Ex-Aide Insults Trump, Defies Mueller in Bizarre Interviews

"I think my lawyer is going to dump me," former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg told MSNBC during a bizarre series of media interviews Monday in which he dared special counsel Robert Mueller to arrest him, said he despises President Trump, and called White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders a "fat slob." When CNN's Erin Burnett told Nunberg she smelled alcohol on his breath and asked him if he had been drinking, he said: "My answer is no. I have not. No. Besides my meds. Anti-depressants. Is that okay?" More:

• "Screw that." Nunberg, who was fired by the Trump campaign in 2015 over racist posts he made on Facebook, told CNN he would not comply with a subpoena in the Mueller investigation. "Screw that," he said. "Why do I have to go? Why? For what?" He told MSNBC that it would be "funny" if Mueller tried to arrest him.

• "Trump caused this." Nunberg later told CNN that the Mueller investigation only exists because Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. "Donald Trump caused this because he's an idiot," said Nunberg, who added that he wasn't protecting the president. He flip-flopped on whether he thought Trump had done anything wrong, suggesting Mueller might have incriminating evidence on Trump but also saying: "He didn't do anything. You know what he did? He won the election."
• Sanders insults. After Huckabee Sanders criticized Nunberg for saying Mueller might have something on Trump, Nunberg insulted the White House press secretary, the Hill reports. "If Sarah Huckabee wants to start debasing me, she's a joke. OK, fine, yeah, she's not attractive. She's a fat slob, OK, fine," he told NY1.
• "No special knowledge." After initially suggesting that Trump had known about and discussed his son's meeting with Russians at Trump Tower a week before it happened, Nunberg explained that he had only been guessing, based on the president's public statements. "I have no special knowledge at all," he told Vox.

• "Playing with fire." The Lawfare blog notes that Nunberg, who objects to turning over his communications with Roger Stone and Steve Bannon, is "playing with fire" by publicly declaring that he will defy Mueller. The blog notes that during the Whitewater investigation of Bill Clinton, Susan McDougal spent 18 months in prison for contempt after refusing to comply with a subpoena.
• A reversal. Late Monday, Nunberg reversed course, telling the AP that he is "going to end up cooperating" with the Mueller investigation, even though he is angry at the request to turn over thousands of emails.
• Not out of character. Friends tell the Daily Beast they are worried Nunberg has started drinking again and is having some kind of meltdown. Other associates, however, say his behavior is not out of character. "These are exactly the same kind of personality traits that led him to be separated from the campaign," former Trump campaign adviser Barry Bennett tells Politico. "He's got a history of this kind of stuff, unfortunately. I don't think this is going to end well."

(More Sam Nunberg stories.)