President Trump said he “declassified potentially millions of pages of documents” related to the origins and conduct of the Trump-Russia investigation.

Addressing the media Friday afternoon, Trump touted his decision to give Attorney General William Barr “full and complete authority to declassify information” related to the origins of the federal investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Barr “can then show them to the public, do whatever he wants to do with them," Trump said, adding, "I just want him to be fair" and "transparent."

The move is the strongest sign yet that Trump is taking serious action to “investigate the investigators” and has found a willing champion in Barr, who rankled Democrats last month when he said “spying did occur” against the Trump campaign.

Trump said letting Barr declassify these documents will allow the American people "to able to see how this hoax or witch hunt started and why it started." Trump claimed that this was "an attempted coup or an attempted takedown of the president of the United States."

There has been speculation among some Republicans that foreign intelligence agencies played a role in the surveillance of some members of the Trump campaign, and Trump echoed those concerns, saying, "I hope he looks at the U.K. And I hope he looks at Australia and I hope he looks at Ukraine."

"It's not payback. I don't care about payback," Trump insisted. “I think it’s very important for our country to find out what happened."

The White House issued a memorandum to the heads of several agencies Thursday evening instructing them to cooperate with Barr's inquiry, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Department, the State Department, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Treasury Department, the Homeland Security Department, and the Energy Department.

The FBI says it began its counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, code-named Crossfire Hurricane, in July 2016. It was launched after Australian diplomat Alexander Downer informed the U.S. government that former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos had told him that Russia had damaging information about Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic rival in the 2016 election. Several Trump campaign associates came under scrutiny, including onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The FBI applied for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against Page in October 2016 and got three extensions into 2017.

One obstacle against Trump's declassification order could be FBI Director Christopher Wray, who opposed declassifying the Page warrant materials. Trump partially declassified hundreds of pages of FISA documents related to Page in July 2018.

After special counsel Robert Mueller completed his Russia investigation in March and with the release of his report in April that showed no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin or obstruction charges, Trump declared "total exoneration." Since then, allies of the president have been clamoring to turn the tables on the investigators, who they allege were working to undermine Trump as a presidential candidate.

Democrats have called the moves by Trump and Barr as politically motivated. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., called the move part of a "plot to dirty up the intelligence community, to pretend that there's something wrong with the beginning of the Mueller investigation, and to persecute and bring into line the intelligence agencies." House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., referring to a broader Democratic complaint that the Trump administration is obstructing a wide array of congressional investigations, said, "The cover-up has entered a new and dangerous phase."

Barr has been reviewing the counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign for weeks now. Barr tasked U.S. Attorney John Durham with reviewing the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, after which it was reported the attorney general had enlisted the help of CIA Director Gina Haspel, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, and FBI Director Wray.

Barr has also said he is working closely with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who is expected to wrap up a FISA abuse investigation in the coming days. U.S. Attorney John Huber is also conducting an investigation into potential FBI misconduct.