What Judicial Watch had to do with it:

Not long after the National Archives acknowledged in February that it had retrieved 15 boxes of presidential records from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Trump began fielding calls from Tom Fitton, a prominent conservative activist.

Fitton, the longtime head of the legal activist group Judicial Watch, had a simple message for Trump — it was a mistake to give the records to the Archives, and his team should never have let the Archives “strong-arm” him into returning them, according to three sources familiar with the matter.Those records belonged to Trump, Fitton argued, citing a 2012 court case involving his organization that he said gave the former President authority to do what he wanted with records from his own term in office.

Fitton told Trump he should not give up any more records.

While Trump continued to publicly tout his cooperation with the Archives, privately the former President began obsessing over Fitton’s arguments, complaining to aides about the 15 boxes that were handed over and becoming increasingly convinced that he should have full control over records that remained at Mar-a-Lago, according to people with knowledge of his behavior at the time.

This is where Trump’s stupidity comes into play: he obsesses over what one guy said to him instead of considering what a range of legal experts think. Trump is a one guy kind of guy.

Even people close to the former President have begun to privately question the competence of the legal team around him, particularly Christina Bobb, the former One America News Network TV host who has become one of the faces of Trump’s legal team in the aftermath of the Mar-a-Lago search.

Here we see one of the drawbacks of being a flagrant bully and cheat: the finer legal minds may decide they just don’t feel like squandering their talents on a flagrant bully and cheat.

Trump’s advisers have made it clear they want this fight to be a political not legal battle.

Well of course they do. A legal battle is not good for him, because he’s a crook. If he makes it a political battle he can win by shouting and fussing and carrying on.

Some of Trump’s allies believe the former President is more secure than ever, at least politically speaking. In the days following the FBI search, Trump raised millions of dollars and saw an outpouring of support — including from his potential GOP rivals in a 2024 presidential primary.

The head of the Asshole Party sees an outpouring of support, because they gotta lotta assholes in that party.