A former cooperating witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling came forward with a startling accusation Monday: Mueller is trying to force him to lie.
Conservative author Jerome Corsi has been in the crosshairs of Mueller’s investigation for months. Monday, his lawyers filed a “criminal and ethics complaint” with the Justice Department, alleging prosecutors tried to coerce him to give false testimony.
Democratic leaders have placed a significant amount of political capital into protecting Mueller. But Corsi said Monday that the prosecutors were trying to entice him to lie to a grand jury and threatened to indict him.
If true, that could reflect poorly on Democratic leadership and bring the long running probe to a swift end. Corsi is an associate of former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone.
The complaint filed with the DOJ is a 78-page document, and it claims there is conspiracy to commit a “slow-motion coup against the president.”
According to Fox News, the complaint was filed to a range of top law enforcement officials including Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, D.C.’s U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu and the Bar Disciplinary Counsel.
“Dr. Corsi has been criminally threatened and coerced to tell a lie and call it the truth,” the complaint reportedly states.
Mueller’s investigators want to know if Corsi and Stone had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to release hacked emails that were damaging to Hillary Clinton’s presidential effort.
Just ten days before a second email data dump, Corsi emailed Stone the message, “Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps,” the complaint explains. The friend is a reference to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.
But Corsi says he was using logic, not insider information. Mueller isn’t accepting that answer, and wants Corsi to say he personally met with Assange.
Corsi told Fox News that he had “no contact with Julian Assange whatsoever.”
“Employing his professional skills and considerable experience as an analyst and investigative journalist, Dr. Corsi logically concluded that WikiLeaks would release Podesta’s emails soon in a second round ‘data dump’ from the same group of DNC emails stolen on July 5, 2016,” the complaint reportedly reads.
Corsi has released documents showing prosecutors offered him a deal to plead guilty to a false statements charge. He’s rejected the deal and says he didn’t knowingly mislead investigators.
The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a comment request.
FLASHBACK: Harvard law expert: Mueller probe has nothing
The Associated Press contributed to this article