Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg says he likely will comply with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's subpoena even though he spent the day Monday granting interviews with cable news networks, repeatedly insisting he would be willing to go to jail for contempt.
AP:
In an interview with The Associated Press, Sam Nunberg said he was angry over Mueller’s request to have him appear in front of a grand jury and turn over thousands of emails and other communications with other ex-officials, among them his mentor Roger Stone. But he predicted that, in the end, he’d find a way to comply.
“I’m going to end up cooperating with them,” he said.
(...)
Nunberg said he’d already blown a 3 p.m. Monday deadline to turn over the requested communications. He said he’d traded numerous emails a day with Stone and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, and said spending 80 hours digging through his inbox to find them all was unreasonable.
But in his call with the AP, Nunberg said he might be more willing to comply if Mueller’s team limits the scope of its request.
“I’m happy if the scope changes and if they send me a subpoena that doesn’t include Carter Page,” he said, insisting the two had never spoken.
He also said he believes the only reason he’s being asked to testify before the grand jury is to provide information that would be used against Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, which he says he won’t do.
Nunberg was only with the campaign for a short time, but MSNBC's Katy Tur pointed out Tuesday morning that he has a close, long-standing relationship with Roger Stone and others in the Trump orbit.
AP:
It’s unclear how much Nunberg would know about the inner workings of the Trump campaign or the White House. He never worked at the White House and was jettisoned from the Trump campaign early on, in August 2015, after racist social media postings surfaced. Trump filed a $10 million lawsuit against Nunberg in July 2016, accusing him of violating a nondisclosure agreement, but they settled the suit one month later.
Tur – who covered the Trump campaign and interviewed Nunberg live on the air Monday – says Nunberg's relationship with Trump is a love/hate thing.
Nunberg spoke with New York Magazine late Monday night/early Tuesday morning and added some insight into his strange media spree. NY Mag also explains the extent of Nunberg's history with Trump.
Monday’s events were a glimpse at what might’ve been had Trump not fired Nunberg in August 2015, two months into his presidential campaign, after it was reported that seven years earlier, he’d posted several racist comments on Facebook. Trump had fired him twice previously, but quickly rehired him each time. Nunberg maintains that his final firing was the result of infighting, and he’s held a grudge against Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager at the time, ever since.
Nunberg was a political adviser to Trump for the handful of years before the campaign, a relatively placid time when Trump had few such people in his orbit — besides Nunberg, there was Nunberg’s mentor, Roger Stone — and when the safe bet seemed to be that the reality-TV star would never actually run for office.
(...)
Nunberg was then as he is now: a colorful character prone to fits of unpredictability and episodes of utter boneheadedness. But unlike some of the figures who have surrounded the president — or surround him still — there’s an honesty to Nunberg, which emerges in a willingness to admit when he’s screwed up, or apologize, or see himself and his place in the hierarchy of Trump World as it really is.
(...)
Why do you believe you were subpoenaed?
Because that’s the way they’re gonna operate. By the way, if they have something on Trump, take him down! I don’t care!(...)
So, what do you think happens next with Mueller?
Nothing! I’m gonna cooperate!Then why did you say you’d rip up the subpoena?
Here’s what I really didn’t like: I don’t think it’s fair for them to ask me for every email communication I’ve ever had with Steve Bannon and Roger Stone. And here’s the other thing I wanted to use this opportunity for: was to make it very clear to Trump, to the president, that he screwed me over.(...)
When was the last time that you talked to Trump?
I’ve not talked to him for a very long time, and I’m not gonna talk to him for a very long time after what he did to Steve. It’s inexcusable to me. You know what, that’s where Roger and I have a big disagreement, too. Trump would not have won that election without Steve. Not with his stupid-ass son-in-law. You know what Trump’s falling is gonna be? Trump’s falling is gonna be that Trump is loyal and won’t do anything to his stupid-ass son-in-law, who, by the way, is a thief that stole money from him.But —
I wanna know! Here’s what I wanna know! And I think in the interest of transparency we should know what Brad Parscale took from the 2016 campaign and if he gave any money to Jared Kushner. [Parscale was the 2016 campaign’s digital media director, and was just hired to manage Trump’s reelection bid.] I just wanna know it! Maybe I’m wrong! Who knows.When you say that you haven’t spoken to Trump in a very long time, do you mean, like, weeks, months?
Months.How many months?
Uh, I don’t wanna get into it.Did he call you the last time that you spoke?
Yes, he called me.Was it at night?
Yeah, it was at night.What was it about?
I’m not gonna get into it. I think it would hurt me with my thing with Mueller. I’m not getting into it.(...)
Has your lawyer called you like a million times today?
No, he didn’t, he’s just like, are you getting it out of your system? During the day, I got a text.
Ex-Trump aide says he’ll likely cooperate with Mueller (AP)
Read the full interview: Sam Nunberg on Mueller, His Media Spree, and His Message for Trump (NY Magazine)