Instead of turning over his emails in compliance with a grand-jury subpoena for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg spent Monday afternoon melting down on live television.
After calling into MSNBC to declare that he will ignore the subpoena and dare the feds to arrest him, Nunberg then called into CNN twice—continuing to assert his defiance and bash his ex-boss Trump as an “idiot”—and NY1, where he called White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders—who earlier downplayed his role in the Trump campaign—a “joke” and a “fat slob.”
But that wasn’t the end of his media meltdown tour. During the 6 p.m. hour, Nunberg appeared in the flesh on MSNBC’s The Beat, waving a copy of the subpoena and laughing at the notion that he could go to jail.
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“I want to see what Mr. Mueller does—it’s never been done before,” Nunberg said.
Amid his ranting, Nunberg revealed some interesting information about his current ordeal. For one, he admitted he has already missed the deadline to turn over emails to Mueller.
He additionally said that during his private interview with the special counsel, Mueller’s team seemed especially interested in Trump business decisions. Based on the questions the special counsel asked, Nunberg explained, it sounded like they were “going after” former Trump aide Roger Stone, whom Nunberg described as “like a father.”
But like in the earlier interviews, most of the back-and-forth was dedicated to Nunberg skewering his critics within Trumpworld and his political opponents.
After previously calling Trump an “idiot,” Nunberg told MSNBC host Ari Melber that the president is the “most disloyal person you’re ever going to meet.”
Nunberg asserted that former Trump aide Carter Page cooperated with the Russians, criticized former campaign manager and rival Corey Lewandowski, and referred to soon-to-be-former communications director Hope Hicks as the White House’s “paramour,” a reference to an alleged affair with Lewandowski and her relationship with ousted aide Rob Porter.
Nunberg also continued his verbal assault on Huckabee Sanders, telling Melber: “I’m warning her to shut her mouth.”
Following the 15-minute interview, Melber bizarrely allowed Nunberg to stay at the desk while a panel of legal-minded guests remarked upon the ex-Trump aide’s situation.
Maya Wiley, a New York City mayoral counsel attempted to offer Nunberg—amid a very public meltdown—some advice to seemingly little avail.
“What you’re essentially projecting to me, as an attorney, is that you’re actually protecting [Roger Stone] because there’s something to protect,” she said.
“There’s nothing to protect,” Nunberg shot back.
Even host Ari Melber implored him to think more about his decision to defy the subpoena, calling it “befuddling,” asking him if he wanted to “take more time to think this through.”
Still, Nunberg continued to insist that he would not face legal consequences for failing to comply with the subpoena, though he conceded that he may have been dropped by his own lawyer.
“They’re not going to send me to jail,” he boldly declared. “Mr. Mueller, if he wants to send me to jail, he can send me to jail, and then I’ll laugh about it and I’ll make a bigger spectacle than I am on your show right now.”
Just a few minutes later, Nunberg was just up the road, appearing live on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront. “You’re drunk or off your meds,” the eponymous host told Nunberg.