Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg’s apparent breakdown on national television Monday, an uncomfortable spectacle that played out over the course of several live press interviews, may provide a glimpse into the direction of Robert Mueller’s enigmatic special counsel investigation.
Brazenly refusing to cooperate with a subpoena (and then reversing course), Nunberg’s chief anxiety appeared to be over the fate of another ousted Trump campaign aide. “I’m worried they’re trying to make a case against Roger Stone,” he divulged.
It seems Nunberg’s value to Mueller may lie in his communications with Stone, who we know who was in conversation with Wikileaks, the entity that obtained and published Democrats’ emails. (The U.S. intelligence community is highly confident Wikileaks was acting as an intermediary for the Russian intelligence service.)
That being said, Nunberg’s utility as a reliable witness is questionable, especially after his media tour on Tuesday.
Axios’ Jonathan Swan, to whom Nunberg anonymously provided the grand jury subpoena, reported, “Nobody who knows Sam thinks he has anything interesting to offer Mueller. But his friends are worried about him.”
Though he was with Trump from the beginning of bid for the White House, Nunberg was fired from the campaign before the summer of 2015 had elapsed. He’s no high level operative himself, and he wouldn’t have been there at the right time to witness anything Russia-related, but he might have been a conduit to other people. Of course, all that matters is what Mueller thinks he knows.
