Jerome Corsi, CENTRE, who wrote "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, follows an immigration department officer holding his passport, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 as he arrives at the immigration department in Nairobi, Kenya. AP

With the midterm elections out of the way, special counsel Robert Mueller's ostensibly dormant probe of Russian election interference appears to be heating up again. That means Jerome Corsi, 72, an author and right-wing conspiracy theorist with connections to President Donald Trump's former advisor Roger Stone and Infowars host Alex Jones, could well be in the cross hairs. Corsi has said he believes he'll soon be indicted in the probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. While Corsi isn't a household name, he has been a mainstay on the political fringe for years, his influence at times extending into the mainstream of American politics. He was one of the main players in smear campaigns against 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and former President Barack Obama. Corsi pushed the "birther" conspiracy theory that falsely alleged Obama was not born in America. Trump himself embraced the birther narrative as he built his political career. Corsi's profile is almost certain to grow if what he says about Mueller's investigation targeting him comes to fruition. Here's what you need to know about him:

He claims Mueller is planning to indict him

Corsi told NBC News in a phone interview last week that the special counsel "told me they were going to indict me." Hearing that news was "one of the most confusing and frightening things I've experienced," he said. "I'm 72 years and I'm afraid they're going to lock me up and put me in solitary confinement." Mueller's team has reportedly investigated for months whether Corsi learned in advance that online whistleblowing database WikiLeaks had received Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails, which U.S. intelligence services have concluded were stolen by Russian intelligence officers. WikiLeaks dumped troves of Democratic National Committee emails in 2016 during the presidential campaign. Corsi denied that he knew ahead of time about the hacking and release of Podesta's emails. He said he merely deduced that they would be released after finding few of the campaign chief's emails in prior dumps of Democrats' communications by WikiLeaks, NBC reported. Corsi told NBC he has participated in "40 hours" of interview sessions with the special counsel, and that they "seemed determined to find a connection with WikiLeaks and me." A spokesman for the special counsel declined CNBC's request for comment.

He has connections to Roger Stone and Alex Jones

After revealing in September that Corsi had been subpoenaed by Mueller's team, Corsi lawyer David Gray told journalists in an email that "we intend to cooperate fully with the special counsel's office and we suspect that the focus of the questions will be about my client's communications with Roger Stone." Gray declined to comment on CNBC's inquiries about Corsi. Stone, a longtime advisor to Trump known for dirty politics, had corresponded with numerous associates and other individuals about WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. Multiple outlets reported last week that Justice Department prosecutors in an unrelated court filing revealed by mistake that Assange has been charged in an unspecified matter under seal. Stone had presented himself to Trump campaign-related people as being privy to WikiLeaks' inner workings, according to copies of his emails and text messages that have been made public by various news outlets. He has since denied that he had any direct sources inside WikiLeaks, claiming that his past hints to the contrary were nothing more than political posturing. Corsi and Stone also had connections to Infowars, the broadly pro-Trump conspiracy website led by Alex Jones, which has claimed that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were an "inside job" by the U.S. government and that the 2012 gun massacre of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut was a "false flag" operation. Corsi had been the site's Washington bureau chief in 2017 but no longer works there. Stone has made appearances on Infowars and hosts a daily show on the network. Stone told CNBC in an email that he "met Dr. Corsi in 2011," and "did not know him prior to that." He did not respond to CNBC's follow-up questions about his relationship with Corsi.

Corsi pushed the 'birther' conspiracy theory ...

Corsi is the author of "Where's the Birth Certificate?" a 2011 polemic pushing the so-called birther conspiracy that Obama was not born in the U.S. and was possibly raised as a Muslim. While Obama released his long-form birth certificate weeks before Corsi's book was published, the book was not updated prior to its release, The Washington Post reported at the time. Trump, who became one of the leading public figures questioning Obama's birthplace, had contacted Corsi as a source of information, according to The New York Times. While he was still hosting the reality show "The Apprentice," Trump started pushing the conspiracy theory in television interviews as he teased the possibility of a presidential run. It was only on the eve of the 2016 election against Clinton that Trump conceded that Obama was born in the United States. Trump tweet While birtherism was widely spread and discussed, it was also roundly dismissed and debunked by mainstream figures, many of whom decried the conspiracy as racist. Former first lady Michelle Obama wrote in her new memoir, "Becoming," that the "underlying bigotry and xenophobia" of the birther movement was "hardly concealed." She also wrote that she would never forgive Trump for popularizing the baseless claim because it put her family "at risk."

... and the 'Swift Boat veterans' controversy