Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace he believes the former intelligence officials that oppose the declassification of documents relating to the Russia probe “are worried about being exposed.”
"I was one of the Republicans insisting that [Special Counsel Robert] Mueller be allowed to do his job. I never thought it was a witch hunt. The Mueller report is in. No collusion," Graham said. "You know Mueller didn't do anything on obstruction. Now I'm insisting that we get to the bottom of this, all of the documents around the FISA warrant application released.
"I want to find out exactly how the counterintelligence operation began,” Graham said. “I think transparency is good for the American people. Not one Democrat seems to care," Graham said. "I wish some Democrat would come forward to find out if the FISA court was defrauded by the FBI and the Department of Justice.”
Graham said he has complete confidence in Attorney General William Barr's discretion. Wallace pushed back.
"Critics make two points, particularly about this issue of declassifying because these are, after all, the crown jewels of the intelligence community, including, reportedly, the identity of a key informant who was close to Vladimir Putin," Wallace said. "Here are the two questions they raise: one, can Barr be trusted with these secrets and two, can he be trusted not to cherrypick the information to make a case for the president?"
The Chairman said he believes Barr can be trusted and no one questioned his judgement when he supported Mueller's investigation.
Recommended
"Nobody doubted my trust or my ability to be fair when I supported Mueller. The people who are worried about this are worried about being exposed for taking the law into their own hands. It doesn't surprise me that the people we're looking at – they don't want transparency," Graham said. "We're not compromising national security here. We're trying to create a system to make sure this never happens again by shedding light on what happened with the FISA warrant process, the counterintelligence investigation. Did they have a lawful reason to surveil President Trump’s campaign? Did they lie to the FISA court? Every American should want to find that out"
Graham's comments come after former CIA Director John Brennan went on MSNBC to say the declassification of documents is "outrageous." Brennan and other Obama era officials believe the declassification is a national security threat and a way for Barr to defend Trump.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member