One of Donald Trump’s campaign aide’s has been cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Then, he lost it—big time. The man’s friends, and even cable news hosts, were clearly concerned about the consequences of what he said he was going to do.
Throughout the day, Sam Nunberg did a media blitz, beginning with a phone interview with MSNBC’s Katy Tur and hitting four cable shows in one day. MSNBC’s Morning Joe’s host, Joe Scarborough, called the former aide’s behavior “manic.” Certainly, Nunberg was under a great deal of stress.
Nunberg, a political strategist, had a subpoena in hand requesting all of his communications from a variety of people. Mueller wanted all emails, texts, documents, recordings, and other records to and from former Donald Trump campaign manager, Stephen Bannon, and political adviser to the campaign, Roger Stone. The special counsel also wanted the same records from a number of other people.
In addition, Mueller’s subpoena requested Nunberg appear before the grand jury within the week. The strategist was indignant and refused. Nunberg told MSNBC’s host of The Beat, Ari Melber, who is also an attorney:
‘Why do I have to do it? I’m not cooperating.’
Nunberg said that he was going through his emails when he decided he was not going to comply with Mueller’s subpoena. The former aide said he sent Roger Stone probably 15 emails a day, and the special counsel wanted everything from November 2015 to the present. Nunberg also commented that Roger Stone was “like a father” to him, and the former aide was not going to do anything to harm his “mentor.”
Then, he said he was not going to spend 80 hours finding all his documents and spend all that money on his attorney. Nunberg thought that this was the first time anyone had defied a subpoena to appear before a grand jury and challenged the special counsel to “arrest me.”
The strategist laughed, and said that Mueller was not going to put him in jail. The judicial experts on The Beat’s panel told him that the special counsel would, indeed, jail him. After all, Mueller could not set a precedence in his investigation. The best Nunberg could do was take the Fifth Amendment.
One of the experts told Nunberg that a woman had refused to testify before the grand jury during the investigation into President Bill Clinton. She spent 18 months in jail.
Nunberg admitted that he thought the president knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with the Russians. He also blamed Trump for the investigation, saying:
‘(Trump was) responsible for this investigation … because he was so stupid…I think he may have done something during the election, but I don’t know that for sure.’
The strategist was all over the place in his angst. He told Melber:
‘I think it would be funny if they arrested me.
He often repeated himself:
‘I’m not going to the grand jury. I’m not going to spend 80 hours going over my emails. I’m not doing it.’
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said this shortly after Nunberg began his rant:
‘I definitely think he doesn’t know that for sure because he’s incorrect. As we’ve said many times before, there was no collusion with the Trump campaign. He hasn’t worked at the White House, so I certainly can’t speak to him or the lack of knowledge that he clearly has.’
When his interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper was at its end, the aide asked the show’s host whether he should cooperate with Mueller. Tapper offered a compassionate suggestion:
‘If it were me, I would. Sometimes life and special prosecutors are not fair, I guess.’
By the end of the day, Nunberg told the Associated Press, (AP) in a phone interview he would reverse his earlier decision. He said:
‘I’m going to end up cooperating with them.’
Featured Image via Getty Images/Alex Wong.
