ever believed me."
- He turned over a laptop to Mueller's investigators.
- Corsi announced on Nov. 12 that he expected to be indicted for perjury within days.
- On Monday, Corsi spoke about a plea deal brought by the special counsel. He said he rejected the deal because he would not agree to lie. "They can put me in prison the rest of my life. I am not going to sign a lie."
- Court documents showed that two months before WikiLeaks released emails stolen from the Clinton campaign, Corsi sent emails to Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone telling him of WikiLeaks' intent to publish the emails. Corsi said the emails would be published in two "dumps. He provided the dates of the planned releases and said the emails would be "very damaging" to Clinton's campaign.
- According to the court documents, Stone directed Corsi to contact Julian Assange of WikiLeaks "and get the pending (WikiLeaks) emails." The court document says Corsi passed Stone's request to an "overseas individual," whom Corsi identified as Ted Malloch. Malloch was also questioned by Mueller's investigators.
