Mueller's office asks FBI to investigate claims that women were offered money to falsely accuse him of sexual misconduct

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October 30, 2018 7:20 PM

The scheme came to light when journalists revealed that they'd been contacted by a woman who said she was offered money to say Mueller harassed her.

The special counsel Robert Mueller's office has referred an alleged scheme to the FBI for investigation in which a political operative offered to pay women to falsely accuse Mueller of sexual misconduct and workplace harassment, a spokesman for his office told Business Insider.

The lobbyist at the center of the alleged scheme, Jack Burkman, claimed that on Thursday he "will reveal the first of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's sex assault victims."

Scott Stedman, a freelance reporter who has closely tracked the Mueller probe, first publicly divulged details about Burkman's alleged offer late Monday night.

"He knew exactly how much credit card debt I had, right down to the dollar, which sort of freaked me out," she wrote.

The woman said she declined the individual's offer, but that he contacted her again two days later.

"He then offered to pay off all of my credit card debt, plus bring me a check for $20,000 if I would do one thing," she wrote, adding that when she asked him what he wanted her to do, he told her they could not talk about it on the phone and that she should download the encrypted messaging app Signal.

When he called her on the app a few minutes later, the woman wrote, he told her, "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."

The woman said that she immediately hung up on the man and deleted the app.

"I didn’t see Robert Mueller very much when I worked at Pillsbury, but when I did see him, he was always very polite to me, and was never inappropriate," she wrote.

It's unclear whether the woman's story is entirely factual. Stedman wrote that after she contacted him, "she wouldn't get on the phone" to discuss her claims and "lied about journalists she was working with."

Burkman, meanwhile, said he does not know the woman who emailed reporters about the alleged scheme.

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