In an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier on Monday (June 19), former President Donald Trump called the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) a “radical left group” and suggested NARA may have “stuffed” boxes during a raid on Mar-a-Lago in August of last year.
In Trump’s first television interview since he was arraigned in Miami on Tuesday (May 13) and faced federal charges over his handling of classified material, the former President claimed he was a victim of a “weaponized” White House.
Trump also maintained his innocence, repeatedly pointing to the discovery of Classified documents in President Joe Biden’s possession.
At one point, a defiant Trump directly criticized NARA, telling Baier he was concerned the agency might have “stuffed” boxes of documents after the raid at Mar-a-Lago because they wouldn’t let him or anyone on his team into the room as they searched his home for classified material last August.
He noted that he and his team had been liaising with NARA when he was raided, adding he was “concerned” that they had taken everything, suggesting, ” They wouldn’t let anybody in the room.”
Following a tense back-and-forth with Baier about Trump’s reluctance to cooperate with NARA, the former President said he would wait until he could sort through the boxes of documents, adding that some of them contained items, such as “golf shirts” and “shoes.”
Trump expressed that he wanted to go through the boxes first to get out all of his personal belongings before they took the boxes but hadn’t done it because he was “busy.”
