Associate Stone Assigned to Appear Before Mueller Grand Jury Friday



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Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Trump, speaks to reporters after appearing before an in camera hearing of the Committee on Private Intelligence in September 2017. (Kevin Lamarque / Reuters)

Conservative political commentator Jerome Corsi is scheduled to appear before the grand jury investigating the evidence of Russian lawyer Robert S. Mueller III in the 2016 campaign and hopes to be questioned about his communications with Roger Stone, a long-time advisor. from President Trump.

Corsi's lawyer, David Gray, confirmed that Mueller's team had served Corsi last week and that Corsi was considering cooperating.

Corsi, who contributed to Infowars' right-wing website and is known for promoting political conspiracy theories, provided research to Stone during the 2016 campaign.

Mr. Gray stated that the subpoena indicated that Mr. Mueller was interested in Corsi's communications in 2016 and 2017. Mr. Gray said he thought the special advocate was planning to ask questions about Corsi's contacts with Stone, who was subjected to a thorough examination by Mueller's investigators.

Corsi shared his research with Stone around the same time that the GOP's long-time consultant publicly stated that he had been in contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew about the democratic e-mail versions. hacked from WikiLeaks.

Stone has since denied any direct contact with Assange and has stated that he has no specific knowledge of WikiLeaks' material or group plans to publish it.

Gray said that Corsi had no contact with WikiLeaks. He will not comment on what Corsi's communications say about Stone or his interactions with WikiLeaks.

"They show communication," Gray said. "I will not comment on what Roger Stone's Special Adviser's Office thinks."

Gray is confident that Corsi has done nothing wrong. "Jerry Corsi has made decisions that he will not take action that would impose criminal liability," he added, refusing to give details.

Asked if Corsi had the opportunity to take such action, Gray said, "I would not say that he was offered these opportunities. I would say that he had communications with Roger Stone. We will provide these communications and be cooperative. My client did not act further, which would lead to criminal liability. "

Gray said Corsi plans to bring his laptop and mobile phone with him to the grand jury and make them available to investigators. The Corsi summons was reported for the first time by The New York Times.

Randy Credico, a New York radio host who, according to Stone, is his interlocutor for WikiLeaks, should also appear before the grand jury on Friday.

In response to a request for comment on Corsi's summons, Stone stated that Corsi "has already addressed these issues in his own voice". He quoted an Infowars column published in March 2017 in which Corsi's campaign chairman, John Podesta, and Russia in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign.

In the chronicle, Corsi speculated that his research could have led Stone to tweet on August 21, 2016: "Trust me, it's going to be soon [be] The time of Podesta in the barrel.

This tweet came about six weeks before Wikileaks began to publish cached pirated emails from Podesta.

Stone also said his tweet was partly stimulated by Corsi's research, claiming in September at the House's Intelligence Committee that he was "based on a full briefing of the early August opposition" that Corsi had told him provided.

Stone said he did not know that WikiLeaks had Podesta emails.

Stone also had communications In 2016, with Guccifer 2.0, the online character that prosecutors claimed to have been exploited by Russian intelligence services claimed to have hacked the Democratic Party and Podesta. Stone said the contacts were harmless and denied knowing that Guccifer 2.0 was linked to Russian intelligence services.

Mueller's team has been scanning Stone for months. This summer, a series of other Stone associates were interviewed or invited to appear before the grand jury.

Stone's assistant, Andrew Miller, was found guilty of refusing to submit to a grand jury summons and seeking to have Mueller's statement declared unconstitutional.

Manuel Roig-Franzia contributed to this report.

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