The legal situation for Donald Trump continues to grow darker and few journalists understand the former president as well as Maggie Haberman, who writes for The New York Times. Trump faces potential indictment(s) over his alleged role in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol and Haberman now says advisors in his inner circle have determined that if he is to avoid incarceration, he must win the 2024 presidential election.

That is stark news for a man who keeps blaming everyone except himself for the problems he created.

The veteran journalist joined CNN Wednesday morning to discuss the letter the former president received from Special Counsel Jack Smith, Mediaite reports. According to Trump, the letter warned him he is a target of the DOJ’s investigation into his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

So, in other words, the Justice Department is doing its job.

This led CNN’s Phil Mattingly to ask Haberman “Does Trump view these things differently? View these cases differently? View one as more of a threat than another?”

Haberman responded that “Trump views broadly all of these cases as a threat to him.” This includes the federal cases where he faces significant jail time if convicted. She acknowledged that Trump hasn’t been charged yet, but added that Smith’s target letter is a sign that he will be.

“He is looking at this broadly as a political threat,” Haberman said. “The documents case, in particular, had very much upset them for a variety of reasons; because it was an FBI search on his home, it was a different type of thing. In this case, he is upset about it.”

Haberman added that Trump was “not in a great mood” as he flew to Iowa yesterday for his town hall with Fox News anchor Sean Hannity. She also explained that “even if it’s not the thing that voters say that they are voting on… Republicans are aware that in 2022, candidates who espoused Trump’s election lies ended up basically paying the price at the ballot box in November.”

She further elaborated:

“At the moment, he is seeing this broadly as a threat to his freedom, and his advisers have been — in private conversations — pretty blunt that they see it as he has to win the election, and that is how he guarantees that he does not face jail time.”

“Now, again, it only takes one juror in any of these cases. He has not been convicted of anything. But the fact that they’re looking at an election to the highest office in the land as some kind of insurance policy or an out for him really affects and, I think, colors the entire presidential race.”

Should Trump be nominated by the GOP to run for president, this may change everything for him.

Whatever happens, I’m hoping he sees jail time. It’s what he deserves for returning the country to the Jim Crow era, appointing conservative justices who have destroyed women’s rights, heightening anti-LGBTQ+ hysteria, being a complete embarrassment on the world stage, and continually refuting scientists and therefore spurring COVID to engulf the U.S. and kill more than 400,000 Americans during his presidency.

I’ve included a clip of the interview below.