Senate panel subpoenas Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi
01/18/19

The Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed conservative conspiracy theorist and special counsel witness Jerome Corsi, his attorney told The Hill on Friday. The committee is seeking both an interview and documents from Corsi, an associate of longtime GOP operative and Trump ally Roger Stone, Corsi's lawyer Larry Klayman said. Klayman declined to provide details on the subpoena, which he said was received Thursday, but described it as "overly broad." He also called the subpoena "part of continued harassment from this committee." Corsi told The Hill that his legal team plans to contest the subpoena. The Hill has reached out to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) for comment. A spokeswoman for the committee's vice chairman, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), declined to comment.

The panel last year requested documents from Corsi as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Corsi and Klayman publicly rejected the request at the time. Corsi has been a person of interest in the special counsel's investigation for the past few months. He first publicly revealed last year that special counsel Robert Mueller's team had offered him a plea deal for making a false statement to investigators. He said at the time that he was rejecting the offer, as he didn't he believe had purposely lied to the special counsel's office.

Corsi has since filed a complaint with the Department of Justice requesting ethical and criminal investigations into the special counsel's office. And he filed a lawsuit late last year against Mueller as well, alleging illegal surveillance and leaks. Corsi has been eyed by the special counsel's office over his ties to Stone, a longtime Trump ally. Both men have faced scrutiny over comments they have made suggesting they had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks would release hacked Democratic emails ahead of the 2016 election. Both have denied having inside knowledge of WikiLeaks actions; Corsi has said that he figured out on his own that they would release the emails, while Stone said he had a source that told him the organization had damaging information that would "roil" the 2016 election.

Draft court documents obtained by The Hill and other media outlets show that prosecutors for the special counsel were prepared to charge Corsi with making false statements to investigators. Corsi had said that he declined a request from an individual, whom he identified as Stone, to get in touch with WikiLeaks about "pending" emails according to the documents. However, the documents alleged that Corsi later emailed Stone, “Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging," in an apparent reference to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been staying in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Mueller has apparently continued to look into Corsi in recent weeks. Corsi told The Hill in an interview earlier Friday that his stepson will appear before Mueller's grand jury next week, after he caught the attention of investigators over texts the pair exchanged.

The stepson, Andrew Stettner, had told Corsi in a text that a computer sitting on Corsi's desk had been "scrubbed." Corsi says that Stettner had taken the computer to use for his business and reset it to factory settings, essentially wiping its hard drive. However, he said that he had backups of that computer that his attorneys have offered to provide to the special counsel. Corsi also said that the special counsel's team had sought a copy of his book detailing his experience with the Mueller investigation, a revelation he first made to The Wall Street Journal earlier this week. "Silent No More: How I Became a Political Prisoner of Mueller's 'Witch Hunt'" is publicly available on Amazon as an e-book ahead of its publication later this year.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/426084-senate-panel-subpoenas-roger-stone-associate-jerome-corsi