Jerome Corsi defied Mueller and won; now he wants Mueller - to pay. Posted: Mar 25th, 2019 - 1:42 pm
Author Jerome Corsi defied special counsel Robert Mueller and, shockingly, he won. Now, the 72-year-old political commentator says he plans to make Mueller "pay" for putting him under investigation, vowing to press forward with a civil case alleging prosecutorial misconduct.
"They have to pay for this," Corsi said in an interview with the Washington Examiner Monday, after Attorney General Bill Barr informed Congress on Sunday evening that there were no sealed indictments from Mueller. The probe ended without finding collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Corsi refused to plead guilty to lying to investigators — as did former national security adviser Michael Flynn and foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos — and leaked plea documents from his case to the press.
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He is a rare example of a subject in Mueller's two-year-probe flouting prosecutors and then avoiding charges. Others, such as Trump adviser Roger Stone, flouted Mueller and were subsequently indicted.
"The moral to the story is a good defense is a good offense," said Corsi's attorney Larry Klayman. "We brought a bar complaint against [Mueller] and his prosecutors, and we sued him for $350 million for violating Jerry's constitutional rights. Mueller came to the conclusion it wasn't worth it to string Jerry up."
"It's like when you put the bar on your steering wheel. The crook goes and steals another car," Klayman said. "You have to understand how Washington works, and you have to be street-smart."
Corsi in November publicly rejected a plea deal for lying to investigators about wanting to contact WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange during the 2016 election. Prosecutors had emails indicating he did express interest. Corsi called it a "memory mistake" and said he amended his original testimony to correct the record.
For months, Corsi looked like the missing link between Stone and Assange, who published Democratic emails allegedly hacked by Russia.
While vacationing in Italy in 2016, Corsi says he divined that Assange had Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails, and that Assange would release them in October. He said that Mueller's team found that explanation extremely unlikely, and wanted him to say that Assange told him about the plans, using as leverage the potential charge that he had lied about wanting to contact Assange.
"I figured it out myself, nobody told me," Corsi told the Washington Examiner. "They didn't believe it. They thought it was impossible that I deduced this, or guessed, this, whatever you want to say."
Corsi and Klayman said there was no additional cooperation with Mueller's team after publicly rejecting the plea deal.
The lawsuit alleging misconduct by Mueller and various federal agencies is pending in U.S. District Court, where the government recently filed a motion to dismiss.
"I think the fact they didn't indict me shows I'm right in the case," Corsi said. "They need to pay for this. They ruined my life for several months and caused me monetary damages. I currently have no job and no monthly income. I have to reconstruct my life. This was a political prosecution."
Klayman said there's an important contrast between the conduct of Corsi and Stone, who was indicted in January for allegedly lying to Congress and witness tampering, including allegedly threatening a dog.
"We are the only ones who stood up to him and prevailed," Klayman said. "You don't stand up to him by lying and threatening witnesses. It's the case study in how to do it the right way and how to do it the wrong way."
Stone declined to comment on Corsi.
Klayman and Corsi are both known for their distinctive political style. Klayman humorously referred to his client as "a proud 'co-conspiracy theorist'," in a recent blog post. Corsi is known for books including "Where's the Birth Certificate?" which he published in 2011 about then-President Barack Obama's birth certificate. Corsi occasionally briefed President Trump as the future candidate promoted theories about Obama's birthplace. Obama undercut Corsi by releasing a copy of his long-form birth certificate shortly before the book release date.
Klayman, a colorful litigator known for winning a 2013 federal court ruling against the National Security Agency's dragnet collection of domestic call records, said Trump may have been able to hasten Mueller's probe with a more aggressive approach.
"What Mueller did was abhorrent, and it went on for two years for no reason," Klayman said. "The president should have done this, he wouldn't have been dragged along for two years if he pushed back. Tweeting doesn't do much of anything. He could have filed a case for illegal surveillance. He has better standing than anyone. The rats would have jumped the ship at that point."
LINK/URL: Jerome Corsi defied Mueller and won; now he wants Mueller
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