Trump: Reluctance to Hand Over Docs Because Personal Items Mixed In

Former President Donald Trump said Monday he did not hand over all his boxes of documents to the National Archives and Records Administration [NARA] because he had yet to go through them to filter out his personal records.

“Like every other president, I take things out,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News from his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. “In my case, I took it out pretty much in a hurry. People packed it up and left. I had clothing in there, I had all sorts of personal items in there. Much, much stuff.”

Trump, who pleaded not guilty earlier this month to a 37-count federal indictment regarding his handling of classified documents, said he had a right to declassify everything he took through his powers as president. He also cited his authority through the Presidential Records Act to keep records for himself.

“I will go through those boxes. I have to go through those boxes to take out personal things,” Trump said. “As far as the [classification] levels and all. Everything was declassified because I had the right to declassify.

“I have every right to have those boxes. This is purely a Presidential Records Act. This is not a criminal thing. In fact, the New York Times of all had a story just the other day that the only way NARA could ever get this stuff back would be [to say] please, please, please could we have it back?”

Trump brought up President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents from his time as vice president and U.S. senator. Special counsel Robert Hur was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Biden.

“You want to talk about a mess, take a look at Biden, where he has got 1,850 boxes,” Trump said. “He has boxes stored in Chinatown in D.C. He has boxes stored at [the Biden-Penn Center in Washington] and boxes under his Corvette and around his Corvette sitting in a garage [in Delaware] for years where it was very seriously classified.”