Special Counsel Robert Mueller has accused right-wing operatives of a bizarre campaign to smear him as a rapist by offering cash women to testify against him, it emerged Tuesday.

His office has asked the FBI to probe an alleged smear campaign led by Jack Burkman, a Washington D.C. lobbyist known for peddling conspiracy theories.

It centers round a claim that a woman alleged she was offered tens of thousands of dollars to say Mueller sexually harassed her, while a Vermont legal professor said she was offered a 'beginning rate' to talk about 'encounters' with the ex-FBI director.

At the same time, one of the people said to be involved in the smear campaign published what he said was a woman's account of being raped by Mueller in 2010 at a New York hotel - a claim Mueller denied.

The plot is now in the hands of the FBI, after its existence was revealed in a rare public statement from the Mueller probe.

'When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the Special Counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation,' Mueller spokesman Peter Carr told the Atlantic when it broke the story.

The bizarre twist came amid mounting belief that Mueller's probe is wrapping up, and as notorious Republican dirty tricks operative Roger Stone increased his legal representation after claims the investigation is targeting whether he knew in advance about the publication of Hillary Clinton's emails.



Special counsel Robert Mueller's office is asking the FBI to probe an effort to smear the special counsel with a made up sexual harrassment claim

GOP Lobbyist Jack Burkman is claiming a woman will bring allegations against Mueller

Burkman, however, said he was planning a Thursday press conference at which he would unveil a woman who would accuse Mueller of sexual misconduct and that others would follow.

Trump's lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, rejected claims of sexual assault and harassment by Mueller as 'inconsistent with what I know of Bob' in a statement to the Daily Beast.

WHO IS JACK BURKMAN? Washington, D.C. Republican activist, lobbyist, and conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman says he will unveil ‘the first of the sexual assault victims of Robert Mueller.’ He said in a Facebook post posted this week that Mueller is a ‘bad guy’ who has ‘done bad things to a number of women.’ ‘More to come,’ he said, without offering evidence. Jack Burkman Burkman has spread other conspiracy theories in the past, such as one surrounding Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, who was found dead in his Washington, D.C. neighborhood. Police concluded he died in a robbery. Rich’s family sued Fox News after it published a story linking him to WikiLeaks. Burkman launched his own investigation, stoking conservative claims of a political conspiracy. He also has offered a $25,000 cash reward for whistleblowers inside the FBI. Burkman, who also hosts a radio show, says he was shot by a man he hired in the course of the Seth Rich investigation he launched. According to a Washington Post account, Burkman alleges employee Kevin Doherty shot him and tried to run him over with an SUV while he was receiving promised FBI documents in a garage. Burkman tweeted Tuesday: ‘Some sad news. On Thursday, November 1, at the Rosslyn Holiday Inn at noon, we will reveal the first of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's sex assault victims. I applaud the courage and dignity and grace and strength of my client.’ The Special Counsel’s office has referred to the FBI information that women were offered money for making false claims about Mueller. Burkman denied any involvement in a statement to Newsweek. ‘It's completely false. I don't know this woman, no one on my staff knows that name," Burkman said. "No one on my staff offered her money." Advertisement

The bizarre story started with an email to reporters which claimed to be from a woman called Lorraine Parsons.

It said that she had a tip for the reporters that she had been contacted by a man with a British accent asking her to make a false statement that she had been sexually assaulted by Mueller when they worked together in 1974.

She had been a paralegal at Pilsbury, Madison, and Sutro - a legal firm where Mueller worked in San Francisco - she claimed in the email, and said that the man claimed to work for a company called Surefire Intelligence.

He offered her $54,000 - $20,000 in cash and $34,000 to settle her and her late husband's credit card debts - in return for signing a false statement, which she refused to do, the email said.

They exchanged information on an encrypted app called Signal but Parsons refused to sign any affidavit or say that Mueller was a sexual abuser.

It is unreal if Parsons actually exists, with the law firm saying that it had no record of her working for the firm and no public records matching her biography.

But another woman - Jennifer Taub, an associate professor at Vermont Law School - told The Atlantic that she had received an email from an address which included Surefire Intelligence and which said: 'It’s my understanding that you may have had some past encounters with Robert Mueller.

'I would like to discuss those encounters with you. I believe a basic telephone call, for which I would compensate you at whatever rate you see fit (inside reason), would be a good place to start.'

She did not respond but forwarded the email to Mueller's office. Taub has appeared on television to discuss the probe but has never had any encounters with Mueller, she said.



On Tuesday the plot was revealed by the Atlantic, prompting a bizarre new series of events.

Ed Krassenstein of Hillreporter.com also posted an account of his interactions with someone purporting to have dirt on Mueller.

Krassenstein says the person who contacted him named the person bringing the information as Bill Christensen.

'I was contacted via phone call by a man named Bill Christensen, who had a British accent, and said that he would like to ask me a couple of questions about Robert Mueller, whom I worked with when I was a paralegal for Pillsbury, Madison, and Sutro in 1974 (now called Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman),' the person claimed in an email.

'I asked him who he was working for, and he told me his boss was some sort of politics guy in Washington named Jack Burkman (or Berkman… Not sure how it's spelled)…….'

A woman claims she was contacted by someone who identified himself as Bill Christensen. When a reporter made inquiries, he got a call back from a firm calling itself 'Surefire Intelligence'. But his picture is of Sigourney Weaver's husband

Christensen's online resume says he was a British Intelligence officer, although his identity could not immediately be confirmed

He wrote that while exploring what appeared to be a hoax, he called the woman's number, and received a call back from a man identifying himself as being with Surefire Intelligence.

'You're in over your head…. Drop this,' Krassenstein says the person told him.

After that revelation, Jacob Wohl, a 20-year-old fringe conservative activist, published on The Gateway Pundit - itself generally seen as an alt-right website - what he said was an account from a woman of how she was raped by Mueller at the St. Regis Hotel in New York in 2010.

The four-page document was headed 'Confidential Raw Intelligence Document' and purported to detail an interview with an unidentified woman who said a drunken Mueller had told her: 'I work for the FBI... I'm not the guy that you say no to.'

The document said Mueller took the woman to his 19th floor hotel room, jammed a comforter over her mouth to muffle her screams, then raped her.

She only recognized her alleged attacker in September this year when she saw a news story on television about 'Russian interference in the mid-term elections', the document said.

Then the unverified claims however were removed shortly after publication.

The Gateway Pundit removed the story and documents, with founder Jim Hoft posting: 'We took the documents down and we are currently investigating these accusations.'

But then it emerged that Surefire Intelligence appeared to be a sham organization linked to Wohl.

The 'British man' matched a Linkedin page lists his title as Washington DC Station Chief for Surefire Intelligence. His bio lists him as a British Intelligence Community officer with 10 years' experience.

His existence, claim to be a former British spy and Cambridge graduate could not by verified and one of the companies he claimed to work for did not appear to exist - and his LinkedIn profile photo is of Sigourney Weaver's husband, Jim Simpson.

There do not appear to be any business listings for a 'Surefire Intelligence LLC' other than the mention on the firm's web site. The New York address listed appears to be a co-working space and virtual office in Manhattan. A London address brings up a similar shared space firm.

And Krassensetein says the caller identified himself as Mike Wohl of Surefire.

Domain records for Surefire Intelligence bring up an email associated with Wohl.

When NBC News called the phone number listed on the firm's web site, it went to voicemail and gave another number, which turned out to be listed as belonging to Wohl's mom. She has not passed comment.

Other members of Surefire's 'team' had LinkedIn profiles using photographs of model Bar Refaeli and actor Christoph Waltz, the Daily Beast reported.

Despite the blow to the apparent smear bid, Burkman stood by claims that he would expose revelations against Mueller.

He tweeted: 'mueller wants to deflect attention from his sex assault troubles by attacking me.' He then sent an email saying: 'on Thursday 1200 NOON ROSSYLN HOLIDAY INN we will present a very credible witness who will allege that Mr. Mueller committed against her a sexual assault.'

Wohl tweeted Tuesday morning: ''Several media sources tell me that a scandalous story about Mueller is breaking tomorrow. Should be interesting. Stay tuned!'

He denied any involvement when contacted by NBC.

'I don't have any involvement in any investigations of any kind. I'm not quite that cool,' he wrote.

His mom has yet to comment.

THE BIZARRE RAPE CLAIMS MADE AGAINST MUELLER

A redacted 'confidential raw intelligence document' lays out misconduct allegations

The statement from the unnamed accuser makes an assault claim from 2010