- Sam Nunberg, a former aide on President Donald Trump's campaign, did a complete 180 Sunday on previous statements about Trump and a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and Russians.
- Nunberg said he believes Trump when he denies knowing anything about the meeting in advance.
- But in March, Nunberg scoffed at the denial and suggested Trump knew about it "a week before" the meeting took place.
Sign up for the latest Russia investigation updates here »
Sam Nunberg, a former aide on President Donald Trump's campaign, did a complete reversal Sunday regarding his stance on Trump's potential knowledge of a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between top campaign officials and a Kremlin-connected lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Earlier this week, CNN reported that Trump's former longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, claims Trump was told about the offer ahead of time and greenlit the meeting. Cohen reportedly claims he was one of several people in the room when Trump told his son, Donald Trump Jr., to go ahead with it. Trump Jr. was later one of several senior campaign officials, including Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, who attended the meeting.
Trump and his lawyers maintain that he did not know about the meeting before it was first reported on last summer.
During an interview on NBC News' "Meet The Press," Nunberg said Sunday that he believes Trump over Cohen, though he never discussed the claims with Cohen.
"If Michael Cohen says now he knew about the Russia meeting in advance, I would believe Don Jr. and the president in light of learning Michael was taping conversations," Nunberg told host Chuck Todd.
He was referring to revelations earlier this week that Cohen secretly recorded a conversation with Trump about payments to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who claims to have had an affair with Trump years ago.
The conversation happened shortly before the 2016 election, and Trump and Cohen can be heard on the tape discussing ways to pay McDougal. She was ultimately paid $150,000 by the publisher of a Trump-friendly tabloid, but her story was never published, a technique known as "catch-and-kill."
Nunberg also said Sunday that although he hasn't discussed the Russia probe with Trump, he believes the president is complying with the special counsel Robert Mueller.
"I don't think the president has obstructed this investigation," Nunberg said. "He understands now that he cannot fire Robert Mueller, he cannot fire Jeff Sessions, he cannot fire Rod Rosenstein, because that would go down the Watergate model."
Trump is a good manager who didn't lie to him and "never, ever lied" about issues in his business, Nunberg said.
"Everything was always done on the up-and-up the president always would say everything has got to be legal, I'm not getting a fine, I don't want anything going on," Nunberg said.
Nunberg's statements on Sunday fly in the face of comments he made earlier this year when he went on a wild media blitz after being ordered to turn over emails and communications to the special counsel Robert Mueller as part of the Russia investigation.
In one interview, Nunberg told MSNBC that Trump "may have done something during the election," adding that he didn't know for sure.
At another point, Nunberg called Trump an "idiot."
He later told CNN that Mueller "thinks Trump is the Manchurian candidate," a phrase referring to a politician who has been brainwashed to work on behalf of a foreign government.
When CNN's Jake Tapper asked Nunberg whether he believed Trump's statement that he did not know about the meeting in advance, Nunberg said he didn't.
"Jake, I've watched your news reports. You know it's not true," Nunberg said. "He talked about it a week before. And I don't know why he did this. All he had to say was: 'Yeah, we met with the Russians. The Russians offered us something, and we thought they had something, and that was it.' I don't know why he went around trying to hide it."
Nunberg testified to a grand jury in the Russia investigation in March.
Watch the full interview below: