Byron York: Obama-era intelligence officials fretting because 'we don't know what they did'

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Byron York on investigating the Russia probe origins

Trump authorizes Barr to declassify intelligence related to 2016 campaign surveillance; Fox News contributor Byron York weighs in.

Why are Obama-era intelligence officials so concerned with President's Trump's call to declassify information regarding the origins of the Russia probe?

"Because we don't know exactly what they did," Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said Friday on "The Story with Martha MacCallum."

Trump vowed Friday to uncover the origins of the Russia investigation for all to see after he approved the declassification of documents related to the surveillance of his campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

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“We are exposing everything,” the president said Friday.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., blasted the president for allowing the release of classified materials, calling it a “corrupt escalation of the president’s intention” to politicize the intelligence community.

York argued that the president and Attorney General Barr are trying to get to the bottom of a story that has become a public concern.

"We are learning in dribs and drabs something we need to have a bigger picture on that's what the president and attorney general are trying to get at," York said.

As for concerns that confidential material will be released York says that that will be Barr's job to ensure that what needs to remain confidential will.

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"There are a few things that need to stay secret. Most of it can be released. These are judgments that the attorney general is going to make to give the public an idea of what happened," York said.

York added, "But, in this, especially since it's a matter of such public concern, one party has wanted to use this Trump-Russia affair to try to remove the president from office. I mean, there is the highest need for public knowledge about this.  This is the president's way by delegating it to the attorney general to do it a fairly orderly but fast fashion."

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.