Jerome Corsi blasts special counsel probe as 'political witch hunt,' 'memory test'

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Corsi: I've had no contact with Assange

Jerome Corsi addresses charges against him in Mueller probe.

Conservative author Jerome Corsi told Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Tuesday that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators accused him of lying under oath only after "I couldn't give them what they wanted."

Corsi insisted he did not knowingly give prosecutors false information. He said he forgot about the emails in question during his first interview with Mueller's team, noting they were among 60,000 contained on the laptop he provided to the special counsel's office.

Corsi spoke to Fox News one day after he announced he would reject a deal with investigators that would have required him to plead guilty to perjury. A draft court filing prepared as part of the abortive plea deal, which Corsi has provided to multiple media outlets, said Corsi notified Trump adviser Roger Stone in August 2016 that WikiLeaks intended to release information damaging to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

"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 to Stone in an email apparently referencing Assange. "Time to let more than [Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta] to be exposed as in bed w enemy if they are not ready to drop [Clinton]. That appears to be the game hackers are now about."

Days earlier, on July 25, the document stated that Stone emailed Corsi asking him to "Get to [Assange] [a]t Ecuadoran Embassy in London and get the pending [WikiLeaks] emails." The document indicated that Corsi forwarded Stone's email to Ted Malloch, a London-based author and Trump supporter who has said he was also questioned by Mueller.

Corsi told host Tucker Carlson that he has had "no contact with Julian Assange whatsoever" and claimed he initially told investigators that he did not remember forwarding Stone's initial email to Malloch.

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"The special counsel came in ... and they actually sent me home and gave me an opportunity to review the emails," Corsi said. "When I came back, I amended the testimony to say that I now remember the email. The special counsel was happy with that until I couldn’t give them what they wanted, which was a connection that I had with Assange – that they assumed I had, which I didn’t have. Now suddenly, they forgot they allowed me to amend my testimony and they’re going back to the mistake I made when I forgot the email."

Corsi, the onetime Washington bureau chief of the website Infowars, told Carlson that despite having no contact with Assange, he had "figured out that Assange had Podesta’s emails. I figured that out and told Roger Stone and told many people in August and it just happened that I was right."

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“I gave them everything voluntarily. I had a time machine on that computer which recorded everything precisely and kept it in the time machine back through 2015," Corsi said.

Corsi said he believes his political views are playing a role.

In echoes of Trump, Corsi described the Mueller investigation as "a political witch hunt," "completely rigged" and "politically driven by Clinton operatives who have an agenda." He also described his interview with investigators as a "memory test."

"They ask you a question, they have material they won’t show you, you’ve forgotten about it, and they say ‘You just lied because this email you forgot about in 2016 proves your current memory is wrong,'" he said.

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"Roger's right," added Corsi, referring to Stone. "If you can't give them what they're looking for to fill their narrative, they blow you up and charge you with a crime."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.