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Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
Jerome Corsi, right wing commentator poses for a picture in New York, November 27, 2018.
Special counsel Robert Mueller along with several federal agencies have asked a U.S. district judge to delay an upcoming hearing in a lawsuit brought by Roger Stone-linked conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, arguing that the ongoing government shutdown has hamstrung their lawyers.
The suit is one of a number of cases that have recently seen government lawyers asking for delays in light of the partial shutdown, which began at midnight Friday after President Donald Trump and U.S. lawmakers failed to hash out a deal on funding for a border wall.
The agencies, including the FBI and the CIA, said in court that the shutdown cut off appropriations to the Justice Department, preventing its attorneys from doing their jobs.
“Absent an appropriation, Department of Justice attorneys are generally prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, except in very limited circumstances,” they claimed in the filing in Washington, D.C. District Court.
A lawyer for Corsi, 72, retorted that the request for a delay was being “proffered tactically,” and asserted “it is highly doubtful” that DOJ attorneys “are actually prohibited from working.”
The lawsuit brought by Corsi, a leading promulgator of the Obama “birther” conspiracy and the “Swift Boat” campaign, accuses the defendants of illegally searching his phone records.
He also accuses the special counsel of attempting to coerce him to say under oath that he was a liaison between Stone, a longtime Trump confidant, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, in the publication of stolen Democrats’ emails.
For more than a year and a half, Mueller has been investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion between the Kremlin and Trump campaign-related figures.
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