Conservative author Jerome Corsi on Thursday sued his former close associated Roger Stone for defamation, claiming he tried to inflict distress and cause heart attacks to stop him from testifying in Stone’s trial.
Corsi is seeking $25 million in damages and alleges that Stone has made false statements amid efforts to distance from claims that they had prior knowledge of WikiLeaks emails release that hurt Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016.
CORSI SUES MUELLER OVER ALLEGED GRAND JURY LEAKS, SEEKS $350M IN DAMAGES: REPORT
The lawsuit claims that Stone intended to inflict “emotional distress and coercion” and attempted to cause Corsi to “have heart attacks and strokes, in order that Plaintiff will be unable to testify at Stone’s criminal trial,” according to the Washington Examiner.
Stone also caused him “conscious pain, suffering, severe emotional distress and the fear of imminent serious bodily injury or death, and other mental and physical injuries, and Plaintiff was severely harmed and damaged thereby,” the lawsuit added.
Stone accused Corsi in December of working with the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“So Jerry Corsi was working with Mueller to sandbag me on a fabricated perjury charge,” Stone wrote on Instagram.“Mueller’s minion even promised Corsi no jail time if he would lie and say he gave me John Podesta’s stolen e-mails (which he did NOT) Then they were going to say I passed them on to Trump (which I did NOT).”
“Jerry was willing to LIE about me but not himself! Now Jerry is lying about legitimate research he did for me regarding the Podesta brothers lucrative business in Russia. Jerry Corsi is starting to make Michael Cohen look like a stand up,” he added.
ROGER STONE INDICTED ON SEVERAL CHARGES AS PART OF MUELLER’S RUSSIA COLLUSION PROBE
The lawsuit came amid Stone’s other legal problems, including the grand jury’s indictment last month on charges of obstruction, making false statements to Congress and witness tampering as part of Mueller’s probe.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and said he might cooperate with the special counsel – but ruled out testifying against President Trump.
“I have plead not guilty to the charges against me. I stress that these are all after-the-fact process crimes and I am not accused of Russian collusion,” he said during a press conference.
“I’m not accused of collaboration with WikiLeaks. I am not accused of conspiracy. There is no evidence or accusation that I knew in advance of the source or content of the WikiLeaks materials, be that allegedly hacked material or allegedly stolen material,” he added.
Corsi, meanwhile, has been in the crosshairs of the Mueller probe though he hasn’t yet been indicted. He ruled out a deal with the special counsel, claiming he won’t make false statements.
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