Protecting himself from what? It may have been easier to control the fallout from his previous action rather than this.
With all due respect, you must not have paid attention during the Clinton administration. Look at some of the historical articles on this very thread. They did much worse than squirrel some documents out of a room. This was nothing *in comparison* to what they did. But I hope and pray he is held to account this time (and that it maybe leads to more info on those activities from the administration).