The FBI has been asked by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office to look into whether a group of Republican operatives has been offering women money to fabricate stories of sexual misconduct by the former FBI director.

As The Atlantic’s Natasha Bertrand reports, a spokesman for Mueller confirmed on Tuesday that the office recently referred a case to the FBI that involves right-wing activist Jack Burkman allegedly offering to pay women $20,000 each to make up false stories about the special counsel harassing them sexually.

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Mueller’s office was alerted to the potential scheme by several journalists who said that a woman had told them that Burkman offered to pay her in exchange for bogus Mueller dirt.

“[He] offered to pay off all of my credit card debt, plus bring me a check for $20,000 if I would do one thing,” the woman told reporters in an email obtained by Bertrand. “He said (and I will never forget exactly what it was) ‘I want you to make accusations of sexual misconduct and workplace harassment against Robert Mueller, and I want you to sign a sworn affidavit to that effect.”

Burkman himself this week teased that he was going to drop a scandal on Mueller, when he promised on Thursday to “reveal the first of Special Counsel Robert

Mueller’s sex assault victims.”

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. pic.twitter.com/wZVQeHD45r — Jack Burkman (@Jack_Burkman) October 30, 2018