Best-selling author Jerome Corsi revealed to Newsmax Wednesday that his lawyer has been passing information to President Trump’s legal team regarding special counsel Robert S. Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian collusion.
That follows Tuesday’s revelation that attorneys representing former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort -- whom prosecutors charge has lied to them despite an arrangement to provide information -- repeatedly briefed President Trump’s lawyers on the course of the Mueller investigation.
The New York Times said the Manafort arrangement with Trump’s lawyers “was highly unusual and inflamed tension with Mr. Mueller’s office when prosecutors discovered it after Mr. Manafort began cooperating two months ago.”
Its report added: “Such information could help shape a legal defense strategy, and it also appeared to give Mr. Trump and his legal advisers ammunition in their public relations campaign against the special counsel’s office.”
The news that not one but two potential witnesses for the prosecution, Manafort and Corsi, were both independently feeding information to Trump’s lawyers means Trump has enjoyed a clear window into Mueller’s investigation for months.
Corsi explained to Newsmax in an exclusive interview how the informal mutual defense agreement came about.
“I’ve known [Trump attorney] Jay Sekulow for a long time,” he said. “Through a third party, Jay was willing to take [Corsi attorney] David Gray’s call.
“David called him, and Jay proposed we could enter into a mutual defense agreement. It took me a couple days to think about it. This might upset the special counsel, certainly the special counsel is going to find out about it….
“I thought on it for a couple days and I said to David, ‘Look, call back Jay Sekulow and tell him we’re going to enter into that agreement, because if the president of the United States wants to enter into a legal mutual defense agreement with me, I think we’d be damned fools to refuse it.”
Corsi said that by design he did not personally participate in the discussions with Trump’s lawyers, and rejected the notion he had become a conduit of information to Trump in the hope of obtaining a presidential pardon.
“Politically, I strongly support him,” he told Newsmax by way of explaining his motivation. “I wanted him to survive the Mueller investigation, and have a successful presidency so he can run again in 2020 and can be re-elected.
“I let everybody know those are my clear political preferences and I’m willing to work, do my best, to achieve those goals,” Corsi told Newsmax.
“I felt like if Mr. Trump could know through his lawyers what was going on, I could give him a first-hand experience and view -- my lawyer could even sitting there with me -- of what it was like and what they were asking and what they were doing.”
Corsi, who insists he never lied to Mueller’s team, added: “I also did not expect a pardon. I didn’t angle for a pardon, I didn’t do this for a pardon.
“I made my decision to reject the plea agreement on moral grounds,” he told Newsmax. “I felt like they were asking me to swear to a lie, and I wasn’t going to do that on a Bible in front of a federal judge for moral reasons, religious reasons.
“I felt what they were asking in the plea deal was criminally fraudulent, and I wasn’t going to do it. Now, if I have to go to jail for the rest of my life because I won’t commit a sin or a crime, so be it.
“If the United States of America has come to that point, then probably I need to be in prison -- I’m not doing those things.”
Corsi disclosed Wednesday he is preparing to file a criminal complaint against Special Counsel Mueller and the Department of Justice, which he says is “now being run by criminals.”
“They are political criminals,” he told Newsmax, “and the way they treated me proves that.
“I am preparing to file a criminal complaint against Mueller and the Department of Justice which will be delivered to [Acting U.S. attorney General Matt] Whitaker as soon as it’s written up.”
Corsi’s statements appeared to dovetail with comments by President Trump on Twitter implying that Mueller is pressuring witnesses to lie.
“This is prosecutorial misconduct written in spades,” Corsi told Newsmax, “in all the capital letters you can find, underlined a thousand times, with 10,000 exclamation points after it.
“These guys are political criminals and they should be all locked up.”’
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley remarked Tuesday that Mueller’s recent disputes with witnesses who had agreed to help the prosecution, which he termed “pretty rare,” suggest Mueller may be having difficulties obtaining the evidence he’s looking for.
“Clearly,” Turley said, “Mueller is not getting what he wants.”
Corsi told Newsmax that when Mueller's prosecutors learned about the arrangement to aid Trump's defense, "They weren't very happy about it. They asked a lot of questions."
Corsi said he believes the Mueller team is growing “desperate” and “has nothing” in terms of evidence of collusion or obstruction. He said the Mueller investigation is seeking to criminalize normal political behavior.
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