Former president Donald Trump defended his handling of classified documents during an interview with Fox News that aired Monday, claiming he held onto the documents amid requests from the National Archives and Records Administration to return the materials only because he had personal items mixed in with the records and needed to go through the boxes first.

“The only way NARA could ever get this stuff, this back would be [to say] ‘Please, please, please could we have it back,’” Trump said during a sit-down interview with Bret Baier. 

“They did ask for it,” Baier said.

“No, we were talking,” Trump replied. 

Baier noted that NARA asked for the documents before the Department of Justice subpoenaed Trump to give back the materials, which the DOJ, in its indictment, describes as “bearing classification markings,” adding, “We should treat them presumptively as classified.”

Trump noted that NARA has never taken such action before with a former president. Baier asked Trump why he didn’t hand over the records.

“Because I had boxes. I want to go through the boxes and get my personal things out. I don’t want to hand that over to NARA yet. And I was very busy as you’ve sort of seen,” he said. 

“Before I send boxes over, I have to take my things out,” Trump said. “These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things,” including clothing and shoes.

Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 felony counts in connection with his alleged mishandling of classified documents last week in a Miami, Fla., federal court.

Those charges include willful retention of national-defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and making false statements and representations.

Asked if he has any worries about the charges, Trump said, “Based on the law, zero.”

He said that“”every good lawyer” has said he has nothing to worry about.

Throughout the interview, Trump repeatedly mentioned President Biden and former vice president Mike Pence as examples of other lawmakers who have kept classified documents but have not received the same treatment. Baier pushed back, saying that both men returned the documents when asked.

Trump has repeatedly called the investigation a “witch hunt” and has vowed to “never leave” the 2024 presidential race.

Asked what he learned from his first term and what he would do differently if he won a second, Trump said he would “like to be less combative” but noted that he considers the press “very dishonest.”

“If I’m not combative I don’t get my word across,” he said.

He suggested that neither he nor another candidate could handle the press without being combative. “These radical-left maniacs would come at them at a level you’ve never seen before, and they’re not going to be able to withstand it,” he said of other presidential hopefuls.

Trump said that his first move as president, if he were elected again, would be to “start drilling” and to “close up the border.”