Some guy I hadn’t given a single thought about has emerged as a key player in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into The Russia Thing.

Jerome Corsi is an associate of Roger Stone, a right wing gadfly who is close to Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States. Mueller is trying to determine whether Trump’s campaign “colluded” with Russian operatives during the 2016 presidential campaign. He’s also looking at some other issues related to this matter, including obstruction of justice.

I should not wish ill on anyone, but Corsi deserves some bad vibe.

This is the author, the guy who gave birth (pun intended) to the Barack Obama “birther” lie, that the former president wasn’t eligible to serve as president because he was born in Africa. Donald Trump picked up on the lie and carried it forward for years.

Corsi’s defamation is despicable on its face.

So was his involvement in the “Swift-boating” of 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. Corsi fabricated another lie, that Kerry — a former U.S. senator and secretary of state — didn’t deserve the medals he earned as a Navy officer during the Vietnam War. Kerry served on Swift boats during the war, was wounded in action and received several medals for valor. Corsi had plenty of help in this defamatory action; it came from none other than former Amarillo oilman T. Boone Pickens, to name just one man.

Corsi was at the center of that lie and sought to discredit Kerry in a shameful act of defamation.

Do I want this guy to escape the clutch of Robert Mueller? No. I want him to pay.