Trump shakes off classified documents probe, dodges question on whether he denied authorities access to documents

Former President Trump in a new interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity shook off the investigation into his handling of classified documents and dodged a question about whether he denied authorities access to the materials they sought. 

“I can’t imagine you ever saying, ‘Bring me some of the boxes that we brought back from the White House. I’d like to look at them.’ Did you ever do that?” Hannity asked the former president. 

“I would have the right to do that. There’s nothing wrong with it,” Trump said. “I don’t have a lot of time, but I would have the right to do that. I would do that. … Remember this, this is the Presidential Records Act. I have the right to take stuff.”

The FBI executed a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida last summer and uncovered many materials marked classified that, under the Presidential Records Act, should purportedly have been turned over to the National Archives for preservation.

During the Fox News interview, Trump also bashed the FBI for conducting the search, telling Hannity the authorities “shouldn’t have raided” Mar-a-Lago. 

“I have the right to take stuff. I have the right to look at stuff, but they have the right to talk and we have the right to talk. This would have all been worked out. All of a sudden, they raided Mar-a-Lago, viciously raided Mar-a-Lago,” he said. 

Trump added that prior to the search he showed the FBI the room where agents later recovered the documents.

“So the FBI was there. They showed them the room. I told them it was OK, show them the room. I said you could show them the documents. You could do whatever you want. They could have taken the documents if they would have asked. They didn’t ask about that,” he said, noting the FBI asked for an extra lock on the room.

Trump’s interview with “Hannity” comes as Fox News is dealing with a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems over the network’s coverage of the former president’s false claims of widespread election fraud during the 2020 cycle. 

The former president has dismissed the investigations and legal challenges against him, including the probe by a Manhattan prosecutor for which he could possibly be indicted this week.