Amid investigations into potential misbehavior by intelligence officials during the 2016 presidential campaign, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday, “It doesn't surprise me that the people we are looking at, they don't want transparency.”

The South Carolina Republican told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace he agreed with President Trump's decision to give Attorney General William Barr “full and complete authority” to work with the intelligence community in declassifying documents related to the origins of the Russia investigation and the conduct of the Justice Department and the FBI.

Barr's move has drawn strong criticism from former FBI Director James Comey, ex-CIA Director John Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Each has said the declassification process could lead agencies vulnerable to revelations about intelligence sources and methods.

But Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it's the ex-intelligence and Justice Department officials who should be on the defensive about their conduct in the 2016 campaign and early into Trump's tenure.

“The people who are worried about this are worried about being exposed for taking the law in their own hands," said Graham, 63, without identifying specific officials.

Wallace pressed him on this, calling these government secrets “the crown jewels of the intelligence community” and saying that critics had raised questions about whether Barr can "be trusted with these secrets” and whether Barr can "be trusted not to cherry-pick the information to make a case for the president.”

Graham said that Barr can be trusted and insisted that “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."

Republicans have long argued that the launch of the Trump-Russia investigation was politically motivated, that its use of a dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele was improper, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was abused. Democrats have defended the actions taken by the DOJ and FBI.

Graham said that his support for this probe was a matter of consistency, since he’d publicly supported special counsel Mueller’s investigation too. “I was one of the Republicans insisting that Mueller be allowed to do his job. I never thought it was a witch hunt. The Mueller report is in. No collusion. Mueller didn't do anything on obstruction,” Graham said. “Now I'm insisting that we get to the bottom of this.”

“I want all the documents around the FISA warrant application released,” Graham explained. “I want to find out exactly how the counterintelligence operation began. I think transparency is good for the American people.”

Graham also criticized Democrats for not wanting answers, saying, “Not one Democrat seems to care. I was the hero when I said, ‘Let's support Mueller.’ I wish some Democrat would come forward to find out if the FISA court was defrauded by the FBI and the Department of Justice.”

Barr has been reviewing the counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign for weeks now. Not only has he tasked U.S. Attorney John Durham with reviewing the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, but he has also enlisted the help of CIA Director Gina Haspel, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Although Trump said his order empowering Barr could lead to the declassification of "millions of pages of documents," Coats quickly tamped down expectations about how much might be released, saying “I am confident that the Attorney General will work with the IC in accordance with the long-established standards to protect highly-classified information that, if publicly released, would put our national security at risk."