Ex-Trump aide Nunberg reverses: Mueller probe not a ‘witch hunt’

Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg says that he believes special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election is “warranted,” walking back his previous remarks calling the probe a “witch hunt.”

“No, I don’t think it’s a witch hunt. There’s a lot there, and that’s the sad truth,” Nunberg told ABC News in an interview broadcast Saturday, a day after he answered a subpoena by Mueller’s team to testify before a federal grand jury on his time in the campaign. 

Nunberg also said after his grand jury testimony that he doesn’t believe the investigation “leads to the president,” despite his comments this week that he thought Mueller’s team had evidence of criminal wrongdoing against President Trump.

{mosads}

The former aide, who appeared for hours before a grand jury on Friday, said he was grilled about current and former Trump staffers being scrutinized as part of the special counsel’s probe into ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia.

After his testimony, Nunberg said he’s “very worried” about Roger Stone, a longtime Republican strategist who informally advised Trump during the early stages of the campaign. “He’s certainly at least the subject of this investigation, in the very least he’s a subject.”

Stone has denied any collusion with Russians. 

Nunberg’s comments published Saturday came after he said in a Yahoo News interview that he would “lay low” following his Friday testimony at a federal court in Washington.

Earlier this week, Nunberg took to the airwaves in a bizarre string of media appearances where he repeatedly claimed he wouldn’t cooperate with Mueller or answer the subpoena to testify. 

But Nunberg has complied with Mueller’s subpoena, explaining to Yahoo News that he was simply complaining about the tight time frame in which Mueller wanted him to turn over thousands emails between him and other campaign aides dating back to 2015. 

“People say I had a meltdown on TV, I melted TV down that day,” he told ABC News. “I was going to always comply with arriving today. I’m an attorney, that’s the first thing, and this is my duty as an American, to do this whether I like it or not.”