Will Hurd: Trump is running for president to stay out of jail

GOP presidential candidate Will Hurd argued Thursday that former President Trump is running for another term in the White House as a means to stay out of jail in the wake of the latest federal charges filed against him.

“Donald Trump is not running for president to make American great again,” Hurd said on CNN. “Donald Trump is not running for president to defend our interests overseas. Donald Trump is not even running to represent the people that voted for him in 2016 and in 2020. Donald Trump is running for president in order for him to stay out of jail.”

Hurd, a former congressman with a national security background who has been sharply critical of Trump, was responding to a superseding indictment filed late Thursday by the Justice Department in the case concerning Trump’s handling of classified documents.

The Justice Department in a new filing accused Trump of attempting to delete surveillance footage at his Mar-a-Lago property.

It accused Trump of acting with Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of the hotel, and Trump’s other co-defendant, Walt Nauta, in trying to delete the footage.

The indictment notes efforts from De Oliveira, 56, to determine how long security footage was stored on the Mar-a-Lago system. It says he later told another Mar-a-Lago employee that “‘the boss’ wanted the server deleted.”

“I’ve never been indicted and I am not a lawyer, but if you are deleting evidence, it is because you know you are committing a crime,” Hurd said Thursday. “And anybody who supports this, anybody who defends this is complicit in endangering America.”

In addition to the federal charges in Florida, Trump is facing charges in Manhattan over an alleged hush money scheme to keep quiet an affair ahead of the 2016 election. He is also under investigation at the federal level for his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, and in Georgia for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.