I agree with everything you wrote there. I don't believe either side is being honest here or in most of our political discourse, but a corrupt FBI frightens me more than a corrupt former president. I'm not saying I believe the Trump narrative but it is more plausible than the FBI's story. As everyone seems happy to retreat to their own silos of information, here are the dominant competing narratives:
THE PRO-MERRICK GARLAND NARRATIVE:
Trump stole some documents from the White House upon his departure. A person near Trump, likely one of his Secret Service detail, discovered a document or documents that constituted a risk to national security and he informed the proper authorities who got a warrant to recover the document or documents along with any other improperly taken property belonging to the federal government.
THE PRO-TRUMP NARRATIVE:
The documents Trump took were unredacted documents in his possession at the White House that contained evidence along with naming names in the FBI surrounding the events of Hillary's email investigation and the Russia collusion investigation. He didn't trust the government to ever release these classified documents in unredacted form and so he declassified them and took them to eventually put on public display in his Donald J. Trump Presidential Library whenever he got around to building it.
The problem with the pro-Merrick Garland narrative is Biden said he wasn't advised before the raid which means whatever Trump had, it couldn't have been an issue of national security because the President would have needed to have been in the loop. The issues of justice and national security are very different. If it were an issue of justice then it is conceivable the President could want that to be independent but never ever should that be the case with issues of national security. Either Biden is lying and/or more likely the whole 'national security' thing is an excuse made up after the fact. Even the claims of mishandling of classified information are far fetched seeing as the President has the power to declassify anything at any time, and anyone making the claim of mishandling of classified documents would have to prove Trump never thought to declassify them. Good luck trying to prove the thoughts in Trump's head in court. Lastly, even the Presidential Records Act cannot serve as the basis for a search warrant because it is not a criminal statute.
I have no idea if what Trump is saying is complete bovine manure but I do know the pro-Merrick Garland narrative has some serious plot holes.