I would respectfully disagree with you, he ..felt...that he had a right and was/is willing to assert this right in a court of law.

What right? He was a private citizen. These documents were government property, and contained national defense information. His "feelings" about his right to retain national defense information in the face of an official demand that it be returned to the federal government isn't relevant. At no time did he actually go to court to try to seek an injunction against the government requesting the information.

Trump wasn't President after January 20th, and he had no more legal right than you or I or any other private citizen to refuse to turn over national defense information documents. His status as former President meant that it was almost certainly not a crime for him to have come into possession of them in the first place, but once the government asked for them back it was a crime for him to refuse.