An attorney for Donald Trump has claimed that he is being "bullied" out of running for president again in 2024.
Speaking to Newsmax's Eric Bolling the Balance, Alina Habba said that the former president is being unfairly treated as he faces a number of criminal and civil investigations that could hinder his hopes of returning to the White House.
The pair suggested that the Democratic Party and the Department of Justice may be trying to "deter" Trump from running again with federal investigation into whether he mishandled sensitive and top secret White House documents that were seized from his Mar-a-Lago office.
However, Habba said of the treatment: "It energizes him, it energizes his base.
"I think when people see anybody being bullied—which is ironic because when you see the left-wing politics and media always like to say, 'Bullying is wrong, we're pro-this, we're pro-that'—well, what makes it OK to bully someone just because they are Republican? Or because they happen to be their biggest political threat?
"You're trying to now bully somebody out of running, and I have some news for you. Keep going, guys, because he does not get intimated," Habba said. "Donald Trump does not get intimated, he gets invigorated."
Trump has denied any wrongdoing with regards to the materials the FBI seized from his Florida home, frequently making the disputed claim that he declassified all the documents before he left the White House. Trump also says the investigation, along with several other probes against him, is part of a politically motivated "witch hunt."
Trump has not formally confirmed that he intends to run for president again in 2024, but has been hinting at it since he left office in January 2021.
During the interview, Habba suggested other former presidents also had White House documents in various locations.
Habba claimed that Barack Obama had "30 million pages moved into an abandoned furniture store," suggesting the Democrat also mishandled presidential records.
As noted by Associated Press fact checkers, who ruled the claim as "false," the Obama administration did move millions of documents to be temporarily kept in Hoffman Estates in Chicago, a building that used to be a furniture store.
However, the materials were maintained and owned by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and handed over to the agency after Obama left office in 2017.
The NARA explained in a statement that the materials, none of which were classified, were moved as The Obama Foundation was planning on housing some of them in a Chicago-based library.
Habba has been contacted for comment.
Update 9/30/22 7:18 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with further details throughout.
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