UPDATE: Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg reversed course Tuesday after a series of defiant interviews Monday, saying he will now likely end up cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's subpoena, The Associated Press reported.
Read the original report below.
On Monday, Nunberg publicly declared that he would refuse to appear before a federal grand jury in Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling and its possible ties to Trump and his campaign officials, according to multiple reports.
Nunberg told The Washington Post that he was subpoenaed to appear Friday before a grand jury in Washington.
“Mr. Mueller should understand I am not going in on Friday,” Nunberg told the newspaper. “Let him arrest me.”
Nunberg served for six weeks as an adviser to Trump before he was fired during Trump’s run for the White House.
Nunberg provided the Post with a copy of his two-page grand jury subpoena, which also sought documents related to Trump and nine others, including departing White House communications director Hope Hicks, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and adviser Roger Stone.
He told MSNBC that he would not be complying with the subpoena.
“What they sent me was absolutely ridiculous,” he said.
"I'm not spending 80 hours going over my emails with Roger Stone and Steve Bannon and producing them," Nunberg told the Post. "Donald Trump won this election on his own. He campaigned his (expletive) off. And there is nobody who hates him more than me."
Still, he told MSNBC that he thought Trump "may have done something during the election."
“But I don’t know that, for sure,” he said.
He told the Post that despite his suspicions, "the Russians and Trump did not collude."
“Putin is too smart to collude with Donald Trump,” he said.
It was not immediately clear what consequences Nunberg might face for his refusal to appear before a grand jury.
Five people have pleaded guilty to charges levied against them in Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling. Most recently, former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates pleaded guilty to making false statements and conspiring against the United States.
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