Obviously, he should have handled it differently, but think about it.
He could have easily blamed the lack of a client list and records on the swamp-nest FBI and the Democrats. Why didn't he?
Bondi and Patel could have easily blamed their predecessors. Instead, they were mealy-mouthed about the whole affair and kept flip-flopping. They were about to release them but then something happened. And this transpired several times.
Perhaps Trump is using the files as leverage to get other things done?
Maybe, but why would said shadow government have kept anything incriminating in the FBI files in the first place? The chance of some future administration releasing them is way too high. Seems more likely there just isn't anything in those files. Why would they go on record with their own crimes?
What confuses me most is why the Trump admin made such a fuss about releasing the files only a few months ago. Maybe they jumped the gun but it would have been way better to say so than whatever the fuck they're doing now.
They should have framed things differently.