Former Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg said the man he views as his mentor, President Trump confidant Roger Stone, was trying to ingratiate himself to the commander in chief when he fueled speculation that he had liaised with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.

"He's always trying to ingratiate himself to Trump. I don't care about Trump. It's irrelevant to me if I have a relationship with him again. Roger does. They have a long relationship," Nunberg told MSNBC Thursday.



Roger Stone told Sam Nunberg he "met with Assange" in "early August".



"I think he's trying to ingratiate himself back with Trump" pic.twitter.com/j9Q8EILXQZ — TheBeat w/Ari Melber (@TheBeatWithAri) March 29, 2018



Stone's claims that he was loosely connected to the WikiLeaks dump of emails that were damaging to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign have piqued the interest of special counsel Robert Mueller. More recently he has denied having direct contact with Assange.

"He won't say he was lying, he'll say he was joking," Nunberg told MSNBC, referring to how Stone, a longtime Republican political trickster, may respond if he testifies before Mueller's Russia probe grand jury.

But Nunberg admitted "the joke" was on him because he believed Stone's alleged contacts with Assange was "one of the primary reasons" he was ensnared in Mueller's investigation.

"He'll show his passport as he did on Newsmax the other day, and he'll just say, 'Look, I never met with the guy and the guy's denied that,'" Nunberg said.

Nunberg, however, insisted Stone told him in August that he planned to meet with Assange in London.

"I didn't think it was a joke," he added.

