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Published May 05, 2018
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 4, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to the special edition of "Hannity": Mueller's witch hunt, investigating the investigators.
We have major breaking news tonight from Catherine Herridge regarding James Comey. He might have just been caught in a bold-faced lie. We're going to bring that to you in just a minute.
But also tonight for the hour, we will reveal just how out of control, off the rails the special counsel anti-Trump fishing expedition has now become.
And breaking today, Robert Mueller suffered what is a major beat-down in court. A federal court literally excoriating a member of Mueller's legal team, accusing the investigation of going way beyond its mandate as we have been saying, using authority it never had, doesn't have to politically persecute President Trump. The judge said all of that. We'll explain. This as major news.
And a huge setback for Robert Mueller and it shows we were right. By the way, you probably won't see this story in the mainstream media.
Now, they are actively cheering on Mueller's anti-Trump witch hunt. They are rooting for this president to fail at all costs we will explain all of this at a very important, very important, breaking news opening monologue.
(MUSIC)
HANNITY: All right. It is now day 352 of Robert Mueller's witch-hunt, still zero evidence of any collusion, no evidence of any wrongdoing. And yet, the investigation goes on and on and on, and it got really bad today.
A federal judge courageously standing up to this totally out of control witch-hunt in what is the biggest or single biggest beat-down I have ever seen in my life by a judge. During a federal court hearing over former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort's years old conspiracy charges, it goes back 13 years, a U.S. district judge -- his name is T.S. Ellis III -- utterly rebukes the entire special counsel investigation and telling a member of Mueller's team, quote, you don't really care about Mr. Manafort. You really care about information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment or whatever.
And according to a Fox News producer that was in the courtroom, the judge went on to say: You want man afford to sing. And Judge Ellis also slamming the scope of Robert Mueller's investigation, saying: We don't want anyone with unfettered power. And the judge even mocked the special counsel, saying, quote: We said this was what the investigation was about, but we're not bound by it and we were lying.
A federal judge just confirmed everything we have been saying on the show for month, there is nothing Mueller will not do to malign this president, everyone around him, it's always been about Trump, not any of these other people. Now, during a speech that president was giving at the NRA, he reacted to Judge Ellis's stunning reprimand and beat down of team Mueller.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: None of that information has to do with information related to the Russian government coordination and the campaign of Donald Trump. It doesn't have anything to do. It's from years before.
Then how does this have anything to do with the campaign, the judge asked. Let me tell you folks, we're all fighting battles, but I love fight on these battles. It's really a disgrace.
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Yes, it's a battle over the rule of law, equal justice under the law, equal application of the laws, it's a battle over the Constitution. And according to our producer inside the courtroom, Judge Ellis also raised important questions over why Rod Rosenstein has not recused himself from this Russia investigation.
Now, this comes after the deputy attorney general shot down a request from members of the Freedom Caucus to review the unredacted memo that now details why the FBI's investigation into collusion started in the first place. By the way, hand them over. It's important to note, this memo which outlines the scope of the Russia investigation, it was written in May, three months before Mueller was appointed.
And this is just one more example of obstruction of justice from the Justice Department which is actively preventing members of Congress from conducting important investigations their role coequal branches of government over the Russia probe, FISA abuse and so much more. It's called checks and balances, co-equal branches, and Rosenstein and the FBI and the Justice Department, they are not impervious to the rule of law, and it's time for Rosenstein and others to resign and for this witch-hunt to end.
Now, the clear obstruction by Rod Rosenstein and the off the rail scope now of the Mueller probe is just part of what is now an incredibly flawed destructive so-called Russia investigation.
This week, we have multiple leaks revealed and what do we see? Dirty, aggressive tactics team Mueller has in store for the president himself, including a series of open-ended questions designed as a perjury trap for the president of the United States. And according to reports, we also know that Mueller has been holding the threat of a presidential subpoena over the White House.
And, of course, there are also serious issues surrounding Mueller's team, biased, anti-Trump, Democratic, Obama/Clinton/DNC donors. And then ethical questions of people like Andrew Weissmann, oh he was there at Hillary's celebration on election night that never happened.
New York Times calls Weissmann's Mueller's pit bull. His aggressive tactics led to the wrongful fiction of multiple individuals, people lost their jobs at Andersen Accounting, Merrill Lynch executives, oh they went to jail for a year. He lost 9-0 in the Supreme Court, overturned in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, upending so many people's lives.
And President Trump addressed this very topic earlier today, take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Mr. President, have you changed your mind at all about being willing to sit with Robert Mueller?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, the problem with sitting is this: you have a group of investigators and they say that I am not a target and I'm not a target, but you have a group of investigators that are all Democrats, in some cases they went through the Hillary Clinton celebration that turned out to be a funeral. So, you have all these investigators there, Democrats. In all fairness, Bob Mueller worked for Obama for eight years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The president has been right, is right, and he clearly is a target. Now, until prosecutors like Weissmann and other big time, biased, big Democratic donors are removed from the so-called investigation, the president should never agree to any interview of any kind, as Mark Levin said like last night, the Constitution is on his side.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media, they are sharpening their claws, actively rooting for a showdown between Robert Mueller and President Trump, and cheering for any new anti- Trump revelation out of the special counsel so- called Russia probe. Now, you think the biased press in this country -- you think they'll focus at all on what Judge Ellis said today? These historic remarks, what he said in all in this particular case? Of course not.
You know, just as we saw all week, the destroyed Trump media they're totally obsessed like so many on the left with the demise of this president, delegitimizing this president. They're echo chambers so out of control -- well, watch for yourself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no shot clock for getting the truth in this case. We need to know the truth. Did he or didn't he? Let's let the cards fall where they do. If the Trump presidency is a house of cards, let it fall too.
We can argue about the points of law and obstruction, whatever business misdeeds of which Trump might be guilty. What I want to know, with the majority of Americans again have a right to know, is whether he cheated to win by having the Russians even at the margins stack the deck.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not just the legal component, there's also a political piece of this that comes into play, if the president does say, decide to fight a subpoena. He may face political fallout especially with the midterms just around the corner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody can be sure how this would turn out, but that doesn't seem like there's much reason for the White House to be optimistic that it would win such a fight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Just pathetic, now, sadly, the media's obsession and their hysteria over Trump Russia collusion which is no evidence of is causing extreme tunnel vision we're resulting in multiple flawed stories and the reporting of totally fake news, anonymous sources, including everything you see right there on the side of your screen. And what might be even worse is the media's bias of omission. Over 15 months, the president, he has been building a track record of economic and diplomatic achievement. But you wouldn't know it if you listened to fake news CNN, MSNBC, the conspiracy T.V. network.
The president pointed a lot of this out earlier today. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: So, we have the best employment numbers we've virtually ever had, and yet all we heard about is this phony Russia witch-hunt. That's all we hear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And without a doubt, President Trump has achieved a lot in months.
And also breaking today, what do we have? An unemployment rate that is now dipped to 3.9 percent, the lowest rate since 2000. Now, add to that, the historically low unemployment rate for African-Americans, Hispanic- Americans, women in the workplace lowest ever unemployment rate in states. Don't forget about the successful tax cuts, the important regulation reform, the expansion of American energy, we can be energy independent now.
And the president is seeing, what, huge progress on the world stage, the likes of which Barack Obama could never dream of accomplishing -- peace in the Korean peninsula could be within reach, and with the help of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran is now finally being held accountable. They do have a nuclear program. The U.S. has regained our international backbone with Trump's actions in Syria. Russia is getting economically squeezed over there malignment of -- and their actions all over the world.
The American people elected this president to win on the world stage and right here at home. So, don't be fooled by the tactics of the left there Russia collusion obsession. Their blatant hatred for the president, and anybody that supports him, and everything he represents.
The president in spite of all of this is succeeding. And even more good news is just around the corner.
All right. Also finally tonight, we have a breaking news report that we want to bring you according to the now less redacted version of the House Intel report into Russia collusion. Well, we now know that James Comey made a shocking admission that he actually testified that the FBI agent saw, quote, no physical indications of deception from former national security adviser Mike Flynn despite telling our own Bret Baier something completely different -- oh that's called a lie.
Anyway, joining us now with a full report on this breaking story, Catherine Herridge.
It all takes place on the unredacted pages -- if I'm not wrong -- 53 and 54.
CATHERINE HERRIDGE, FOX NEWS CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Sean, and good evening. This new version of the Republican House Intelligence Committee Russia report was released just a short time ago. It's now a cleaner version with fewer redactions. Key section involves former national security adviser Michael Flynn who pled guilty to one count of making false statements on December 1st in the special counsel investigation about his conversations with a Russian ambassador.
The report states that both former FBI Director James Comey and his Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified to the House Intelligence Committee that the FBI agents who interviewed Flynn saw no signs of deception. McCabe, quote, acknowledged that the two people who interviewed Flynn didn't think he was lying, which was not a great beginning of a false statements case and, quote, Director Comey testified to the committee that the agents to start no physical indications of deception. They didn't see any change in posture, in tone, in inflection, in eye contact. They saw nothing that indicated to them that they knew he was lying to them.
But when pressed by Bret Baier last week, Comey suggested something else about his testimony.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: Did you tell lawmakers that FBI agents didn't believe former national security adviser Michael Flynn was lying intentionally to investigators?
JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: No.
BAIER: You did not saw that?
COMEY: And I saw that in the media, I don't know what -- maybe someone misunderstood something I said, I didn't believe that and didn't say that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HERRIDGE: FOX News asked the special counsel spokesman for comment tonight and whether they had uncovered new evidence about the Flynn case, Sean.
HANNITY: All right. Unbelievable report. How about redacting the rest of it, that's what I want to see.
Catherine, great work as always.
HERRIDGE: You're welcome.
HANNITY: Now with reaction, Fox News contributor, investigative reporter, Sara Carter, the author of the soon-to-be-released bestseller "The Russian Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump", Fox News legal analyst Greg Jarrett.
All right. Let me put Catherine's Comey story aside for a second. I have never in my life in the Manafort case heard a judge called Mueller's team "liars" the way he called them out today, Judge T.S. Ellis III, and then go on to say, I don't see what relation this indictment has to do with the special counsel, what they're authorized to investigate. You don't care about Manafort's bank fraud. What you really care about is what information Paul Manafort could give you that will reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment.
Wow!
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, I mean, look, Mueller's investigation is rife with deceptions, dishonesty and underhanded tactics. And this judge, for one, is not buying it and he warned them, don't you suborn perjury to implicate the president, that's what he meant by -- I know what you're doing, you're trying to make Manafort sing and singing can turn into composing. That is the threats by government to get people to say things that are untrue in order to go light on them, we're not going to tolerate that. That's what the judge said.
But the most important thing he said today is, where do you get the authority to charge Paul Manafort? Your authority comes from the order Trump-Russia collusion investigation and, quote, any matters that arise from that investigation.
The Manafort case doesn't arise from that investigation. Mueller went into the archives at the Department of Justice Tax Division and appropriated an old case against Manafort that had been cleared, and he's been using that.
HANNITY: Thirteen years and the timing is unbelievable because remember, Sara, it was July 26th, the morning, raid guns drawn in Paul Manafort's home when all I had to do is call his attorney, and he would have surrendered. But beyond that, that was July 26th, and then it wasn't until August 2nd when the approval came.
But that means the special counsel had to have been investigating months before beyond the mandate, then they have the raid, then they gave the mandate permission for the raid and for the investigation.
SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Judge Ellis is not going to be bullied and he made it very clear in court today, and that's why he said, I want that memo redacted. The one that you've given to me, I want it unredacted, is what I meant to say. He wants it unredacted -- he wants it right before him, he wants to see everything that's in it, he wants to know the scope of what Rosenstein gave authority to to Mueller, and he wants it now.
And when they said, well, this has nothing to do with anything beyond the Manafort case, and he said, I'll be the judge. I'll be the judge of that.
So, he wants to see that. I think this is important because it also means that Judge Sullivan who's overseeing Flynn's case --
HANNITY: Right.
CARTER: -- has the same kind of issues, right? This is Judge Sullivan played it out a little differently. He made himself very clear and now we've seen, it's been suspended for two more months. So, Judge Sullivan is probably going through the same thing right now.
And, you know, it's so refreshing, Sean, and Gregg was right on the money. He understands the legalese behind this, but he's right on the money that this -- they're starting to understand that this is appearing and what we've been saying for all along is a witch-hunt, it's going way beyond the scope of Russia and they're doing everything they can to try to rein people in twist their arms and try to get them to turn on people even if there isn't evidence.
HANNITY: This page 53, 54, the more unredacted version, and there's so much more that needs to be unredacted hear about Comey. Bret Baier caught him in a bold-faced lie.
JARRETT: Absolutely.
HANNITY: They never saw -- he said, oh, that's not true, but he had said that there was no indication that General Flynn was lying. So, then that raises the question, did they squeeze Flynn, threatened to go after his kid or his family --
JARRETT: Oh, they did. They never had a case against Flynn, but Mueller is godlike and knows better and decided to bring one even though the agents who interviewed Flynn said he was telling the truth. And Comey is out there lying, not just to Bret Baier but on "Meet the Press" last Sunday, he said the same thing.
HANNITY: Wow.
JARRETT: He denied that those agents had ever concluded that Flynn was telling the truth.
So, was Comey lying under oath in front of the intelligence committee or lying last Sunday and in front of Bret Baier to the American public? It's one or the other, it can't be both.
HANNITY: And, Sara, nobody's reporting the judge tell us today, very sarcastically brings up Rod Rosenstein, oh, isn't he recused?
Now, Rod Rosenstein, he's the witness, he wanted Comey fired. So, he's a witness in the case. Then we know Rod Rosenstein signed off on the -- on the FISA issue. And now, we've got Rod Rosenstein here, it seems to me, he's in trouble and that he needs to go next.
CARTER: Well, he's in huge trouble and he absolutely needs to go next, if you talk to anybody with any common sense. I mean, here --
HANNITY: Because he's backdating permission to raid Manafort's home.
CARTER: Exactly.
HANNITY: That was not part of the mandate.
CARTER: Well, he's backdating permission, and I think we have a little bit more news in all of these developments. If you look at the report and what was unredacted, the unredacted version on on page 53 and 54. You'll also see that McCabe, it appears, was trying to put pressure on these FBI agents. And remember I've been reporting that all along.
You know, when they came back and they said Flynn did not lie, we don't believe we detected any deception, he wasn't lying, there was a lot of reports that I was receiving that McCabe was putting pressure on them and I'm wondering how much of this is actually going to come out in the inspector general's report -- Michael Horowitz's report which we expect to see within the next few weeks or so.
So, this is going to be very important. It's going to play right into this investigation, and hopefully, I think this is a really great question that Judge Ellis posed. Who's in charge of overseeing Rosenstein and Mueller?
Well, it's going to be these judges. These judges are going to lay down the law and they're not going to let hopefully, hopefully, let this special counsel exceed any of their privileges beyond the Russia' scope.
HANNITY: All right. Unbelievable we have a lot more ground to cover. Thank you both for being with us.
And coming up on this busy news night, Ed Henry is here with more details on the federal judge who is exposing Mueller's mission to take down President Trump.
And later, we will speak to a former Trump campaign aide who literally had to sell his home to pay for legal fees to combat this Democratic witch-hunt, as the special edition of "Hannity" continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to a special edition of "Hannity".
So, Fox News chief national correspondent Ed Henry is here with more on the explosive story from today about a federal judge accusing Robert Mueller's team of lying and trying to take down President Trump.
Wow. What a day this has been, Ed Henry.
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're right. I mean, really a stunning development. It came shortly after the president himself declared he and his new lead attorney Rudy Giuliani believe this whole probe is what he called a witch-hunt. The president saying he's willing to sit down with Robert Mueller for an interview, but most of his investigators are Democrats and he's not sure he can get a fair shake, feeding right into what the Federal Judge T.S. Ellis's harsh rebuke was of Mueller's team in court over the Paul Manafort charges.
The judge suggesting the special counsel's office lied about the scope of their investigation and are seeking, quote-unquote, unfettered power to bring down the president. Judge Ellis declaring, quote, you don't really care about Mr. Manafort. You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment or whatever.
Also demanding to see the unredacted scope a memo about this whole investigation, which also puts Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on the griddle since he's overseeing this. This came as the president said Giuliani is still new to the team and getting his facts straight as the attorney clarified some of his comments to you on Stormy Daniels.
So, the president was eager to keep the focus instead on the federal judge as he spoke to the NRA in Dallas. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: None of that information has to do with information related to the Russian government coordination and the campaign of Donald Trump. It doesn't anything to do. It's from years before.
Then, how does this have anything to do with the campaign, the judge asked. Let me tell you, folks, we're all fighting battles, but I love fighting these battles. It's really --
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now, Ellis served in the U.S. Navy, graduated from Harvard Law School before being nominated by President Reagan to the U.S. district court for the Eastern District of Virginia, a distinguished judge who has issued over 1,000 decisions, making his words all the more stinging for Mueller.
And, Sean, it's interesting because what this judge was saying is, look, some of the Manafort charges go way back to 2005, which we've been talking about for a long time. But, finally, a federal judge is saying, wait a second, what does that have to do with the 2016 election?
HANNITY: And the timeline here is unbelievable, because the August 2nd memo purportedly allowing or confirming Mueller's authority to go into Manafort's home -- well, that came after July 26.
HENRY: Yes.
HANNITY: It was like post-dated permission. Unbelievable. Ed Henry --
HENRY: Good to see you.
HANNITY: -- big news tonight. Thank you.
Joining us now with reaction, Fox News national security strategist and former deputy assistant to the president, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, author, attorney, columnist David Limbaugh. Full disclosure, David has negotiated every one of my contracts that I've ever had in T.V. and radio and other business and we once broke bread together and I paid for it.
Anyway, good to see you both.
Let me go through the timeline here, put aside the -- I mean, this judge excoriated Mueller's team today, but if you look at the timeline, Manafort's home was raided on July 26. The memo didn't come out to confirm Mueller's authority until August 2nd. That means before they raided at dawn with guns blazing, Manafort's home, they had, A, been investigating something they didn't have permission or a mandate to go into, and, B, they got permission specifically after it happened.
What does that mean, David Limbaugh? It sounds to me this is done. It's going to be thrown out.
DAVID LIMBAUGH, AUTHOR AND ATTONRNEY: You know, sometimes, judges speak from the bench and fool people. But I think this was pretty unambiguous. This judge is irritated and rightly so. I mean, I -- you know, I've given these prosecutors, the special counsel the benefit of the doubt, but enough is enough.
I mean, I've kept my powder dry but they have nothing on Trump. There's no evidence of collusion, no evidence of obstruction, so they're trying to lure him into a perjury trap. They're trying to get people, tangential people, pressured into flipping on Trump.
But here's what's ironic -- this whole investigation is set up on the pretense of protecting democracy and here we have an out-of-control special counsel in the federal government imbued with all this unaccountable authority and thwarting -- attempting to thwart the will of the people themselves harming democracy because the people voted for Trump and voted for his agenda. They are trying to obstruct what he is doing and they're abusing their authority to do it.
And that's what that judge by unfettered authorities. Who holds them accountable?
HANNITY: And I've been, Dr. Gorka, you have, David has, and a lot of us have -- we've been warning about this team that of Democratic donors, even the latest addition is another Democratic Hillary donor. But we've been warning about Mueller's team, ethical problems that they've had, Andrew Weissmann's atrocious ethical record.
And you know, when Mueller's team is told, you don't care about Manafort's bank fraud from 2005. What you really care about is information Manafort might give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution and impeachment. So, this had been looked into as it relates to Manafort for 13 years ago, and they still used it as some type of wedge to try and get Manafort to say something to get the president. That sounds like a witch-hunt, Dr. Gorka.
SEBASTIAN GORKA, NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST, FOX NEWS: We have it from the bench now. We have it from the judiciary. This is a witch-hunt. They are doing things with ulterior motives. And your new guest Mr. Limbaugh is absolutely right.
Number one, they are undermining the Democratic process, not in this case by supporting Putin's misinformation and information operation but by actually going after a target that they are not authorized to go after.
Where's the scope memo? We need to see the memo and whether they acted without the memo when they went out Manafort, his wife, and everybody else. But there's a larger constitutional issue that this job is delaminating for us. A president can only leave office three ways. If he dies, if he resigns, or if he is impeached. And then the Senate convicts him.
HANNITY: Yes.
GORKA: You can't have a rogue agent of the FBI or the DOJ take a president in front of a grand jury. The U.S. Constitution and case law forbids it. Mueller is out of control, Sean.
HANNITY: Let me ask about Rod Rosenstein. And the judge today -- this was amazing. Did he -- didn't he recuse himself? The judge was basically saying he's way conflicted here. You know, we got to -- well, he was -- he would be the witness because he recommended to the president the firing, David, of Jim Comey, number one.
We know he signed on to the unverified, uncorroborated Clinton bought and paid for phony Russian dossier. He never did his work in that particular case. And now he's backdating after -- after Mueller's team of morning raid on Paul Manafort. He's backdating the permission. It sounds like Rosenstein needs to go yesterday.
DAVID LIMBAUGH, AUTHOR AND ATTORNEY: Yes. What's scary about these guys, they see themselves as serving a higher good. And so they think they can bend all kinds of rules because their higher good, removing Trump, is the end justifying the means.
And so they're scary because there's nobody that will hold them accountable. They think in their twisted way they're doing something right, so they can backdate things and abuse the very process they're pretending to protect.
How would we like it, Sean, and Sebastian Gorka, Dr. Gorka, if we had local prosecutors who instead of waiting for law enforcement authorities to bring evidence to them to determine whether to prosecute, that we just assigned them names, prominent community members that they should investigate and look for crimes?
How would that work in our justice system? The framework is set up, a separation of powers to prevent one branch from crossing on the other.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: (Inaudible) branches in government.
LIMBAUGH: Here we have this executive branch with the special counsel trying to eat itself. We don't have Donald Trump trying to abuse any authority. There's no evidence since he's been elected or before--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Let me--
LIMBAUGH: -- that he's trying to abuse authority. So they're not trying to hold him accountable. Yet, they are the one who are exceeding their authority. And I repeat, who is going to hold them accountable? We need to rethink this entire special counsel law because they have to justify their existence by finding some--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Last word.
LIMBAUGH: -- processed crime or getting someone to flip.
HANNITY: Last word, Dr. Gorka. And the judge would trust that the American people strongly believe no one has unfettered power, co-equal branch, separation of powers here.
GORKA: We don't have unfettered prosecutors and investigators in America. Lavrentiy Beria, the founder of the precursor of the KGB in the Soviet Union famously once said, "Show me the man and I will find you the crime."
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Scary.
GORKA: Robert Mueller is trying to pin a crime on the president, and it cannot be allowed. This is America, Sean.
HANNITY: All right, guys. Great analysis as always. When we come back, we're going to speak to a former Trump campaign advisor, his name is Michael Caputo. And he is going to talk about the very personal way this Russia probe this witch-hunt had an impact on -- impacted his family. He had to sell his home to pay for legal fees to combat this. Stay with us on this special edition of Hannity, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ED HENRY, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, FOX NEWS: Live from America's news headquarters, I'm Ed Henry. Good evening.
Hawaii is on alert tonight after earthquake rocked the island. A 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Hawaii's Big Island shortly after a 5.4 magnitude quake hit.
This as the island also deals with eruptions from a volcano. Those eruptions have forced thousands living nearby to leave their homes. At least two homes have been destroyed. Fire officials say they're also concerned about air quality because dangerous levels of sulfur dioxide have been detected.
Meanwhile, former President George H.W. Bush has been released from a Texas hospital. He was hospitalized a day after the funeral of his wife Barbara. She died April 17th at their home in Houston. They were married for 73 years.
The 93-year-old Bush was treated from an infection that had spread through his blood. He also suffers from Parkinson's disease. We're all glad obviously that he's headed home.
I'm Ed Henry. Now back to Hannity.
HANNITY: All right, our next guest, by the way, has now been caught up in the Democrat's witch-hunt and it has cost him dearly and personally, former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo. He's had to sell his home to pay for legal fees associated with the Russia probe and he's now fearful that his kids' futures are in jeopardy over this.
Now this week, Caputo had harsh words for the Senate intelligence committee. He told them this, quote, "What America needs is an investigation of the investigators. I want to know who's paying for the spies work and coordinating this attack on President Donald Trump. I want to know who cost us so much money, who crushed our kids, who forced us out of our home all because you lost an election. I want to know because, well, G.D. you to hell."
Michael Caputo joins us now. You know, I know you're not the only one. You said what a lot of people feel. I said this to Rudy Giuliani the other night. You know, I watched Hope Hicks from day one in the Trump campaign. I'm guessing -- I don't know for sure. She probably spent more legal fees than she was paid last year. And I think that's the case for a lot of people. Tell -- I want you to explain how this impacts you and your family.
MICHAEL CAPUTO, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN AIDE: Well, it all started -- well, thanks for having me, Sean, by the way. But it all started on March 20th of 2017 when the House intelligence committee had a public hearing where Representative Jackie Speier brought my name up and my wife's name up in the hearing and called me Putin's image maker.
The threats to our family came just one after the other. Death threat after death threat. One guy called me after that hearing on the phone and said, I know you're not home. We're going to burn your house down with your wife and children inside. These death threats haven't stopped since that day.
I had to lawyer up shortly thereafter when it became very clear that I was going to be pulled into the congressional investigations. And since then, after a House permanent select committee of intelligence hearing in 2017, and then a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday and now sitting before the Mueller team on Wednesday, we're at about $125,000.
I want to tell you, I, we were on our way out of our -- out of our home, Sean, on our way out because we couldn't have a home like we had and make buffalo money. We had to move to Washington to make Washington money so I could pay the debt that I had -- you know, these $125,000 is more than I make in a year out here in East Aurora, New York. It's just, you know, that's how much -- you know, we don't make that much out here. We have a where wealthy and inequality of life.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: And not only that.
CAPUTO: But you know what happened--
HANNITY: Yes, go ahead, sir.
CAPUTO: What happened, Sean, really surprised me because just one last thing we tried to do before we had to really pack up was put up a GoFundMe. And between the time I told them to go to hell and the time I checked my GoFundMe, we had raised over $125,000 in $20 increments, more than 2,000 donors. I was just shocked by this.
I think it's a good thing for people to see because there are a dozen or more other people who can't afford this who are really having trouble. And they need to know that the mock of people out there will back them up. I'm the first one actually to see this. I'm proof positive that people are sick of this.
HANNITY: Look, nobody should have to lose their home. Here's the problem for you, though. They drag you into a legal case. You must hire a lawyer because you don't -- no person can fight this on their own because, as we learned and talked a lot about this week, they set up perjury trap, and if you don't answer the right way, then you're going to be charged the perjury. If you misremember something you're going to be charged with perjury.
Look at the revelation we had Catherine Herridge tonight and the unredacted portion of the House Intel report where literally nobody thought Michael Flynn was lying, nobody, including Comey, who lied about it.
CAPUTO: I'll tell you, Sean, you know, I walked right into that same situation Wednesday with the Mueller team. I was in there three hours, which was I think kind of remarkably short considering how long people have been in there. But they aren't nice. They're in their directed. And they didn't ask me one question that they didn't already know the answer to.
They weren't investigating. They were there to ask me questions they knew the answer to. I don't want to call what it sounds like because frankly, I'm a little intimidated by this. They warned me that, you know, they would be watching me on T.V.. And they know another--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: They warned you?
CAPUTO: -- to the Mueller investigation another $25,000 for me. But I'm telling you, Sean, it's sticky wicked in there. And they're not pulling you in there for a barn dance. They're in there to put you in a situation where you make a mistake.
HANNITY: How sad they tried to intimidate you. We'll be watching you on T.V. You know, I've been in this business 30 years, and it's obvious millions of dollars have been spent to try and smear me in just the last recent weeks. We're either going to remain the United States of America or we're going to become Valenzuela. Yes, you're right, we better stand up. This abuse of power is out of control. Michael, I'm sorry what happened to your family with all my heart.
CAPUTO: Well, thanks a lot, Sean. You know, my GoFundMe is up at Caputolegalfund.com. I've probably got to raise another 70 or 80 after this interview probably another 150. But I've had it, Sean. Everybody's got to stand up. This thing's got to end.
HANNITY: I'm sorry that this has all happened to you. What you describe should put a chill up the spine of every American. Michael, my best to you and your family. We're put that up on the screen when we can. Please come back and talk more.
When we come back, Ari Fleischer and Monica Crowley, as we continue the special edition of "Hannity."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, have you changed your mind at all about your willingness to sit with Robert Mueller?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, the problem with sitting with him, you have a group of investigators, and they say that I am not a target. And I'm not a target. But you have a group of investigators that are all Democrats.
In some cases, they went to the Hillary Clinton celebration that turned out to be a funeral. So you have all these investigators that are Democrats. In all fairness, Bob Mueller works for Obama for eight years. I have to find that we're going to be treated fairly because everybody sees it now and it is a pure witch-hunt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. That was President Trump earlier today. And he was blasting what he calls Robert Mueller's witch-hunt, voicing concern that he wouldn't be treated fairly if he sat down for an interview with Mueller's team.
Joining us now, former White House press secretary and Fox News contributor, Ari Fleischer, and senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, Monica Crowley.
Let's just break this down, Ari, this way. The president is right. Well, Mueller worked for a Democrat. Everyone says he's a Republican. You have all Democratic donors. Obama, Clinton, the DNC, then you have Andrew Weissmann, his atrocious ethics twice withholding exculpatory evidence in cases, overturn 9, zero in the Supreme Court, overturn in the fifth circuit court of appeals after sending innocent men to jail for a year.
Then you've got Rod Rosenstein after the July 26th raid of Paul Manafort, giving permission August 2nd to go into this new area of investigation, not in the original mandate. Now, I don't care if you're a liberal, a conservative, Republican, or Democrat. That stacks up as unfair. And the judge's words today stung, because as Ben Franklin said the sting in any rebuke is a truth.
ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The judge's words today sure did sting. That was a remarkable statement the judge made. We'll see what his ruling is, that's the most important thing. We don't know that yet. But, a couple of things, Sean. Number one, Bob Mueller also works seven years for George Bush, he works five years as the FBI director under Barack Obama--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Served his country, that's all true. But he appointed Andrew Weissmann.
FLEISCHER: That's right. And this is where I think he is vulnerable. The reason I know him so well is because I worked with him in the Bush administration principally after September 11th and I have a lot of admiration and respect for him. And he earned it because he is that type of leader.
But he erred -- he erred in his hiring. He should have been wiser than to make himself so vulnerable the hiring of staff that was so democratic. Democrat donors and the one you left out about tough prosecutors Andrew Weissmann as he attended Hillary's victory party in New York City.
Now, the only reason when you go to a victory party when you're a government official is you want to get a higher ranking job or if you're not a government official you want a job or you believe their ideology.
He shouldn't have gone. It makes him vulnerable to the charge of bias, not to mention the record you've just walked through. So, Sean, my bottom line still remains, let Mueller finish. I can't imagine any sweeter vindication for Donald Trump---
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Well, wait, finish with--
FLEISCHER: -- than Mueller find there's no ground for collusion.
HANNITY: Would you ever want to be investigated by Andrew Weissmann after tens of thousands of Americans lost their jobs at Andersen accounting, would you want to work for a guy that was excoriated twice on withholding exculpatory evidence, overturn nine-0 in the Supreme Court, sends people to jail, overturn by fifth circuit? Would you want to work on a case involving you? I wouldn't.
FLEISCHER: Yes, and this is -- this is exactly why I'm sure Donald Trump's lawyers despite what the president said today don't want him to go in and Donald Trump won't go in. He's not going to be questioned by it. And I can't imagine that will ever happen for just the reason you said, Sean, even if you know you never did anything wrong, government overreach can always be a problem particularly in the hands of prosecutors. And so that's why I still think at the end of the day, if there's no collusion Mueller has got no collusion. And we would know if there was collusion--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Wait, wait.
FLEISCHER: Nobody has seen it yet--
HANNITY: Beyond that and they seem to be post-dating what the new mandate is. Monica Crowley, it is -- this is as the judge said, they don't care about Manafort from 13 years ago, this is now they want to take down the president and if whatever they have to do to get him they're going to do.
MONICA CROWLEY, SENIOR FELLOW, LONDON CENTER FOR POLICY RESEARCH: Sean, none of this is fair. And let's just dispense with the whole fiction of this entire premise just as the phony dossier was used to generate the abuse of FISA warrants. The entire phony Russia collusion lie was always a Trojan horse issue to generate an abusive special counsel authorization open-ended in time scope to try to undermine the candidate and then destroy the president.
And that's why you have the investigation after investigation into Paul Manafort obstruction, Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels. Look, when all of this stuff falls apart they will find, try to find something else because this is all about something much bigger.
All of this is a pre-text to try to destroy Donald Trump. Why? Because he is an existential threat to the guardians of the elite ruling class. And if Trump it is over for them that's why they are using every tool, legal and illegal, ethical and non-ethical in order to try to take him out.
HANNITY: Very scary times. And what the judge said today about the American that don't want unfettered power in anyone branch, this judge, this is a game changing day. I would say mark my words.
Thank you both.
When we come back, you'll see a video of the day that you don't want to miss. That's straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. As we continue our special edition of Hannity our video of the day tonight is amazing. Check out the surveillance video from last month. It's out of Columbus, Ohio. It shows a Good Samaritan putting himself at risk to stop an armed suspect fleeing police.
Now the Good Samaritan simply known as Bill with pain hand trips the suspect as he was getting away. Officers thanked Bill for his help arresting the man. Police say the 18-year-old suspect was armed with a .9 millimeter Glock pistol with an extended clip.
Wow. Good job. People -- you know what? We see the worst in people and sometimes the best. There you go. That's the best.
All right. That's all the time we have left this evening. We will always be fair and balanced. We will have a lot more on this huge breaking developments on Monday. Have a great weekend. Let not your heart be troubled. "The Ingraham Angle" is next. We'll see you back here on Monday.
END
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