Former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo on Wednesday described his three-hour interview with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators as "an awful experience" with "three bad cops" targeting Russian collusion because "these folks are really focused on bringing somebody in."
Caputo, 56, told Anderson Cooper on CNN that he was even more convinced President Donald Trump should not sit for an interview with the special counsel.
"The president shouldn't go anywhere near this," he told Cooper. "It's, in a lot of ways, a trap.
"The president is clear on potential Russian collusion. I think the campaign's in the clear.
"In the end, if they want to get the president, they're going to try to trip him up in an interview like this.
"And my advice, after being through it, is stay away."
Caputo became an adviser to Trump during the 2016 New York State Republican primary, which he won that April.
He then joined Trump's campaign, working in communications, resigning that June after Corey Lewandowski was replaced as campaign manager by Paul Manafort.
Caputo appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee for three hours Tuesday in their Moscow investigation, reportedly slamming lawmakers for the impact the probe has had on his family and finances.
In his lengthy interview with Cooper, an exasperated Caputo — he mistakenly referred to the CNN host as Tucker Carlson of Fox News at one point — likened the Mueller session to "a proctology appointment with a very large-handed doctor.
"It was an awful experience."
He was interviewed by two FBI agents and an assistant U.S. attorney — Mueller was not present — and the session was not "a polite encounter.
"They're very professional," Caputo said. "They didn't treat my disrespectfully, but I don't think I'll be friending them on Facebook them tonight when I get off the air.
"They only asked me about Russian collusion," he later added. "It seemed to me very much that they're still focused on it."
Caputo declined to go into specifics — "I don't believe that the investigation would appreciate me going into the detail" — but said some questions entailed WikiLeaks and the Russian hacker Guccifer 2.0.
"They're not asking a wide range of questions that seem to be unrelated," he said. "They know exactly what they're looking for — and they had e-mails backing it up.
"I don't think that they ask any questions they don't already know the answer to."
Mueller's team did not ask about President Trump, Caputo said.
"I don't recall them asking me anything specific about the president of the United States.
"His name came up in the context of another question, but they never asked me specific questions about the president.
"They never asked me questions about anyone with the last name 'Trump,'" he added, including son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner.
"So, I think they're narrowing it down."
Nor was Caputo asked about Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime personal lawyer whose documents were seized in a raid last month with search warrants based in part on information from Mueller's team.
"It didn't seem like they were honing in on him very much," he said.
Overall, however, Caputo told Cooper that he did not believe that the Russia probe was no longer objective.
"I have a lot of respect for Director Mueller," he said. "When this thing first started, I had some faith that it was going to be done fairly.
"I'm not so sanguine about it anymore. I'm not so optimistic that it's going to be fair.
"Is it a witch hunt?" Caputo said, referring to a question Cooper posed. "I don't think I would really want to go there, because I really do respect the special counsel process.
"I wish it hadn't happened. I wish they hadn't called it.
"But I think if they fire Mueller, I think it's going to be the end of this presidency."
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