GRIST FOR THE MUELLER PROBE?

SILENT NO MORE: HOW I BECAME

A POLITICAL PRISONER OF MUELLER'S “WITCH HUNT”

(New York: Post Hill Press, 2019)

BY JEROME R. CORSI, Ph. D.

Review by Hugh Murray

Dr. Corsi's book is an account of his connection to the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign to “steal” the election away for Democratic candidate for President, Hillary Clinton in 2016. Corsi had published various books and worked for right-wing media. One of his books contended that President Barack Obama had been born in Kenya, and was thus ineligible to be President of the United States. Clearly, Democrats were not the biggest fans of Dr. Corsi's writings.

In this book Corsi relates that the three attorneys who would interrogate him were donors to Democrats, but he does not stress that almost all of the attorneys hired by Special Counsel Mueller were Democrats and Democratic activists or contributors. Their case was that Russians hacked into the computers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the personal files of DNC Chair John Podesta, that the Russians were working with and presented the stolen material to Wikileaks spokesman Julian Assange. Assange then prepared to release these secret documents in a manner to most damage the Democrats and influence the election against Clinton. To accomplish this, a connection with the Trump campaign was established through Trump friend and supporter Roger Stone. However, the direct connection between Stone and Assange was Dr. Corsi. Corsi, thus became a pivotal player in the case for collusion alleged by the Mueller prosecution attorneys.

Corsi notes the double standards and bias of the Mueller inquiry: never probing “the millions of dollars John Podesta and Hillary Clinton had made selling U. S. military technology to Russia” (p. 83, more on 101). Corsi reminds readers that “Podesta for awhile chaired the Clinton Foundation - [which was]. . . not a charity, but instead a massive international crime syndicate that specialized in laundering third world money.”(120) But the Mueller crowd was uninterested in any crimes by the Hillary crowd. Indeed, that crowd had been given immunity.(178)

Part of this book is a technical discussion concerning which parts of the DNC computers were hacked and what information might have been gleaned from them. Unfortunately, I am no techie and am unqualified to evaluate this section of the work. However, Corsi maintains that with his background, he was able to surmise what emails Assange had, and aware of the previous escapades of the Wikileaks group, Corsi was able to deduce what emails Assange had, and that he would release them just before the election in a drip by drip manner for maximum effect upon the voters. By contrast, Mueller's team of attorneys argued that Corsi must have had direct word from Assange to know these things.

Furthermore, Corsi maintains that EVEN IF he had contact with Assange, it was no crime because he was a journalist working for WND (World Net Daily) and he cites the famous 1971 Supreme Court case maintaining that the New York Times could publish the Pentagon Papers (stolen documents) without penalty because it had not stolen them.(75, 107, 158)

The Mueller team was convinced that Corsi was lying and was the essential bridge between Assange and Roger Stone (and Trump). Lying to the FBI could result in years in prison. The Mueller attorneys offered Corsi a plea deal to avoid jail, whereby Corsi would plead guilty to one count of lying, (in effect, saying he was the intermediary between Assange and Stone) and the judge would not sentence him to prison. However, when Corsi considered the deal and its ramifications with his own attorney, he realized it would prevent him from continuing work in real estate, and in the media, and worse, it would silence him. The sentencing of him in this case might be delayed indefinitely, and if he said anything to the press that the prosecution found objectionable, then the Mueller team could thereby scrap the plea bargain and send him to prison despite the deal. Corsi decided that no deal and prison would be preferable to such a plea bargain whereby he would have to lie and declare that he was the link between Assange and Stone when this was not true and the lie would thus make matters more difficult for Stone. And Corsi would be silenced as part of the agreement, so he could not inform the media that he had not been a link between the other two principals. With the plea agreement, Corsi would lie in order that the Mueller team could then press the links between Russian hackers to Assange to Corsi to Stone to Trump and thence to impeachment. The Democrats could finally cheer – proof of collusion, Trump is an imposter President, impeach him!

Today, Paul Manafort sits in prison for doing what many other lobbyists and wheelers and dealers in Washington do. Manafort was never in the sights of the Federals until he worked for the Trump campaign. Then the partisan Mueller attorneys, and their Democratic colleagues in New York State, colluded to prosecute Manafort, while Hillary and her crowd and the Clinton Foundation fraudsters remain free.

Lying to the FBI can bring severe penalties. But with the Mueller probe, only one side is prosecuted; the other side is granted immunity, or possible charges against them ignored. By the time of the 2016 campaign, the FBI and other agencies of government were determined to prevent the election of Donald Trump. When, despite the efforts of the Deep State, Trump was elected in the traditional American way (by the Electoral College), the Deep State used the firing of FBI Director James Comey as an excuse for Deputys Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint Mueller as Special Counsel, without proper authorization or indication of a crime to be investigated. Corsi sees the results as a partisan attempt to annul the election and prepare for the impeachment of President Trump, threatening men like him with ruin unless they lie to promote the theory of Trump-Russian collusion. Corsi rejected the Mueller probe bargain, and continues to speak out. Dr. Corsi's book is an act of defiance. He will not lie to try to save himself or to satisfy his “persecutors” of the Mueller probe. We can all admire the courage of Dr. Corsi.

A personal note. Lying to the FBI can bring severe penalties. I recall being in the New Orleans Customs House Building on Canal Street around 1962 with many other young men called for induction by our draft board. A Black guy was going up to other Blacks in the large room pleading with them not to go in, not to join. An officer told him to stop, but the Black continued his arguments that the army and the US government were racist and Blacks should not serve. The officer, politely, ordered him to go to an adjoining room. He refused. The officer then ordered all the rest of us to go to another large room. We obeyed; the Black was left behind in the room with no one to appeal to.

We were told to fill out forms. One was a list of subversive organizations – had we ever been members of the Communist Party, the Ku Klux Klan and a rather list of lesser known groups. The question was not merely membership, but any connection to such organizations. I glanced down the list – whoops – I recognized one: the Jewish Culture Society. How to explain this? In August 1960 I had attended a training institute of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Miami, with about 50 participants from throughout the nation, but most of us were Southerners. We were being trained in non-violent direct action and other procedures to use as we were expected to push to end of segregation in our home towns. Our conference was centered in a Black hotel, the Prince George. During the day, out classes and discussions occurred in the hotel's cocktail lounge, which was closed to customers until night. One day our teacher was baseball legend Jackie Robinson. 1960 was an election year and he proudly informed us he was for Richard Nixon and the Republicans. A few days later our instructor was Rev. Martin Luther King, and he told us, off-the-record, that he favored Democrat candidate John Kennedy for President. Fewer people heard King speak, because shortly before about half our group had been arrested after we held a sit-in in Shell's City's supermarket restaurant.

 Another day, we went to integrate one of the beaches. CORE must have booked a picnic table, and to try to avert trouble, a group sympathetic to integration had the table next to ours, the Jewish Culture club. It was hot, sunny, and we were on the beach and in the Atlantic (my first time). There was no trouble. Whereas most of our group were folks in the young 20s, the Jewish organization was mainly retirees, and most of them were in their 60s. I did speak to one of them about the 1948 election and the campaign of the Progressive Party, which favored integration. The Henry Wallace Progressive Party caused quite a stir in the South with Paul Robeson as his campaign chair. Bottom line, we had no trouble at the beach that day; we peacefully integrated it.

One night, we were to have a dance, but where? The hotel lounge would have been expensive, and alcohol may have been required. I don't recall, but it is possible alcohol may have been banned from the CORE conclave. I don't recall any alcohol among the CORE people during the 3-week sessions. It may have been a way to remain focused, to avoid any fights within or especially outside our group. Meanwhile, the Jewish Culture group offered us their premises and we had our dance. The elderly host group sat at tables and watched us dance, and I learned to do the “twist” for the first time. It was simply a dance, an integrated dance, with no trouble.

Back to the army form on my lap concerning the list of subversive organizations. If I lie, I faced a fine of $2,000, a huge amount at the time, and prison time. I thought about skipping the question and leaving it blank. It was only a dance. Then I remembered, many photos were taken. So I wrote on the form that I attended a dance at the Jewish Culture Club. When called before an officer to explain, he said in amazement, “But you're not even Jewish?!” Next problem on the form to explain – when the New Orleans CORE contingent departed Miami after our training and returned to the Crescent City, we began planning. About a week later I was among the seven, 5 Blacks and 2 whites, arrested in the first lunch-counter sit-in in what was still the largest city in the South in early September 1960. We were charged with a crime, and possibly more, for the judge was outraged when the 7 of us all sat together, integrating his court room. He demanded we sit according to the law or be cited with contempt of court. We obeyed, and separated by race. He also found us guilty of a felony, and we knew would remain “guilty” until our case reached the US Supreme Court, if ever did.

Earlier in 1962 I had “volunteered” for the navy. I passed several exams, but when the recruiter discovered I was guilty of a felony, he informed me that although I could be drafted, I could not volunteer for service. (Of course, in the 1960s, “volunteer” was a misnomer, for it was a way to choose the time and service one preferred, rather than wait to be drafted.)

Back to the draft into the army in the Customs House. Now, when the Army officer discovered I had been found guilty of a felony, he told me a different story. This officer said I would have to speak to the FBI man before I could be inducted, but I would have to wait because he was then talking to the Black Muslim in the other room. When I got to speak to the FBI agent, I was told that because of the seriousness of the charge, he would have to speak with the District Attorney, and request that he drop the charges first in order that I could be inducted. Because that might take weeks, I was told to go home and await word. Although I did not travel from the Customs House in New Orleans to Fort Chaffee in Arkansas that day, I was allowed to keep the boxed chicken. Weeks went by. Apparently, the newly elected DA, Jim Garrison, refused to drop the sit-in felony charges. I was not inducted. But I would be interviewed again by the FBI on 26 November 1963.