A former top aide to Donald Trump's presidential campaign said in a recent interview that he "never" heard of any instances of collusion between the Trump team and Russia during the 2016 campaign.
Michael Caputo, who advised the Trump campaign on communications, denied ties with Russia when he testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Friday. Days earlier, he spoke with CNN and said that Russia was never mentioned during the campaign, which he said suffered from too much turmoil. The interview was aired late last week to coincide with Caputo's congressional testimony.
Caputo left the Trump campaign on June 20, 2016.
CNN correspondent Drew Griffin spoke with Caputo, who has extensive Russia ties, and asked him if he brought any Russians into the campaign or spoke about Russia while on the campaign.
"Never once, never once," Caputo said.
Griffin then asked Caputo if he ever overheard of collusion or any assistance from the Russians.
"No, I heard nothing of the kind. In fact, we were so busy just trying to keep up with the sun rising and setting on that campaign that I can't imagine anyone had the time nor the wherewithal to go out there and even do something like this," Caputo responded.
"No one ever breathed the word 'Russia' to me," he added.
Griffin then turned to the campaign's organization, saying that he heard it was called a "shit show."
Caputo agreed with Griffin's assessment of the inner workings of the campaign.
"Yeah, I think the Trump campaign was in many ways a shit show. There's no question about it," Caputo said. "But, that was always to be expected. He's not a politician."
President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Sunday to thank Caputo for denying any collusion.
Thank you to former campaign adviser Michael Caputo for saying so powerfully that there was no Russian collusion in our winning campaign.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2017