UPDATE: NBC News reports Jerome Corsi was en route to its studios in New York City for a planned interview on Tuesday afternoon when his lawyer, David Gray, took a call from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office.
About 1 p.m., Corsi was sitting inside his car outside Rockefeller Center when NBC News received a text from Gray. Gray had just finished speaking with Mueller's team, he told NBC News.
"On advice of counsel, Dr. Corsi is cancelling today's interview," the message read. "No further comment."
"Things have changed," Gray told NBC News in a follow-up conversation. "I've got to play this a certain way."
The mysterious change of plans came roughly 24 hours after Corsi told NBC News that he expects to face perjury charges in Mueller's investigation of Russian election meddling.
Jerome Corsi, a right-wing commentator who has promoted political conspiracy theories, told Reuters on Tuesday that his lawyer was told by the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller last week that their next discussion, possibly on Tuesday, would be “about pleas.”
“So by pleas I assumed their plan was to indict me,” Corsi said in a telephone interview, adding he was not given any information about the likely basis for any charge against him.
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Corsi is of interest to Mueller because he provided research to Stone during the campaign. Stone has said that one of his most scrutinized comments — a tweet in August 2016 predicting that it would soon be the Podestas’ “time in the barrel” — was based on Corsi’s research about John Podesta and his brother.
Six weeks after that tweet, Wikileaks began to release the emails from John Podesta’s account online.
Corsi said Mueller’s prosecutors have pressed him repeatedly on any ties to Assange, whom he says he has never met.
“I do not recall having any source that was connected to Assange,” Corsi said.
Corsi said his views on what Assange had, in terms of hacked material, came mostly from public sources and that he “put the pieces together and connected the dots” on his own during a trip to Italy to celebrate his wedding anniversary in July-August 2016.
Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi cancels interview amid Mueller probe (NBC News)
Associate of Trump ally expects Mueller contact soon on plea deal (Reuters)
Jerome Corsi, right-wing conspiracy theorist and Roger Stone associate, says Special Counsel Robert Mueller is going to indict him for perjury.
Corsi, a writer who has promoted political conspiracy theories, provided research during the White House race to longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, who Mueller has been scrutinizing for possible ties to WikiLeaks.
On Monday, Corsi told listeners of his daily live-stream Web program that he turned over two computers, emails and other communications to Mueller and sat for six interviews totaling more than 40 hours since receiving a subpoena two months ago.
But he said that his cooperation had “exploded” in recent weeks and that Mueller’s team has said he will be criminally charged.
“I’m going to be indicted. That’s what we’ve been told. Everyone should know that,” he said.
Corsi claims he is being set up. Stone suggests the same.
“The Department of Justice is run by criminals,” Corsi said, adding: “I think my crime really was that I supported Donald Trump. Now I guess I’ll go to prison for the rest of my life, because I dared to oppose the ‘deep state.’ ”
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In a text message to The Washington Post on Monday, Stone said he has not been contacted by Mueller’s team. He said that his attorneys have “fully reviewed” his communications with Corsi.
“When those aren’t viewed out of context, they prove everything I have said under oath regarding my interaction with Dr. Corsi is true,” Stone said, adding: “It is possible to take individual communications out of context to create a false impression to a grand jury. Such a case would be weak and would fail.”
Appearing on the Infowars website Monday evening, Stone said that “perhaps they have squeezed poor Dr. Corsi to frame me.”
Stone also seemed to lay the groundwork for an effort to undercut Corsi’s credibility as a witness. “He has his own demons,” Stone said of Corsi.