Trump ran for the 2024 GOP nomination because he thought it would save him from prosecution: former WH official

When former President Donald Trump announced his bid to retake the White House in 2024, he was motivated at least partly by the hope it would prevent him from being prosecuted.

That's the belief of former White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews, who expounded on her theory in a CNN panel on Friday discussing the former president's Espionage Act indictment over the boxes of highly classified national defense information hoarded at Mar-a-Lago.

"We heard from the former President Trump on his social platform today," said anchor Phil Mattingly. "He wrote, quote, 'Indictment must be immediately withdrawn by the Injustice Department and with apology.' Sarah, of course, you worked alongside the former president. Do you think that he's doing this as a politician running for president, or that he genuinely believes that he did nothing wrong?"

She replied, "I think he jumped in the 2024 race because he knew he was facing legal trouble and he thought it would be a shield for him. Now that he's in the race, he's going to try to shift blame and make different excuses, that this is politicization and DOJ is being weaponized."

Notably, even if this is the case, Trump's strategists reportedly hoped the indictment would bring in cash and possibly even help him in polling — although it hasn't quite worked out that way.

The ultimate irony, Matthews added, is that Trump didn't need to put himself in this position in the first place.

"The truth of the matter is with this case in particular, Donald Trump could have avoided in indictment altogether had he just listened to his lawyers and given the documents back. This is 100 percent self-inflicted."

Watch the segment below or at this link.

Sarah Matthews says Trump is running for office to try to stop his prosecutionyoutu.be