A former Trump aide said he has been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury investigating Russia’s election interference but that he will refuse to go.
Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg publicly defied the Justice Department special counsel on Monday, announcing in an extraordinary series of media interviews that he had been subpoenaed to appear in front of a federal grand jury investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election but that he will refuse to go.
« Let him arrest me, » Nunberg told The Washington Post in his first stop on a media blitz, saying he does not plan to comply with a subpoena from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to hand over emails and other documents related to President Trump and nine other current and former Trump advisers.
« Mr. Mueller should understand I am not going in on Friday » to the grand jury, he added. It is unclear what actions Mueller might take if Nunberg does not appear.
In a remarkable act of rebellion, Nunberg seized the national media spotlight for much of Monday afternoon to denounce Mueller’s investigation as a « witch hunt » and to detail what he said he had learned about the probe from his private interview last month with Mueller’s team. Nunberg advised Trump in the run-up to the campaign but was fired in 2015 and has since been a relatively fringe figure in the president’s orbit.
Following his interview with The Post, Nunberg called in live to MSNBC and CNN for lengthy phone interviews — a spectacle reminiscent of Trump routinely calling into cable television control rooms during the 2016 campaign.
Denis McDonough…
Denis McDonough …
Nunberg said repeatedly that he believes Mueller is trying to build a case that Trump was « the Manchurian candidate. » He said that he suspects Mueller has concluded that Trump « may have done something » based on the questions he was asked by the special counsel’s team.
The line of questioning, Nunberg told MSNBC anchor Katy Tur, « insinuated to me that [Trump] may have done something, and he may very well have. » He added, « Trump may have very well done something during the election. I don’t know what it is. I could be wrong, by the way. »
Nunberg said that the special counsel had sought to convince him to testify against another former Trump adviser, Roger Stone, for colluding with Russians, but he said he would not because Stone has been a friend and mentor to him.
Nunberg — who advised Trump in the run-up to the campaign but was fired shortly after Trump declared his candidacy — was unsparing in his criticism of the White House staff and even of the president himself.
He complained to The Post that Trump had treated him, as well as Stone and others, terribly and would eventually regret it.
In one of his CNN interviews, he said Trump sometimes acted like « an idiot, » noting that he met last year with Russian leaders inside the Oval Office, where he shared classified intelligence.
« Granted, Donald Trump caused this because he’s an idiot, » Nunberg told CNN anchor Jake Tapper. « Who the hell advised him to allow those Russians in the Oval Office? »
Refusing to comply with a subpoena from the special counsel could have real consequences. Susan McDougal, a former business partner of Bill Clinton, spent 18 months behind bars for civil contempt after she refused to testify before a grand jury investigating the Whitewater real estate controversy during Clinton’s presidency.
McDougal said in an interview Monday that she would not do anything differently — though Nunberg should know that being incarcerated is no joke. She said she was moved from facility to facility and spent a good deal of time in isolation.
« It is not an easy thing to do, » McDougal said. « You don’t just go sit and work out in the afternoons. »
McDougal questioned why Nunberg was appearing on television suggesting he knew things that might be of interest to Mueller. « Why would he do that and then not cooperate? » she asked. « The difference is, I didn’t know anything. »
At the White House, officials quickly sought to distance the administration from Nunberg, who has not been in Trump’s good graces since his firing in August 2015 over racially insensitive Facebook posts.
Aides in the West Wing watched Nunberg’s television interviews closely, voicing frustration that he had thrust Russia back into the headlines and laughing over what they considered Nunberg’s lack of discipline.
Asked at her afternoon press briefing to respond to Nunberg’s suggestion that Mueller may have incriminating information about Trump, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, « There was no collusion with the Trump campaign. »
Sanders also played down Nunberg’s importance. « 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, » she said.
This is not the first time Nunberg’s credibility has been questioned. Nunberg admitted in Politico last November that he made up a story about then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie fetching McDonald’s food for Trump to embarrass Christie — a claim that went viral after it was reported by The New Yorker.
Nunberg, who lives in New York, forwarded to The Post an email listed as coming from Mueller’s office asking him to appear in front of a grand jury in Washington on Friday. He also shared with The Post a copy of what appears to be a two-page attachment to his grand jury subpoena seeking documents related to Trump and nine other people, including emails, correspondence, invoices, telephone logs, calendars and « records of any kind. »
Among those the subpoena requests information about are departing White House communications director Hope Hicks; former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon; Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen; former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski; and Stone. Also on the list are Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman who faces numerous charges of money laundering and tax evasion, and Rick Gates, a former campaign aide and Manafort partner who has pleaded guilty to lying and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
« I’m not spending 80 hours going over my emails with Roger Stone and Steve Bannon and producing them, » Nunberg said. « Donald Trump won this election on his own. He campaigned his ass off. And there is nobody who hates him more than me. »
Nunberg added, « The Russians and Trump did not collude. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is too smart to collude with Donald Trump.
