During an interview with Ari Melber on MSNBC on Wednesday, Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi explained he would not take a plea deal in the Mueller probe because he will “not lie.”

Corsi found himself enmired in Robert Mueller‘s investigation mainly because he is the alleged intermediary between Stone and Wikileaks, something at one point he denied.

“You were offered a plea deal by Bob Mueller’s team?” Melber asked.  “Why did you reject it?”

“It was fraudulent,” Corsi replied. “It required me to lie and it required me to violate various regulations and even I thought commit fraud and I won’t do that. I will not lie to keep myself out of jail and I realize that I could go to jail for the rest of my life. I’m 72 years old. I might die in jail but I’m still making this decision.”

Then, justifying his choice, Corsi said this he cannot say he intended to deceive authorities: “In my heart, I went in to tell the truth, did my best to tell the truth and I won’t swear before God and a judge something I consider to be a lie.”

That is when Melber noted he’s told falsehoods before.

“But you did say something at the time that you now acknowledge to be false?” Melber pressed, noting that Corsi led investigators to believe that he did not have contact with someone on behalf of Stone.

Corsi then insisted his first statement denying contact was wrong because he “forgot” the email about acting as Stone’s intermediary.

Pressing further, Melber showed the Mueller document about Corsi’s contact on the screen and asked directly if he did it and if he now sees anything wrong with acting as the go-between.

Pointing to the Pentagon Papers case, Corsi said he did it and does not see a problem with what he did.

“Even if Julian Assange had stolen material that was classified, as a journalist I can see him, I can get that material and I can publish it,” Corsi claimed. “I’m not committing a crime. So I was happy to do it and I was happy that it would benefit Donald Trump.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.

[image via screengrab]

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