Former Trump adviser Michael Caputo said Friday that although he feels "personally vindicated" after special counsel Robert Mueller's probe has ended, he'll never get back his reputation or the hundreds of thousands of dollars it cost to defend himself.
"You look around and there's a crater where your life used to be," Caputo, describing himself as one of "upwards of 50 old-school Trump associates," told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
Caputo said he's lost about 75 percent of his public relations business' clients, along with using some of his children's college fund money to pay for legal and other expenses.
Caputo said his wife "was a rock" throughout the probe, but his children were "crushed" and none of the people who had been associates of President Donald Trump's could talk to each other as the investigation unfolded.
"There are some out there who completely disappeared," he said. "They didn't want to speak to anyone. Nobody in the administration wanted to speak to them. Now that the smoke is clearing some of -- they're coming out of the jungle like Japanese soldiers wondering if the war is over."
He also said those targeted believe the Department of Justice used FISA court warrants to "terrorize" people like himself, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and George Papadopoulos.
Caputo admitted he would be someone who would be looked at, as he was in Russia in the 1990s after having been "sent there by the Clinton administration to meddle in Russian elections."
He also commented that he was targeted by an FBI informant going by the name of Henry Greenberg in May 2016.
"They talk about the beginning of the full investigation being at the end of July. This was May."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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