Ex-Trump Aide Sam Nunberg Seeking Treatment After Reports He Was Drunk on TV

Ex-Trump Aide Sam Nunberg Seeking Treatment After Speculation He Was Drunk in Bizarre TV Interviews

Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg reportedly said he'll seek treatment after speculation swirled that he was drunk during a series of bizarre, headline-making television interviews he gave on Monday

Tierney McAfee

Published on March 6, 2018 03:31PM EST

Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg reportedly said he’ll seek treatment after speculation swirled that he was drunk during a series of bizarre, headline-making television interviews he gave on Monday.

Nunberg, an attorney and one of Trump’s earliest political advisers, also reportedly said he’ll fully cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation after initially vowing to refuse a subpoena from Mueller to appear before a grand jury this week. “I’m not cooperating,” Nunberg told CNN’s Gloria Borger in one interview Monday. “You want to arrest me? Arrest me.”

Charles Gasparino of FOX Business Network reported the latest Nunberg news on Twitter Tuesday, writing: “Just spoke w @NunbergSam he told me he’s fully cooperating now w Mueller’s team and he’s intending to go get treatment following his grand jury appearance on Friday.”

As Nunberg’s cable news blitz unfolded on live television Monday afternoon, several of his friends told The Daily Beast they were worried that he was putting himself in legal jeopardy and that he was “drinking again” before dialing in to MSNBC and CNN. Nunberg did not respond to multiple calls and texts from The Daily Beast.

CNN’s Erin Burnett finally confronted Nunberg during an on-set interview, saying, “Talking to you, I have smelled alcohol on your breath. … I know it’s awkward.”

Nunberg replied that he hadn’t consumed anything “besides my meds — antidepressants. Is that OK?”

One “furious” friend told Axios’ Mike Allen that the interviewers were knowingly taking advantage of a clearly troubled man. The friend reportedly texted an anchor during a live interview:“What the hell is wrong with you people? … Shame on you. This isn’t news.”

In an in earlier interview, Nunberg said Mueller’s team has requested records from him of conversations he had with outgoing White House communications director Hope Hicks, former White House strategist Steve Bannon, Trump attorney Michael Cohen, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and adviser Roger Stone — all of whom worked with Nunberg on Trump’s presidential campaign.

Nunberg — who was fired by the Trump campaign in August 2015 after Business Insider uncovered multiple racist posts on his Facebook account — repeatedly insisted he would not comply with the records request or the probe in general. But by Monday night, Nunberg had already changed his tune.

“I’m going to end up cooperating with them,” he told the Associated Press.