As part of their investigation, Mueller’s prosecutors have sought information about emails from 2016 that Corsi deleted from his computer, including exchanges with Stone, according to draft court documents that Corsi released last year.

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In Monday’s interview, Corsi said that Mueller’s investigators appeared focused on text messages he and Stettner exchanged in which Stettner said that a computer that had sat on Corsi’s desk had been “scrubbed,” an apparent reference to the deletion.

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Corsi said the messages were innocuous — that he had not been using the computer and Stettner asked permission to take it to repurpose for his mother’s business, where he also works.

“I think they think that Andrew was conspiring with me, as my computer expert, to destroy evidence,” he said. “They’re looking for anything they can find.”

David Gray, an attorney representing both Corsi and Stettner, declined to comment.

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The subpoena to Stettner indicates that a grand jury that’s hearing evidence in the special counsel investigation is apparently scheduled to convene with new witnesses for the first time in several weeks.

It is also a sign that Mueller continues to dig into communications involving Corsi and Stone, a Republican operative who has been friends with Trump for 30 years and informally advised his 2016 campaign.

Mueller’s team has spent months interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence about claims Stone made before the election that he had been in contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

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During the campaign, WikiLeaks published emails of prominent Democrats that were allegedly hacked by Russian operatives.

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Since the election, Stone has insisted that he had no contact with Assange and had no knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans before the group published the hacked emails.

A conspiracy theorist and radio host who helped popularize the false accusation that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, Corsi communicated with Stone about WikiLeaks before the election, according to the draft court documents.

In November 2018, Corsi announced that he had been interviewed extensively by the special counsel’s office about those conversations. Corsi said he had rejected a plea deal proposed by the special counsel’s office in which he would have agreed he lied to investigators about some of his contacts with Stone. Corsi published internal documents from Mueller’s office, including the draft of their proposed plea deal.

According to those draft documents, prosecutors believe that Corsi deleted all emails from his computer that he sent or received before Oct. 11, 2016.

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The prosecutors’ focus on Corsi’s email practices could explain their interest in Stettner.

One email prosecutors alleged Corsi deleted was a July 25, 2016, note from Stone in which Stone asked Corsi to try to make contact with Assange and get copies of hacked emails in his possession. The draft document says that when investigators first asked Corsi about the email, he claimed that he told Stone that trying to reach Assange was a bad idea that should be avoided.

In fact, Corsi forwarded the email to a London-based associate and later wrote Stone an email about WikiLeaks’ plans. “Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps,” Corsi wrote Stone on Aug. 2, 2016, according to the draft filing.

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Corsi has sued the special counsel’s office and complained that prosecutors tried to bully him into pleading guilty to lying about matters where his memory was merely faulty.

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He has given interviews to bolster public support and raise money for his legal defense fund, arguing that he is being unfairly persecuted by Mueller’s team.