Why did thomas jefferson withhold the essential documents needed to swear in the “midnight judges” when he took office?

He was a Democratic-Republican who did not want to have so many Federalist judges in place, is the right answer.

Explanation:

Thomas Jefferson became the President of the United States on 4th March 1801 and served the post until 4th March 1809. He joined his office after defeating John Adams in the presidential election of the year 1800. In this election, the Federalist Party was swept out of power by the Democratic-Republican Party. Moreover,  the Democratic party swept away some of the positions created by John Adams during the final days of his presidency. One such example was the post of the "Midnight Judges", who were Federalists.

To this appointment, Jefferson and his allies wanted to repeal the Judiciary Act of 1801. There were two reasons for this, first, that they think this post was not necessary and second they wanted to reduce the influence of the Federalists in the court. For this purpose, Jefferson enacted the Judiciary Act of 1802 and keep the essential documents required to swear in the “midnight judges”.