Bizarre, Criminal law, Media, Politics

Sam Nunberg and Last Night’s NASCAR Press Pileup [Updated]
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It was another breathless bombshell evening last night as media proclaimed that a “Former Trump Aide” said that he believed Trump “may very well have done something during the election with the Russians.” CNN carried a series of bizarre interviews with Sam Nunberg who was refusing to comply with a subpoena from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to produce documents and appear before a grand jury. Nunberg spouted off a series of accusations against Carter Page and others that were immediately picked up as potential confirmation of collusion. However, each CNN interviews made it more and more clear that the network had a virtual freak on a leash. Soon Nunberg denounced Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a “fat slob” and telling her to shut her “big fat mouth.” Nunberg was clearly neither credible nor under control but he drove the coverage for hours as a former aide supporting Russian collusion theories. It was part of our new media: NASCAR journalism where media rushes figures like Nunberg in front of cameras and viewers watch for the inevitable crash. Update: Nunberg now is saying that he will cooperate after all.

I do not blame CNN for running the initial interview. After all, Nunberg was defying Mueller, which is clearly news. However, it quickly became very sad and rather sordid as Nunberg became more and more unhinged.  Analysts tried to connect his free-flowing allegations to theories of collusion. In fairness to CNN, various hosts noted that he had an axe to grind against Trump and had not been part of either the general election campaign or the Administration.

Nunberg was fired in February 2014 by Trump but rehired as a communications adviser in February 2015.  He was fired against from the campaign in August 2015 and admits that he is bitter about his treatment by Trump.

Nunberg first gave an interview with the Washington Post to proclaim his defiance of Mueller over a wide-ranging demand for emails and communications with President Trump and others. CNN then landed the first of what became a litany of increasing painful interviews – leading to virtual self-immolation before CNN host Erin Burnett. It all made for riveting television at first but soon devolved into little more than a freak on a leash. After CNN ran the Nunberg interviews non-stop throughout the day, Nunberg finally imploded with Burnett who said that he smelled of booze.  It was like watching a media euthanasia.

Nunberg was never particularly credible given his short stint as a campaign adviser who was fired for racist postings. From the first interview, he careened wildly between saying that he “hated” Trump to saying that he still supported him. Finally, in his late interview with Burnett, Nunberg effectively destroyed the value of the full day of analysis and admitted that he had no personal knowledge of Page colluding beyond his public work  as a consultant in Russia. He also admitted that he had no basis to believe that Trump was aware of the meeting with the Russians in Trump Tower other than his assumptions based on the same news stories that Burnett was following.  His bombshell allegations were reduced to “if I had to guess” speculations on issues like the knowledge of President Trump.

The interviews became increasingly repellent to watch. However, Nunberg may have forced the hand of Mueller who may find it hard to walk away from a defiant witness. Nunberg could find himself in jail for contempt if he defies the subpoena from Mueller. He will be called to a show cause hearing and would have to come up with something other than saying that he resented having to go through his emails like a paralegal. Since he is unlikely to claim the Fifth Amendment after speaking for hours with investigators, he would likely be jailed for contempt if Mueller pursues the matter.

While Nunberg dismissed the notion that Mueller would ever try to put him in jail, he could be set for a rude awakening.  He would follow the same path as Susan McDougal in the Whitewater investigation. Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr prosecuted Susan McDougal and her former husband, Jim McDougal, for fraud and other charges. After securing her conviction, Starr pulled her before a grand jury to testify about the Clintons but she refused. She spent 18 months in jail for contempt.

Ironically, Nunberg may have helped his case with Mueller by destroying any value as a witness. After his appearances on CNN, Nunberg could not take the stand to assert that the Pope was Catholic without jeering from the jury box. However, with subpoenas flying out of the Special Counsel’s office, it may be hard for Mueller to simply ignore Nunberg. Even if Nunberg was not drinking before the Burnett interview, that should serve to sober him up by Friday.  If so, he will make his way to the grand jury and start listening to counsel.

In the meantime, Nunberg has made himself into the Martha Mitchell of the Trump era.

Nunberg earned a B.A. from McGill University  and graduated from the Touro Law Center in Long Island, New York.

134 thoughts on “Sam Nunberg and Last Night’s NASCAR Press Pileup [Updated]”

  1. Donald Trump’s attacks on the news media are dangerous. A head of state urging the people to dismiss any criticism of him as biased and fake is not healthy. But come on. Do his detractors in the news media have to keep making his point for him? The Nunberg interview circuit was a disgrace and it’s exactly why so many Americans roll their eyes at the media. Do better.

    3. Considering what the news media is publishing today I don’t know that Trump’s attacks are dangerous at all. They are providing something the news media is not providing, the other side of the opinion. What good is it when the news media is so biased that they prevent news from appearing or make news that never happened?

      Should we have considered the attacks made on Pravda by Soviet citizens dangerous?

  2. What is really strange is the fact that the Klingons have been attaching themselves to Trump for all it’s worth. Here is some media guy who has some dough and likes having smart trophy women around. He then becomes president as best we can tell from Obama making fun of him and is in the middle of trying to make good of it as best he can. Turn on CNN and you have a bunch of angry coffee talk going on. A complete echo chamber. All parties on this just need to grow up a bit and somehow potty themselves out of the diapers. The wall, guns, Russia, migrants and then the fed. We have enough to deal with just getting our own homeless out into a normal life. The recent import duty does take the cake. In the beginning there was the income tax. Only on the rich and then we will have no import duties that raised prices on the goods for the poor. Con. If we are going to have an import tax then apply it on finished goods across the board and get rid of the income tax. Any ideas people come up with is better than a constant complaint monkey grinder walking around the block.

  3. This Russia! Russia! Russia!</b. movie had gone stale and it needed to inject this nobody extra</em into the plot to give the Left some hope. I’m not sure if this a tragedy or comedy, but there is another plot twist with North Korea willing to sit down and discuss giving up their nuclear weapons.

    More popcorn please!

    1. More popcorn? More sleep.

      This Russia! Russia! Russia!. movie had gone stale and it needed to inject this nobody extra into the plot to give the Left some hope. I’m not sure if this a tragedy or comedy, but there is another plot twist with North Korea willing to sit down and discuss giving up their nuclear weapons.

      More popcorn please!

  4. Not surprising when the lackeys of Republicans, self-medicate. Shilling for feudalism and tribalism makes them loathe themselves. Or, they medicate to fill voids where others have souls.
    In contrast, some of the oligarchy’s lawyers soothe themselves with the profession’s incantation, “role separation”.
    BTW- early Texas Democratic primaries show an increase in votes of 238,000 (doubled since 2014). Repubs- 55,000 increase in votes.
    Since Trump’s election, 39 state legislative seats flipped from red to blue. Four, from blue to red.

    1. Beto looks like a great candidate and Cruz is unpopular. Hopefully this is the year but I can’t get my expectations too high since I once lived there

    2. SHHHH, let them live in the alternative reality that they believe in. They made it, let them live with it.

  5. Sane leftists like Glenn Greenwald, Prof. Stephen Cohen and James Howard Kunstler are disgusted by the D’s interminable Russiagate hoax. “Republican” Mueller is playing along cuz he’s (obviously) a member of the permanent government.

  7. Acting crazy can get people to leave you alone. Mueller might consider that persecuting this loon (who has only marginal connections to Trump, and apparently none to Russia) might simply serve to further discredit his witch hunt.

  10. Just like everyone else that works or has worked for Trump, it’s just plain incompetence. And he is tied to Roger Stone. Right there should throw red flags for anybody to see, he’s there to show how deep the swamp really is with this administration.

      1. Typical- Turley blames journalism for the Nunberg debacle- “media rushes figures”. Nunberg is in a profession that advises “silence” to avoid consequence, all of the time in every setting. It was media that got Nunberg to admit evidence was lacking in his statements.

  11. I listened to his first interview on CNN, where he said he was not going to comply with the subpoena for his emails. He saw no reason to spend 80 hours digging through old emails to make Mueller happy. He has not been accused of a crime. He has not been called as a witness. Mueller wants his emails with Stone and Bannon and two other people, one of which got him fired.

    Several people in the Hillary email investigation refused to honor their subpoenas and nothing happened to them. Same people where in the DOJ then. I would posit that if they treat Trump witnesses different than Hillary witnesses, all hell will break loose.

    1. Nunberg’s subpoena was from a Grand Jury. Who in Clinton’s email investigation defied a Grand Jury subpoena?

      2. Diane – the subpoena is FOR a grand jury not from it. A judge issues the subpoena, but most are pro forma.

        2. From the WaPo article linked above:

          Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg said he was asked to come to Washington to appear before the grand jury on Friday. He provided The Washington Post with what appears to be an attachment to the subpoena requesting documents related to President Trump and nine associates.

          1. Here’s the list from the subpoena linked above not counting Trump: Carter Page, Corey Lewandoski, Hope Hicks, Keith Schiller, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Roger Stone and Steve Bannon.

            1. Keep in mind that Roger Stone and Paul Manafort were business partners in the lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly (later Lee Atwater joined the firm). One of Stone clients at BMSK for many years was none other than Donald J. Trump whose casino interests Stone represented.

  12. Dear Professor Turley

    Please do not compare this obviously sick person to NASCAR. Demolition derby maybe.

  13. Excerpted from the Wikipedia article on Sam Nunberg:

    While working for the Mitt Romney 2008 presidential campaign, Nunberg was hired by Jay Sekulow to work with the American Center for Law & Justice in an attempt to stop the construction of the Park51 mosque. It was there that he met Roger Stone, whom he has described as his mentor.

    In February 2014, Nunberg was fired by Trump after he arranged a Buzzfeed interview of Trump that ended up being highly critical of Trump.

    In February 2015, Nunberg was rehired by Trump, as a communications adviser for the Trump campaign. Nunberg, along with Stone, helped prepare the candidate for the first Republican debate, on August 6, 2015. Nunberg was fired later that month after some of his old Facebook posts surfaced which contained ethnic comments.

    In July 2016, Trump sued Nunberg for $10 million, accusing Nunberg of violating a confidentiality agreement by leaking information to the New York Post. In a legal response, Nunberg said that Trump might have illegally funneled corporate money into the campaign. Trump and Nunberg settled their legal dispute in August 2016.

    1. I could be wrong, but Trump’s $10 million lawsuit against Nunberg might have something to do with Nunberg’s professed hatred of Trump. What do you think?

    2. Excerpted rom the Wikipedia article on Roger Stone:

      In his opening statement before the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on September 26, 2017, Stone reiterated this claim: “Note that my tweet of August 21, 2016, makes no mention, whatsoever, of Mr. Podesta’s email, but does accurately predict that the Podesta brothers’ business activities in Russia … would come under public scrutiny.”

      However, Stone has repeatedly acknowledged that he had established a back-channel with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to obtain information on Hillary Clinton. Stone has pointed to this intermediary as the source for his advance knowledge about the release of Podesta’s e-mails by Wikileaks.[97] Stone ultimately named Randy Credico, who had interviewed both Assange and Stone for a radio show, as his intermediary with Assange.

    3. Excerpted from the Wikipedia article on Keith Schiller:

      Keith Schiller (born c. 1959) is a former Deputy Assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump who concurrently served as Director of Oval Office Operations. Prior to his appointment in the Trump administration, Schiller served as the Director of Security for The Trump Organization; in this capacity, he was the personal bodyguard to Trump. He has been described as “one of Trump’s most loyal and trusted aides” and “a constant presence at Trump’s side for nearly two decades.”

  14. How to deal with a hostile witness

    A trip to the dentist will get Sammy talking. Life can be so simple. Is it not remarkable to be able to choose between relief & discomfort?

  16. Apparently, the thought has never entered Jon Turley’s head, or any other of the Leftist CNN lunatics, that there are some people who will say and do anything to get on TV. There are some people who are very excited to be interviewed on TV and take special delight when others recognize them and say, “Hey, haven’t I seen you on TV?”

    Sam Nunberg is such a person. After falling from grace in the Trump administration, the Leftist media threw him a lifeline for an extended extra 15 minutes of fame. Never mind that Nunberg doesn’t actually know anything that could harm Trump. As long as a suggestion could be planted that Nunberg knows from a friend of a friend of a second cousin’s uncle’s step-sister that Trump may have colluded with “the Russians,” or, at the very least, colluded with Americans who had some “Russian-sounding names,” that would be sufficient to throw CNN and its Leftist watchers into spasms of orgasmic paroxysms.

    1. Ralph Adamo

      Just to be clear, Nunberg did not fall from grace in the Trump administration. He was never in the Trump administration. Effectively, he was never even in the Trump campaign…

      As for Nunberg knowing anything, apparently the current Rosenstein/Mueller/Schiff/Warner/Clinton theory is (apparently the only remaining collusion theory that has anything to do with Trump–as opposed to Qataris) is that Nunberg knows something about the Putin-Trump meeting in Moscow in 2013 where all the collusion plans were made because Nunberg worked for Trump off and on way back then for short portions of time. Of course, the trouble with the 2013 theory is that if there was a Putin-Trump meeting in 2013 where all these collusion plans were made, why would there have to be
      — a Russian approach to Carter Page in 2014? or
      — a Russian approach to Papadopulus in March 2016? or
      — a Russian approach to Trump Jr. in June 2016? or
      — another Russian approach to Carter Page in July 2016?
      Rosenstein/Mueller/Schiff/Warner/Clinton need to pick one theory of the crime and stick to it.

      1. You say a Clinton is investigating. Bill
        Or Hull? None are. Mueller would not hire them. You T rumpers are as slippery as your money laundering porno boss man.

      2. Dennis Byron, it is entirely possible that Mueller is simply being thorough, following every lead and leaving no stone unturned while dotting every “i” and crossing every “t,” just in case Trump is never indicted for any crime and people start to wonder whether Mueller might have missed something. Or not.

  17. Can you blame him for being bitter about being fired for a series of racist comments?

    When racist comments are a shibboleth for the people who ran the campaign and/or were appointed to the administration?

  18. > Ironically, Nunberg may have helped his case with Mueller by destroying any value as a witness. After his appearances on CNN, Nunberg could not take the stand to assert that the Pope was Catholic without jeering from the jury box.

    Crazy like a fox??

  19. I endured 30 minutes with Erin Burnett. The guy was all over the map. Has never had any contact with Carter Page but said he colluded with Russia. Was out of the campaign by summer of 2015 but knew that candidate Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting in 2016.

    As usual, CNN and MSNBC thought they had some valid new information and as usual, they each failed miserably.

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