Ex-aide: Trump should avoid Mueller interview ‘like the plague’

A former campaign adviser is warning President Trump against sitting down with special counsel Robert Mueller for an interview, saying it should be avoided “like the plague.”

In an interview with CNN’s “New Day” on Thursday, Michael Caputo said a potential interview with Mueller would be so fraught with pitfalls for the president that he would be better off avoiding it entirely.

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“This is tough stuff. I’m not a lawyer, but I can’t imagine that as a political adviser, as a communications operative, that I would tell the president he should sit down for this,” Caputo said.

“I think they should avoid it like the plague,” he added, referring to White House staff.

Caputo went on to say that while he has cooperated with Mueller’s investigation up until this point, he believes the special counsel’s probe into Russian collusion should end.

“The fact of the matter is, I don’t know anything about Russian collusion,” Caputo said. “I didn’t see any of it, and I certainly wasn’t involved in any.”

“Listen, I wasn’t happy to be there. I think this investigation should end,” he continued. “I don’t think it ever should have begun. But as an American, I enjoy the freedoms of this nation, and I think I have a responsibility to participate in something that the government thinks is important.”

Caputo’s comments came just hours after an explosive interview with Trump’s lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who told Fox News that Trump both knew about and reimbursed his attorney Michael Cohen for the $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels in the weeks before the election. Daniels alleges the payment was to buy her silence about an affair she says she had with Trump years ago.

Investigators are reportedly looking at whether that payment constituted an unreported campaign donation, which would violate federal campaign finance laws.

Cohen is reportedly also under investigation for bank fraud, as well as over his ownership of New York City taxi medallions.