Former Infowars D.C. bureau chief Jerome Corsi Jerome Corsi said Monday that his stepson was subpoenaed to give grand jury testimony as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
In an interview with the Fox Business Network, Corsi said investigators have zeroed in on text messages exchanged between him and Andrew Stettner, his stepson, who wrote that a computer on the conservative author’s desk had been “scrubbed.”
“I think they think that Andrew was conspiring with me, as my computer expert, to destroy evidence,” said Corsi. “They’re looking for anything they can find.”
Corsi’s attorney, David Gray, declined to comment on the matter when contacted by The Washington Post.
Special counsel investigators are trying to determine whether Corsi and longtime political operative Roger Stone had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to release hacked material damaging to Hillary Clinton’s presidential effort. U.S. intelligence agencies have said Russia was the source of that hacked material.
Documents drafted by Mueller’s team as part of a potential plea deal with Corsi — which he has rejected — contained portions of emails he exchanged with Stone in the summer of 2016 about WikiLeaks.
In late July 2016, Stone emailed Corsi, asking him to get in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in Ecuador’s embassy in London since 2012, according to the documents. Stone said he wanted Corsi to try to obtain emails the group possessed about Clinton.
“Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps,” Corsi wrote Stone in an email. “One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.”
“Time to let more than (Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta) to be exposed as in bed w enemy if they are not ready to drop HRC (Hillary Rodham Clinton),” Corsi added. “That appears to be the game hackers are now about.”
Both Stone and Corsi have denied any wrongdoing, and Stone has denied knowing Assange or being a conduit for WikiLeaks. He told The Associated Press last month that he had “no advanced notice of the source or content or the exact timing of the release of the WikiLeaks disclosures.”
Corsi has said the email he sent Stone in reply — which accurately forecast that WikiLeaks would release derogatory information about Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta in October — was based on his own deduction and not the result of any inside information or a source close to the group.
Prosecutors from Mueller’s office had offered Corsi a deal to plead guilty to a false statements charge, but he said he rejected the offer because he didn’t knowingly mislead investigators. He now says he expects he will be indicted. “They can put me in prison the rest of my life. I am not going to sign a lie,” he told CNN.
Last month, Corsi filed a complaint with the Justice Department, alleging prosecutors tried to coerce him to give false testimony.
Filed by Freedom Watch founder Larry Klayman, the complaint requests that the Justice Department launch a criminal and ethics investigation into Mueller’s tactics.
“Special Counsel Mueller and his prosecutorial staff should respectfully be removed from his office and their practice of the law and a new Special Counsel appointed who respects and will obey common and accepted norms of professional ethics and the law and who will promptly conclude the so-called Russian collusion investigation which had been illegally and criminally spinning out of control,” the complaint reads.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.