Sam Nunberg | |
---|---|
Born | June 21, 1981 |
Education | McGill University (BA) Touro Law Center (JD) |
Occupation | Political consultant |
Political party | Republican |
Sam Nunberg (born June 21, 1981) is an American public affairs consultant based in Manhattan. [1] He was a political advisor to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. In March 2018, Nunberg was subpoenaed by a grand jury for testimony and documents relating to the Special Counsel's Russia investigation. [2]
Nunberg was born to a Jewish family; his mother was a corporate attorney at Wachtell, Lipton and his father was a real estate attorney who worked with Trump attorney Gerald Schrager. [3] He attended the Ramaz School an independent co-educational Modern Orthodox Jewish prep school in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan. [3] He graduated from McGill University in 2004 with a BA in history, with a senior thesis titled '"Re-Analyzing the Historiography of the Effects of Dollar Diplomacy". While at McGill, he competed globally with the McGill Debating Union. [4] He attended Touro Law Center on Long Island, New York, from 2007 to 2009, graduating in 2009, and was admitted to the New York state bar in 2013. [5]
While volunteering for the Mitt Romney 2008 presidential campaign, Nunberg met and was recruited by attorney Jay Sekulow to volunteer at the American Center for Law & Justice in an attempt to stop the construction of the Park51 mosque. [6] While volunteering there he met political operative Roger Stone, whom he has described as his mentor and "surrogate father". [7] [8] [9]
Nunberg began working for Trump, as a political and public affairs consultant, in 2011, [10] after Trump decided not to run for president in 2012. [1] Nunberg assisted in the writing of Trump's 2011 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. [11]
In February 2014 Nunberg was fired by Trump after he arranged a BuzzFeed interview that ended up being highly critical of Trump; the headline was "36 Hours on The Fake Campaign Trail with Donald Trump." [4] [12] Nunberg was rehired in April 2014 and was Trump's first full time hire for the Donald Trump for President 2016 Campaign; he was let go in December for undisclosed reasons. In February 2015 he was once again rehired by Trump, as a communications adviser for the Trump campaign, [13] but was let go, shortly thereafter, by then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. [1]
Nunberg was rehired for a fourth time by the campaign in April 2015; [1] between then and the beginning of July he was paid $85,139 (~$107,010 in 2023) by the campaign. [14] Nunberg, along with Stone, helped prepare Trump for the first Republican debate, on August 6, 2015. [15] Nunberg left the campaign in August, 2015 after continued tensions with Lewandowski. In March 2016 Nunberg endorsed Senator Ted Cruz for president, saying that Trump "does not have a coherent political ideology." [4]
In July 2016 Trump sued Nunberg for $10 million (~$12.4 million in 2023), accusing Nunberg of violating a confidentiality agreement by leaking information to the New York Post . [16] In a legal response, Nunberg said that Trump might have illegally funneled corporate money into the campaign. [17] Trump and Nunberg settled their legal dispute in August 2016. [17] [18]
On March 5, 2018, Nunberg spoke to multiple cable news outlets and newspaper reporters without the knowledge of his attorney. He said he had been subpoenaed by a grand jury to testify and provide documents relating to Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, including all his email exchanges with Donald Trump, Roger Stone, and eight other people. [19] He insisted he did not intend to comply with the subpoena, saying "Let him (Mueller) arrest me!" [5] [19] [20] He also had in-person interviews with CNN's Jake Tapper and Erin Burnett [21] and MSNBC's Katy Tur and Ari Melber. [5] [22] He later backtracked, saying that he would cooperate fully with the subpoena, while expressing frustration at the large amount of documentation requested. [2] On March 9, 2018 Nunberg testified before a federal grand jury for more than six hours, saying it was his, "duty as an American, whether I like it or not." [23]
Regarding the Mueller investigation, when asked whether he believed that the special counsel may have something on Trump, Nunberg said, "I think they may." He added: "I think that he may have done something during the election. But I don't know that for sure." [24] He also said "I have no knowledge or involvement in Russian collusion or any other inappropriate act" and that: "Donald Trump won this election on his own. He campaigned his ass off. And there is nobody who hates him more than me." [25]
Regarding Trump's former foreign-policy advisor Carter Page, Nunberg said that he believed that Page did collude with the Russians." [26]
Roger Jason Stone is an American libertarian conservative political consultant and lobbyist. He is most remembered for the Robert Mueller special counsel investigation, and his involvement with and connections to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election as a political consultant for the campaign of 45th U.S. president Donald Trump.
Donald Francis McGahn II is an American lawyer who served as White House counsel for U.S. President Donald Trump, from the day of Trump's inauguration through October 17, 2018, when McGahn resigned. Previously, McGahn served on the Federal Election Commission for over five years. In November 2019, McGahn received a court order to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives. In August 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 7–2 that the House can sue him to comply.
Corey R. Lewandowski is an American political operative, lobbyist, political commentator and author who is politically associated with Donald Trump. He was the first campaign manager of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and was fired by Trump during the Republican Primary. He later became a political commentator for One America News Network (OANN), Fox News and CNN.
Daniel Scavino Jr. is an American political adviser who served in the Trump administration as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications from 2020 to 2021, and Director of Social Media from 2017 to 2021. Scavino previously was the general manager of Trump National Golf Club Westchester, and the director of social media for the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign.
The following is a list of notable lawsuits involving former United States president Donald Trump. The list excludes cases that only name Trump as a legal formality in his capacity as president, such as habeas corpus requests.
Since Donald Trump was a 2016 candidate for the office of President of the United States, multiple suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials were discovered by the FBI, a special counsel investigation, and several United States congressional committees, as part of their investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following intelligence reports about the Russian interference, Trump and some of his campaign members, business partners, administration nominees, and family members were subjected to intense scrutiny to determine whether they had improper dealings during their contacts with Russian officials. Several people connected to the Trump campaign made false statements about those links and obstructed investigations. These investigations resulted in many criminal charges and indictments.
The Robert Mueller special counsel investigation was an investigation into 45th U.S. president Donald Trump regarding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and was conducted by special prosecutor Robert Mueller from May 2017 to March 2019. It was also called the Russia investigation, Mueller probe, and Mueller investigation. The investigation focused on three points:
Richard William Gates III is an American former political consultant and lobbyist who pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States for making false statements in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. He is a longtime business associate of Paul Manafort and served as deputy to Manafort when the latter was campaign manager of the Donald Trump presidential campaign in 2016, and after under Kellyanne Conway.
This is a timeline of major events in first half of 2018 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, the transition, and the first and second halves of 2017, but precedes the second half of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021. These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections.
The 2017–2019 Special Counsel investigation involved multiple legal teams, specifically the attorneys, supervised by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, taking part in the investigation; the team representing President Trump in his personal capacity; and the team representing the White House as an institution separate from the President.
This is a timeline of events in the first half of 2019 related to investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, both before and after July 2016, until November 8, 2016, the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and followed by the second half of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
The Special Counsel investigation was a United States law enforcement and counterintelligence investigation of the Russian government's efforts to interfere in United States politics and any possible involvement by members of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. It was primarily focused on the 2016 presidential election.
The Mueller report, officially titled Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, is the official report documenting the findings and conclusions of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 United States presidential election, allegations of conspiracy or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, and allegations of obstruction of justice. The report was submitted to Attorney General William Barr on March 22, 2019, and a redacted version of the 448-page report was publicly released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on April 18, 2019. It is divided into two volumes. The redactions from the report and its supporting material were placed under a temporary "protective assertion" of executive privilege by then-President Trump on May 8, 2019, preventing the material from being passed to Congress, despite earlier reassurance by Barr that Trump would not exert privilege.
This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2018 related to the investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, and the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, and the first half of 2018, but precedes that of the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021. These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections.
This is a timeline of major events in the second half of 2017 related to the investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, the post-election transition, and the first half of 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
This is a timeline of events from 2020 to 2022 related to investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, both before and after July 2016, until November 8, 2016, election day, the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and the first and second halves of 2019.
This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2019 related to the investigations into the myriad links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, and the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and the first half of 2019, but precedes that of 2020 and 2021.
The Mueller special counsel investigation was started by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was serving as Acting Attorney General due to the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He authorized Robert Mueller to investigate and prosecute "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump", as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation" and any other matters within the scope of 28 CFR 600.4 – Jurisdiction.
The United States Justice Department investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election began in early 2021 with investigations and prosecutions of hundreds of individuals who participated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol. By early 2022, the investigation had expanded to examine Donald Trump's inner circle, with the Justice Department impaneling several federal grand juries to investigate the attempts to overturn the election. Later in 2022, a special counsel was appointed. On August 1, 2023, Trump was indicted. The indictment also describes six alleged co-conspirators.
An ongoing special counsel investigation was opened by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on November 18, 2022, to continue two investigations initiated by the Justice Department (DOJ) regarding former U.S. President Donald Trump. Garland appointed Jack Smith, a longtime federal prosecutor, to lead the independent investigations. Smith was tasked with investigating Trump's role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack and Trump's mishandling of government records, including classified documents.
Nunberg also has ties to one of Trump's personal attorneys, Jay Sekulow, who he credits with helping him get his start in campaign politics. Nunberg was working as a volunteer for Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign when he first met Sekulow, who also is the chief counsel of the non-profit American Center for Law & Justice. Sekulow recruited Nunberg to work unpaid in ACLJ's New York office to help stop the construction of a mosque near the World Trade Center site.
[Nunberg] continually signaled his intent to protect Stone, whom he characterized at one point as something like a "surrogate father."
Throughout the interview, Nunberg, who was fired from President Trump's campaign in 2015, called Stone "a mentor" and "like a surrogate father" to him, and said he refuses to go in front of a grand jury "for them to set up a case against Roger, whatever case it is."
Scarborough suspected, however, that Nunberg's bizarre, and possibly alcohol-fueled, outburst was part of a setup to protect his political mentor and "surrogate father," Republican dirty trickster Roger Stone, and his old boss.