Sam Nunberg Gives First Interview After Facing Mueller: ‘I Don’t Think It’s a Witch Hunt’

 

Former Donald Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg finally sat down before a grand jury on Friday, after a whirlwind media tour earlier in the week that kicked off with him announcing his intentions to defy a subpoena, and ended with many questioning his mental health and wellbeing.

Nunberg spent more than six hours in a courthouse with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team and the grand jury, answering questions about the Trump campaign and its ties to Russia.

“I was there a long time, and they have a lot of questions,” Nunberg told ABC News’ Tara Palmeri, in his first interview since testifying. Such as: “Did I ever hear Russia spoken in the office?”

“And then they asked why did President Trump support Putin in Syria,” he added.

Nunberg also told Palmeri he thought the Russian president was besting his former boss:

“I think Vladimir Putin, if you look at it objectively, is really taking advantage of the president,” he said. “Vladimir Putin, I think we all can agree, wanted Donald Trump to win.”

And while Nunberg maintained that he “never worked with anybody that was unethical” on the campaign, he is still “worried about” Roger Stone, a subject of the Mueller probe who he has called his mentor.

Palmeri also asked Nunberg about his stunning live TV meltdown earlier in the week (which crescendoed with CNN’s Erin Burnett asking if he was drunk on live television.)

“People say I had a meltdown on TV? I melted TV down that day,” Nunberg replied. “I wanted to show what this independent counsel, this independent investigation, does to people like me.”

“I was going to always comply with arriving today,” he added, despite earlier in the week repeatedly boasting of his defiance of Mueller’s subpoena. “I’m an attorney, that is the first thing, and this is my duty as an American to do this, whether I like it or not.”

Palmeri finally asked Nunberg whether like Trump and many of his allies, he thinks the Mueller investigation is a “witch hunt.”

“No I don’t think it’s a witch hunt,” Nunberg said. “There’s a lot of there, there. And that’s the sad truth.”

“I don’t believe it leads to the president,” he added.

Watch above, via ABC News.

[image via screengrab]

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Aidan McLaughlin is the Editor in Chief of Mediaite. Send tips via email: aidan@mediaite.com. Ask for Signal. Follow him on Twitter: @aidnmclaughlin