Ex-Trump aide insults aides, makes wild claims in series of bizarre interviews

A former aide to President Trump’s campaign sent Washington into a frenzy on Monday by announcing he would defy a special counsel subpoena in a series of bizarre interviews on cable television.

Sam Nunberg — who was fired from the Trump campaign for racist social media posts and was later sued by the president for allegedly breaking a nondisclosure agreement — said he’d received a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller demanding his correspondences with Trump and nine other former senior campaign or White House officials.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Nunberg said Mueller’s request was too burdensome and that he would not comply with the order. He dared Mueller to throw him in jail.

{mosads}The networks scrambled to book Nunberg following that bombshell declaration, allowing him to call in remotely and ramble for large blocks of time in which he contradicted himself, insulted various former colleagues and White House officials, asked two anchors for legal advice and called Mueller a “moron.”

“I think it would be funny if they arrested me,” he said in an interview with NBC.

Nunberg’s credibility has taken a few hits in Washington. He has privately bragged to reporters about planting fake stories in the press and publicly admitted to making up a story that went viral about former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) picking up McDonald’s food for then-candidate Trump.

In a late interview on CNN — his third of the day — anchor Erin Burnett accused Nunberg of smelling like alcohol. He denied that he had been drinking but said he takes antidepressants.

Over the weekend, several news outlets reported that they had obtained a subpoena in which Mueller sought correspondence between a former campaign aide and current and former Trump officials.

Nunberg admitted to being the source for those stories and on Monday offered to email the subpoena to news anchors. He told The Washington Post that he would sooner go to jail than comply with it, arguing that Mueller’s request would be time consuming for him and that it was a fishing expedition.

He was all over the place explaining his thinking in cable news interviews.

Nunberg called the special counsel a “waste of time” on NBC and described it as a “witch hunt” to CNN.

But in the NBC interview and in a second interview later on CNN, Nunberg said he thinks the special counsel has evidence of criminal wrongdoing against the president.

“I think he may have done something during the election,” Nunberg told NBC.

“I am not a fan of Donald Trump,” he added at one point. “He treated me like crap, OK?”

The White House responded, calling Nunberg’s claims about criminal wrongdoing “incorrect.”

“As we said many times before, there was no collusion with the Trump campaign,” said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “Anything further on what his actions are — he hasn’t worked at the White House. I can’t speak to him or the lack of knowledge that he clearly has.”

Sanders said that whether Nunberg complies with the subpoena or not, the White House would continue working with Mueller in hopes of bringing the investigation to a swift conclusion.

“From our perspective, we’re fully cooperating with the office of the special counsel. We’ll continue to do so. I’ll reiterate once again the reason we are so comfortable doing so: There’s absolutely no collusion within the Trump campaign in any foreign government,” she said.

Nunberg shot back, blaming Sanders for Trump’s low approval rating and daring her to attack him again. 

“I think she’s terrible,” Nunberg said, asking her to meet him “face to face.” He called her a “fat slob” in another interview.

Over the course of the interviews, Nunberg also put down former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and said that Trump’s former bodyguard, Keith Schiller, arranged to bring Russian prostitutes to Trump but the president turned them away.

He accused former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page of colluding with Russians and said Mueller believes the president is “the Manchurian candidate.”
 
“I think Mueller has enough on Trump,” he told CNN. “He doesn’t need me to start giving him information.”

Nunberg repeatedly asked the anchors for legal advice.

“What do you think Mueller is going to do to me?” he asked NBC’s Katy Tur.

“I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know, but I imagine the circumstances, but I imagine you might be held in contempt of court,” she responded.

He later asked CNN’s Jake Tapper if he should cooperate with Mueller.

“I would cooperate, were it me,” Tapper responded. “But, you know, I’m a different breed of cat.”

—Updated at 7:57 p.m.