WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Jerome Corsi, a conservative writer and associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone, said Monday he's refusing a plea deal offered by special counsel Robert Mueller, who's leading the Russia investigation.
Corsi told CNN in a phone call that he had been offered a deal to plea on one count of perjury but that he plans to reject it.
"They can put me in prison the rest of my life. I am not going to sign a lie," Corsi was quoted by CNN as saying.
Corsi said last week that he expected to be charged with lying to federal investigators, though he said at the time that he was innocent of wrongdoing.
Mueller's team questioned Corsi as part of an investigation into Stone's connections with WikiLeaks, an organization that publishes secret information, news leaks, and classified media provided by anonymous sources.
U.S. intelligence agencies have claimed that Russia was the source of hacked material released by WikiLeaks in the weeks ahead of the 2016 election that damaged the campaign of Hillary Clinton, then Democratic candidate for presidency.
Mueller has indicted 12 Russian military officers in that episode.
The special counsel's team is reportedly trying to determine whether Stone and other associates of President Donald Trump had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks' plans.
Corsi, the former Washington bureau chief of the conspiracy theory outlet InfoWars, said he had been cooperating with the probe for about two months. However, he also said talks with investigators recently had "blown up."
"I fully anticipate that in the next few days, I will be indicted by Mueller," he said last week.
Stone has also said he is prepared to be indicted but has denied being a conduit for WikiLeaks.
Mueller is looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation.
Trump has repeatedly dismissed any collusion between his campaign and Russians while slamming the Russia probe as a "hoax" or "witch hunt".
