- Jerome Corsi claims that special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors failed to present exculpatory evidence to a federal grand jury that the conservative author claims backs up his story about WikiLeaks.
- Corsi sent two tweets and one text message in early October 2016 that he says show he did not know for certain that WikiLeaks would release information derogatory to the Clinton campaign.
- But Corsi tells The Daily Caller News Foundation that prosecutors did not present the tweets to him during interviews or before the grand jury.
In early October 2016, days before WikiLeaks began releasing emails stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, conservative author Jerome Corsi published two tweets questioning whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would release bombshell documents he had been vaguely teasing for months.
“If Assange has the goods on Hillary, he ought just to drop the goods,” Corsi tweeted on Oct. 2, 2016, after Assange announced a planned press conference. “Otherwise, he’s going to make a fool of himself.”
“So Assange made a fool of Himself,” Corsi tweeted two days later, after Assange failed to release any information on Clinton. “Had zero, or he would have released it. Will take grassroots on Internet to get truth out & beat Hillary.”
Prosecutors with the special counsel’s team have possession of those tweets, as well as Corsi’s emails and text messages, Corsi asserts. But the tweets, which Corsi claims supports a key defense he has provided prosecutors, did not come up during his interviews with the special counsel or his two appearances before a federal grand jury. (RELATED: Jerome Corsi Reveals Why He Is In Mueller’s Crosshairs)
“They have them, but I don’t. Those two never came up,” Corsi told The Daily Caller News Foundation. He writes in his newly released book, “Silent No More: How I Became a Political Prisoner of Mueller’s ‘Witch Hunt,” that he did not remember the tweets until they were reported by TheDCNF on Nov. 1.
Corsi, who is a target of the special counsel’s probe, claims that the tweets support his contention to prosecutors that he did not have direct knowledge or insight into WikiLeaks’ plans to release Podesta’s emails.
Prosecutors are not buying the denials, Corsi says.
They have pointed to an Aug. 2, 2016 email that Corsi sent to Trump confidant Roger Stone in which Corsi appeared to know about WikiLeaks’ plans.
“Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging,” Corsi wrote, referring to Assange.
“Time to let more than Podesta to be exposed as in bed w/ enemy if they are not ready to drop HRC,” he said. “That appears to be the game hackers are now about.”
Stone claims that he did not interpret the email as Corsi saying that WikiLeaks or hackers had Podesta’s emails. He says he believes that Corsi was referring to research that they had been discussing regarding Podesta and his lobbyist brother’s business dealings with foreigners.
Corsi, who recently rejected a plea deal offered by the special counsel that would have required him to admit lying about the Aug. 2 email, claims that he merely came up with the theory that WikiLeaks had Podesta’s emails. And he asserts that his tweets two months later back up his story.
“Those two tweets would have supported my best recollection of the truth,” Corsi claimed in an interview with TheDCNF. “Those were going to be discarded because they didn’t fight the narrative.”
Though Corsi says that prosecutors did not bring up the tweets during his 40-plus hours of interviews, it is unclear whether the special counsel presented the tweets to the grand jury in other settings. The special counsel’s office declined comment.
U.S. political consultant Roger Stone at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Federal prosecutors are not required by law to present exculpatory evidence to grand juries. Justice Department regulations lean on the 1992 Supreme Court decision, United States v. Williams, which held that federal judges do not have the power to throw out cases in which prosecutors “failed to introduce substantial exculpatory evidence to a grand jury.”
Exculpatory evidence can instead be presented at trial.
But DOJ does have a policy that “when a prosecutor conducting a grand jury inquiry is personally aware of substantial evidence that directly negates the guilt of a subject of the investigation, the prosecutor must present or otherwise disclose such evidence to the grand jury before seeking an indictment against such a person.”
“While a failure to follow the Department’s policy should not result in dismissal of an indictment, appellate courts may refer violations of the policy to the Office of Professional Responsibility for review.”
Corsi, a former InfoWars correspondent, sent the tweets after Assange held a highly-anticipated press conference in which he failed to produce Clinton-related documents.
Assange had given several interviews over the preceding months in which he claimed that WikiLeaks would drop information that would be damaging to the Democrat and her campaign. Pro-Trump operatives like Corsi and Stone salivated over the prospect and speculated about what information WikiLeaks would dump.
Corsi also sent a text message to Stone after the Assange press conference that matches up with his tweets from the same time period.
“Assange made a fool of himself,” Corsi wrote to Stone on Oct. 4, 2016.
“Has nothing or he would have released it. Total BS hype.”
Stone, who provided the text to TheDCNF, said it provides further evidence that Corsi did not have an actual link to WikiLeaks.
The special counsel wants to find out whether Corsi and Stone had a direct WikiLeaks contact who previewed the stolen emails and whether they informed Trump or his associates about the forthcoming release.
Stone made public comments and posted tweets of his own that showed that he had some insight into WikiLeaks’ plans. But he claims he did not know the source or content of the WikiLeaks releases until the group posted the first batch of Podesta documents.
Instead, Stone claims that a left-wing comedian named Randy Credico was providing him with vague updates about WikiLeaks’ plans to release anti-Clinton information.
“Julian Assange has kryptonite on Hillary,” Credico texted to Stone on Aug. 27, 2016.
“Hillary’s campaign will die this week,” he wrote on Oct. 1, 2016.
Credico suggested in some text messages that his WikiLeaks contact was a lawyer for the group who he called one of his best friends.
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