DiGenova calls for investigation into Steele, Ohr and others

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DiGenova calls for investigation into Steele, Ohr and others

Joe diGenova and Pam Bondi speak out on 'Hannity' about the DOJ's handling of the Christopher Steele dossier.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," August 16, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity" tonight.

Huge, breaking news surrounding Bruce Ohr and Christopher Steele. Tonight, Sara Carter has yet again just uncovered more handwritten notes from Ohr about Christopher Steele including a memo detailing Christopher Steele's big concerns about becoming exposed. These details are absolutely stunning.

Meanwhile, Catherine Herridge has been working hard today and uncovered other new information, showing that Christopher Steele was leaking the contents of the dirty Russian dossier to gullible reporters before the election, at the request of Fusion GPS, during the fall of 2016. A dossier even Steele did not believe in.

I thought it was bad when foreigners try to influence our election. I guess it's OK if your name is Hillary Clinton and you're a Democrat. By the way, can you say Russian collusion?

Also, tonight, we will kindly remind everyone on the left that the president of the United States has constitutional, broader and absolute authority to remove the security clearance of any American, and yesterday, after years of serious misconduct, the president rightfully stripped Obama's ex-CIA chief, John Brennan, from these top-secret privileges. Predictably, your mainstream media is now absolutely apoplectic and outraged. Some even claiming that Brennan's right to freedom of speech is infringed. In moments, we will help these people try to understand the difference between a constitutional right and a governmental privilege.

Plus, we'll also walk you through a deep dive of every high-ranking former or current official, they all should have their security clearances revoked. We'll give you names and the reason why.

And stay tuned for another shining example of the left's ever increasing Trump derangement syndrome and we also have an important update in Paul Manafort's trial of the century, as jury deliberation is about to enter data two and the jury asked the judge, well, they want more of a definition of word is reasonable doubt. They want it redefined.

All right. Sit tight, buckle up. Why? We begin with tonight's breaking news opening monologue.

(MUSIC)

HANNITY: All right. Again tonight, Sara Carter has unearthed one of the most revealing pieces of information in the ongoing saga between Bruce Ohr and Christopher Steele. Now, for nearly two weeks, we have been showing you dozens of communications between Ohr, once the fourth highest ranking person at Obama's DOJ, and ex-foreign spy Christopher Steele.

Now, these new texts, emails, handwritten notes, have provided evidence of a seedy, unusual relationship between these two, including a coordinated effort to push the contents of Steele's dirty, unverified Russian dossier all throughout the DOJ and the FBI. Just tonight, Sara Carter has uncovered one more handwritten memo from Bruce Ohr reporting a phone conversation that he had with Christopher Steele.

In the memo, Ohr writes that Steele is, quote, very concerned about the Comey hearing and afraid they will be exposed. Now, this is on top of the texts that Sara first revealed right here last night, showing that Steele was concerned about whether or not, plural, firewalls will stay intact ahead of Comey's upcoming hearing. So, you have Christopher Steele worried about being exposed, and for good reason.

After all, it was Christopher Steele who worked on Hillary Clinton's op research team in 2016, he put together the Clinton bought and paid for dirty Russian dossier, full of Russian, salacious, unverified, uncorroborated, even Steele himself wouldn't stand by it, under oath in Great Britain. He said, well, it may not be true at all. It's raw intelligence.

It was Christopher Steele who then used Bruce Ohr to spread all this Russian propaganda throughout the highest levels of our federal government, and to you, the American people. And now, thanks to the reporting also tonight from Catherine Herridge, we know it was Christopher Steele who was leaking the contents of this phony dossier to your gullible news media in this country in the fall of 2016, all at the behest and request of Fusion GPS, who, by the way, was not only being paid. By Hillary Clinton and the DNC, we now know Fusion GPS, oh, remember that Russian lawyer? In the interim is Trump Tower meeting? Oh, yeah, she was being Fusion GPS.

And, by the way, don't forget Simpson met with the lawyer both before and after that meeting at Trump Tower, and we know Christopher Steele and Simpson were clearly pushing their Russian lies. They all knew it was total B.S.

By the way, that's why Steele wanted the firewall, that's why he is scared to death he will get caught. In the moment, Sara carter and Catherine Herridge will join us for a full report.

But, first, let's take a deep dive into President Trump's very important security clearance review and several current and former high-ranking officials.

Now, yesterday, the president stripped top-secret access from comrade John Brennan and for good reason. Now, last night as we demonstrated how Brennan clearly violated CIA policy. It says, quote, in the case of former CIA directors, the agency holds that their security clearance and renews it every five years for the rest of their life, however, that requires former CIA directors to behave like current CIA employees.

Well, that's not Brennan. Now, he also used his security clearance to validate conspiracy theories that he's regularly pushing and getting paid for on MSNBC, and leaking sensitive information to the general public as it relates to the dossier, through Harry Reid, and to a public letter that's made public to Comey.

But the mainstream media, they don't care about the truth or any of these. Some are now actually claiming John Brennan's First Amendment rights are infringed. He is on TV 24/7. What are they talking about?

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a dictatorial exercise of power that should frighten and call on all Republicans to say, Mr. President, you cannot do this. You are trying to inhibit the free speech of people who may be in opposition to you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To use this kind of punishment to chill speech is a violation of the First Amendment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, this is a striking move toward authoritarianism. You know, this is what dictators do. They shut down the press, they shut down dissent, they jail their opponents, or in this case, they steal their security clearance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened here was a pure authoritarian act from an intemperate president who wanted to punish one of his critics. Nothing more, nothing less.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The White House is threatening him right now.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But they've already taken it away from John Brennan. It doesn't that say to everybody else, shut your mouth?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: This is all dumb, ignorant, and frankly patently absurd, as John Brennan continues to spew his anti-Trump hatred all over conspiracy TV MSNBC.

Oh, one other important point, a security clearance, for those of you that have never read the Constitution and claim you're a journalist, it's not a constitutional right. It's a privilege. And according to the U.S. Supreme Court, Navy V. Egan, a U.S. president has the authority to revoke any clearance with or without a stated reason.

Currently, the administration is reviewing the status of nine clearances.

Now, with the help of our good friend, FOX News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, let's break down what each of the people you see on the screen should be in serious jeopardy of losing their secret access.

Tonight, we start with James Clapper. Without a doubt, he should be stripped of his security clearance as soon as humanly possible. He, like Brennan, also misuses his clearance to validate and monetize his hatred of President Trump every time he is on TV.

Brennan on conspiracy TV MSNBC, Clapper doing the same things on fake news CNN. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: The value standards, the institutions that I and others spent the major part of our professional lives defending and upholding are under assault by our very own president.

I really do wonder whether the Russians have something on him.

I really question his ability to -- his fitness to be in his office, and I also am beginning to wonder about his motivation.

This past weekend is illustrative of what a great case officer Vladimir Putin is. He knows how to handle an asset and that is what he's doing with the president.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: That's not the only reason Clapper should forfeit his clearance. Before his time at fake news CNN, while serving as the director of national intelligence, well, Clapper was accused of leaking sensitive information to his future employer, CNN, the company that employs him now..

Let's not forget when Clapper lied under oath in front of Congress. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON WYDEN, D-ORE.: Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?

CLAPPER: No, sir.

WYDEN: It does not?

CLAPPER: Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect, but not wittingly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, of course, we know the exact opposite is true. The NSA was collecting the data. He knew about it.

Next, let's turn to Jimmy Comey. Yes, he -- his access was already gone, but he is still eligible for future access. And as Gregg Jarrett lists, multiple reasons Comey should be permanently losing his eligibility, including his improper conduct in the Clinton investigation, the fact that he stole government property, remember the handwritten memos about the president, remember, he leaked the potentially classified information, those memos to a professor friend to give to "The New York Times."

And he also likely misled the FISA court about the Steele dossier that he was supposed to verify and never did, and then he lied about that during his book tour. We'll remind you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST, "SPECIAL REPORT": You call the dossier unverified, salacious. Why did you use that to the FISA court to ask for surveillance for Carter Page? Not only use it, but you lead with that, a bulk of that FISA application deals with the dossier. Why?

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Yes. That's not my recollection, Bret, and I don't know that the FISA application has been released. My recollection was, it was part of a broader mosaic of facts that were laid before the FISA judge to obtain a FISA warrant.

BAIER: There was a lot more than a dossier in the FISA application?

COMEY: My recollection was there was a significant amount of additional material about Page and why there was probable cause to believe he was an agent of a foreign power. And the dossier was part of that but was not all of it or a critical part of it, to my recollection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Unreal.

We now know the dossier did in fact make up the bulk of the application. It's an irrefutable fact at this point.

Next up, well, let's look at Peter Strzok. He was also fired for improper conduct. His extreme bias, his willingness to act on that bias, is a reason alone. He should never have a clearance again.

We also have his mistress, Lisa Page, the onetime FBI lawyer also complicit as it relates to Stzrok's bias and attempts to, quote, "stop it," meaning stopped him from ever becoming president, and the, of course, the insurance policy.

And then there's Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying. He was also involved in signing off on that fake FISA application that willfully misled FISA court judges -- by the way, and the American people.

And we got Sally Yates, also fired for insubordination. She signed off on one of the FISA applications.

Susan Rice, she lied all over the place, over and over, about Benghazi, when they knew better. A matter of national security. Really? Knowingly? Lying? Get rid of her clearance.

Next, you got Michael Hayden. Gregg Jarrett is calling his security clearance case, quote, questionable. But remember, Hayden is currently employed by CNN as a talking head.

And finally, we end on Bruce Ohr. He was once the fourth highest ranking member of the DOJ before being demoted twice. Why? For failing to disclose his wife's employment at Fusion GPS. You can add Christopher Steele to the mix. In fact, Ohr was actively working on in an investigation into Trump-Russia collusion while his wife was being paid by the Clinton campaign to dig up dirt on Trump. Ohr appears also to have filed a false financial disclosure report in order to prevent the government from knowing the true nature of his wife's work.

In moments, Gregg Jarrett will join us with more analysis but without a doubt, the Trump administration was right in the case of Brennan and now should revoke all of these clearances as soon as possible.

Now we turn to our daily roundup of the most deranged Trump haters. And tonight, we are featuring this absurd comment, yes, once again, conspiracy TV MSNBC. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like the idea that, you know, you see the examples, that example of like what would be the core that was it was OK for Donald Trump to dissolve media institutions because media institutions are super unpopular. I would like a pollster to ask us this question, how do people on the Republican Party think it would be OK for Donald Trump to dissolve their own grandparents? I'm virtually certain that if it was a Donald Trump-related question, you'd get like 10 percent that would be like Donald Trump has to power to do whatever he wants, including kill my parents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And today, President Trump gave his own take on the media's Trump derangement syndrome, tweeting, quote: There is nothing that I would want more for our country than true freedom of the press. The fact is that the press is free to write and say anything they want. But much of what it says is fake news, pushing a political agenda, or just plain trying to hurt people. Honesty wins.

Maybe that's why you've made is number one and we thank you for it.

Expect the media's rhetoric, by the way, to get worse and worse as most important midterms of our life time gets closer. We are only 82 days away.

This week, Congressman Keith Ellison, he won the Democratic primary in his race to be the next attorney general of Minnesota, but not without some serious controversy. Ellison's ex-girlfriend, a woman named Karen Monahan, is accusing him of serious domestic abuse, a claim backed up by Monahan's son who took to Facebook and wrote that Ellison put his mother through, quote, pure peer hell, and that he had personally seen hundreds of threatening text messages from Ellison, and even a video of Ellison about two minutes long assaulting his mother, including one instance or he allegedly dragged her by her feet off the bed, all while screaming and cursing at her.

Now, these are charges that Ellison vehemently denies, but the DNC is now investigating these claims and Robby Mook of the Clinton campaign saying don't campaign with this guy. We'll keep you posted as the story develops.

And, finally tonight, we have another update in the trial of the century. Paul Manafort's 2005 tax case and bankruptcies. Well, the jury, they wrapped up day one of deliberations without reaching a verdict. The jury did, however, submit four questions to Judge Ellis, including one asking him to define or redefine reasonable doubt.

That was maybe a good sign for Manafort but I caution you, remember, you can't glean too much from a question of a jury, and over 90 percent of federal cases result in a guilty verdict. The odds are not in Manafort's favor.

Keep in mind, as the media storm ramps up on this, this case has nothing -- zero -- to do with, Mr. Mueller, Russia. Zero, Mr. Mueller, to do with collusion. Zero, Mr. Mueller, to do with the 2016 campaign, and zero, Mr. Mueller, to do with Donald Trump.

This all comes as the wife of one of Mueller's targets, George Papadopoulos, who was just on the Tucker, is calling for her husband to scrap that plea deal that he made with Mueller and sue the government. We'll let you know if Papadopoulos takes his wife's advice. And, by the way, takes on the aggressive tactics of team Mueller.

A lot of ground, a lot of news we're breaking.

Joining us now, investigative reporter, Fox News contributor Sara Carter, the author of the now three weeks in a row number one New York Times best seller, "The Russian Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump", Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett.

Judge Pirro was number one, you knocked her off. But she's number two --

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: And I feel badly about that.

HANNITY: I think you are both doing pretty good.

JARRETT: She's a friend, I feel badly about that. She's, you know --

HANNITY: No, you don't feel badly about that. You want to be number one. Stop. You are full of it.

You are happy you are number one. That's OK. She made number one, too.

JARRETT: OK.

HANNITY: All right. Sara, let's go back to last night and let's go to the developments that we have today.

You know, Steele writing Ohr, hey, any news, we are apprehensive given the scheduled appearance in Congress on Monday, hoping the firewalls will hold -- firewalls plural -- sorry, I have no news. I believe my earlier information is still accurate. I'll let you know immediately if something changes.

Well, now, we know that there is a new development tonight, a handwritten message after a call with Ohr and Steele. Ohr writes the message. I'll let you pick it up from there.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, this is what is a fascinating, Sean. I mean, even back when Comey was going to testify in 2017, in March. That was two days before, he talked about the firewall, he hopes these firewalls will fold and that's what Christopher Steele tells Bruce Ohr, and then later, months later, he sends a very important text message saying, you know, I'm very concerned about the Comey hearing -- I mean, he talks to Ohr on the phone. Christopher Steele, I'm concerned about the Comey hearing, I'm afraid that we'll be exposed.

And that's because at the time, the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles Grassley, started to ask a lot of questions. Who is this Christopher Steele? How was he involved with the FBI? What information was he sharing?

And at this point, they knew that all the firewalls that they had built up were about to start crumbling down.

HANNITY: OK. Now, Gregg, let's get into this. I hope the firewalls plural hold. Two days before Comey is set to testify before Congress. Now we go a step deeper.

Very concerned about the Comey hearing, afraid we will be exposed.

OK. Firewalls, holding, afraid we are going to be exposed -- I thought the whole Mueller thing was not supposed to have foreign nationals trying to influence our elections. And now, we've got Christopher Steele spreading his lies and propaganda vis-a-vis Fusion GPS to the gullible media, and he knows and testifies under oath, he doesn't even believe his own dossier, the own B.S. her wrote.

But yet they are peddling this to the American people.

JARRETT: He is not only a foreign national. He is a foreigner on the FBI's bankroll and payroll and on Hillary Clinton's payroll.

And Sara's reporting is right. He fears the Senate Intelligence Committee, he fears Comey, he fears Senator Grassley in particular, that he's going to be implicated and busted and exposed for his illegal behavior. I also have here handwritten notes in the handwriting of Bruce Ohr. March 15th, he writes: Special counsel right to question in U.K.?

In other words, he doesn't want to be forced to answer questions under oath. On that same day, he says, he urges Bruce Ohr, must protect sources. In other words, him, his the main source of the phony, fabricated dossier.

HANNITY: Let me ask both of you. What the hell is wrong with Robert Mueller? Because you have a foreign national, spy, paid for by Clinton, through Fusion GPS, also has Russia as a client, meeting before and after the infamous Trump Tower meeting, he is spreading these lies, he doesn't believe in his own dossier, Russian lies to influence the American people so that they'll vote for the chosen candidate, Hillary, over Donald Trump.

There is a Russia conspiracy. There is Russia, you know, there is -- there is Russian influence. There is foreign outsiders. What are -- what is wrong with them but they can't follow the simple things that we have discovered and reported over a year? Sara Carter?

CARTER: Sean, exactly what they are trying to accuse the Trump administration of doing is what they were doing all along, and the fact that Robert Mueller has all of this evidence, this is not just circumstantial evidence. This is enormous amount of documented evidence.

HANNITY: We have a handwritten note!

CARTER: Exactly. Handwritten notes, conversations, testimony. You know they're going to be questioning Bruce Ohr on August 28th, and this was very important because Bruce Ohr holds the key to what happened here, and I would also like to know, who, at the FBI authorized Bruce Ohr to be the conduit for Christopher Steele?

Even more importantly than that, when did the FBI no that Christopher Steele was actually leaking information to the media at the behest of Glen Simpson?

HANNITY: And he knows it's B.S. He knows it's rationalized, he doesn't believe his own dossier.

CARTER: That's right.

HANNITY: You know, I've got to be honest. Then you got Mueller and this idiotic Manafort tax fraud issue, how in god's name did that become part of the Russia collusion investigation? As he ignores all of the incontrovertible evidence in your book that you've been reporting, Sara, in your book, Gregg.

JARRETT: Yes, you know, Bruce Ohr has a lot to answer for in deposition because he --

HANNITY: So does Mueller.

JARRETT: There are 60 pages here. And he'll be asked in detail, what did you mean in this conversation with Christopher Steele, and I think, at the end of the day, we are not only going to find rampant corruption, but that the law was egregiously violated.

HANNITY: So disgustingly corrupt. Such a double standard.

If our republic is going to survive, our constitutional republic, we better get to the bottom of this. We know there was influence except it was on their s side. We have the evidence, they have nothing. They're doing tax cases from 2005 and wasting our time and money.

When we come back -- thank you both. Catherine Herridge, major new information as we continue our news about Bruce Ohr's communications with Christopher Steele in the final months of the 2016 campaign, they were feeding you lies, then we'll get reaction. Joe diGenova, Pam Bondi, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Tonight, Fox News has obtained Bruce Ohr's handwritten notes and emails during the 2016 election season.

Our chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge has more on this breaking news -- Catherine.

CATHERINE HERRIDGE, FOX NEWS CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: Sean, a review by FOX News at Bruce Ohr's Justice Department emails and handwritten notes shows he is deeply connected to the Trump dossier, the scandal over alleged government surveillance abuse.

During closed-door congressional testimony last year, the cofounder of Fusion GPS, Glen Simpson, the firm behind the dossier, claimed no contact with Ohr until after the 2016 election.

But Ohr's work emails conflict with his testimony, showing contact months earlier. Ohr's wife Nellie worked for Fusion GPS, the firm hired by the DNC and Clinton campaign for the Trump dossier based on former British by Christopher Steele's research.

After the FBI dropped Steele as a source in November 2016, the Republican- led House Intelligence Committee found that Steele maintained contact using Ohr as a back channel. In December 2016, Ohr's notes also indicated meeting with Glen Simpson in Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown, with Ohr writing, quote: Glen gave me a memory stick.

Today, the Justice Department declined to comment on Ohr who is scheduled to give a closed door interview to congressional investigators August 28.

Congressman Jim Jordan told FOX the focus is on Ohr's handling of the dossier, and how the dossier rolled into the surveillance warrant for a Trump campaign aide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM JORDAN (R), OHIO: Bruce Ohr's wife worked for the firm that the Clintons hired to put together the dossier. She's giving it to Bruce Ohr. He's given it to the FBI. It is never supposed to work that way in the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HERRIDGE: The Ohr documents reviewed by Fox News shed more light on the British spy Christopher Steele. When FBI Director James Comey was fired by President Trump last year, Ohr wrote that Steele, quote, was very concerned about Comey's firing, afraid they will be exposed -- Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Catherine, thank you.

And joining us now with more reaction, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Joe diGenova. Full disclosure, Joe once did some legal work for me and I would hire him again in a heartbeat and Pam, and he was at my Christmas party.

But, you know, here's what we have. We've got Mueller's team looking at a 2005 tax case, nothing to do with the election, Trump, the campaign, nothing, Russia, nothing. But here, we do have Russian lies being fed by Christopher Steele who didn't even believe them, through Fusion GPS, propagandizing and misinforming purposely the American people to steal an election.

And then we have Russian lies, literally, you know, handed to our gullible news media by these people, then you've got, you know, Steele, the dossier, Fusion GPS, Brennan, all leaking it, Joe diGenova, all of them. They all know it's total B.S.

JOE DIGENOVA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Remember, Sean, if Hillary Clinton had won, we would know none of this. And that's why the Trump victory is so important to the rule of law, notwithstanding what the press says about the president.

There was a brazen plot to exonerate Hillary Clinton. And if she lost - to frame Donald Trump. Part of that plot involved the conspiracy with Bruce Ohr, Steele, Sally Yates, John Brennan, James Comey, Peter Strozk and other senior FBI and the DOJ Officials who determined that they were going to destroy a president after he was duly elected.

It is absolutely essential that notwithstanding anything that Robert Mueller is doing that the attorney general and the deputy attorney general ensure that there is a federal grand jury to investigate all of the things surrounding Ohr and Steele and Yates and everybody else.

This is so obvious, a junior lawyer in any prosecutor's office would want this case and run with it.

(CROSSTALK)

PAM BONDI, FLORIDA STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL: That raises a good point.

DIGENOVA: And if the attorney general and the deputy attorney general don't do it, the president should fire them.

HANNITY: If Hillary Rodham Clinton pays for these Russian lies, Pam Bondi- -

(CROSSTALK)

DIGENOVA: Yes. She did.

HANNITY: -- and Fusion GPS and Brennan, the CIA director at that time, and Christopher Steele, a foreign national. No, it's not true. Because we know under oath he said I don't know if it's true, maybe it's 50/50. It's raw intelligence.

They are peddling this to the American people in a lead up to the election. And Robert Mueller is focused on a tax case from how many years ago? How did it come up? How did this, how do we involve into this when there is real evidence of real Russian paid information to lie to the American people in the election?

BONDI: Sean, our entire justice system right now is inverted. This is the kind of the corruption that you see in third world countries. Look at McCabe. They moved him. They were going to let him retire until everyone came out publicly calling for him to be fired so he didn't get his retirement.

Look at Strozk, look at -- he fired. Look at Page resigned. Ohr should have been fired yesterday or much earlier now that we know this. It's absurd. And again, the bottom line, the crux of all of this is that FISA warrant that was obtained. And we all keep talking about that because none of this -- the Manafort trial--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: No, the crux of it was the dossier. Because they lied--

(CROSSTALK)

POMBI: Right.

HANNITY: -- to the FISA court judges and committed a fraud on the court and they said they stood up for it but they never verified it. And then they literally conspired to spread unverified Russian lies that Hillary Clinton paid for to influence the American people.

BONDI: And that's why all of this since taking place.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I'm sorry. That's a lot bigger than Paul Manafort's stupid tax case.

BONDI: Right. Right. And none of that would be taking place but for a FISA warrant obtained with false information.

HANNITY: Where's, you know, if I'm Robert Mueller I would be humiliated. Al this evidence is out there, it's on a tee. Is it that political, is that he hired all these Democrats because he is that much of a hack and he doesn't care about our constitutional republic, Joe?

DIGENOVA: I think what has happened here is Bob Mueller has lost his way. And he has been hit in the face with an outrageous set of facts which show that what he is doing is legally irrelevant to what actually happened during the campaign.

There was no Russian collusion. There was no communication between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. That's all nonsense and fake and was purposefully put out by the people in the FBI and John Brennan to blow back in the United States to get FISA warrants so they could spy on the Trump campaign.

What's happened here now goes so far beyond what the Mueller case and the Manafort case, the Manafort case is a joke. It is an absolute embarrassment to the Department of Justice. It should never have been brought.

And you know, I just, what I think happened to Bob Mueller is, he realized that everything he's done is worthless. It means nothing. That the big case is the case to frame the president of the United States. And he won't -- he won't touch it--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: And that's why he's done--

DIGENOVA: -- he doesn't give a rip -- absolutely.

HANNITY: -- on what happens in the next 18 months to the country.

DIGENOVA: Absolutely.

HANNITY: Because look at the people he has hired. You hire Andrew Weissmann. You are going to go for broke. You hire the biggest hack in the country. Not many people have the distinction of putting innocent people in jail and losing tens of thousands of jobs.

DIGENOVA: Absolutely correct.

HANNITY: Yes.

DIGENOVA: Absolutely correct.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: What about the issue of the security clearances? Pam?

BONDI: Gone! Not even a question. It's not even a question. Page, really? Strozk, gone. McCabe, gone. Ohr should have been gone already. All of these people. Not even a close call. That's a privilege. And they have lost that privilege.

HANNITY: All right. You guys are phenomenal. Maybe one day, maybe the truth will dawn on them that there is real information. Michelle Malkin, Dan Bongino they react to the despicable vile comment made about Trump supporters, yes, on your so-called conspiracy TV network NBC. And that happened earlier.

Also the president blasting New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and his ridiculous statement that America has never been great. Really? Tell that to the heroes of World War II. We'll continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right, Democrats. Mainstream media continue to go low -- they say they go high. As we explained on our opening monologue, earlier today over their conspiracy TV MSNBC on liberal Joe, John Heilemann made this outrageous comment. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN HEILEMANN, NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST, MSNBC: I like the idea that, you know, you see as the example, a bad example of like, what would be the core that would say it was OK for Donald Trump to dissolve media institutions because media institution are super unpopular.

I would like a pollster test this question. How many people in the Republican Party think it would OK for Donald Trump to dissolve their own grandparents. I'm virtually certain that if it was Donald Trump related question you get like a 10 percent. That would be like, Donald Trump has the power to do everyone, including to kill my parents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: How many people in the media would be angry at Trump if he cured cancer? Seriously, kill our parents? Then of course you have the liberal governor from the state of New York, Andrew Cuomo saying America never was great.

OK, well, tell that to the brave men and women that helped defeat communism which oppressed how many millions and killed how many millions in the former Soviet Union and fascism and Nazism in imperial Japan and on and on, and how America has sacrificed for so many around the world in many different ways.

Here with reaction, former Secret Service agent, NRATV contributor, Dan Bongino, the host of Michelle Malkin Investigates, CRTV, it's award winning, Michelle Malkin.

You know, it's either we're irredeemable deplorables, Michelle, or we're smelly Wal-Mart people -- I like Wal-Mart. In fact, I love Wal-Mart. Wal- Mart is great. And Target and Costco. I love those stores.

Or irredeemable deplorables, clinging to our God, gun, family, religion or we smell and won't shop in Wal-Mart. This is so condescending, disgustingly condescending when they are the sheep that just echo each other in the echo chamber.

MICHELLE MALKIN, HOST, CRTV: Yes. And that certainly was proved by this coordinated campaign by all of this groupthink media outlets to attack President Trump for his very legitimate criticism of their political operative propaganda which masquerades as neutral reporting.

And what we saw there with John Heilemann, I love it. You know, first I thought who the heck is this guy? I had really never been familiar with his work. He is somebody who masquerades as a documentary filmmaker and he is allowed to get away with comments like this.

I mean, he has got contempt for Trump voters and independent thinkers that's coming, it's like oozing out of his pores. And it is that exact kind of elite media condescension that put President Trump in large part in office in the first place.

So, please keep going. Please double and triple down on that. Because it worked so well for you, liberal media, in 2016.

HANNITY: You know, I'm really proud of the fact even though Fox tried to make me so many years I don't feel good. I never made it to a White House correspondents dinner. Because I didn't want to hang out with these people.

I'll hang out, Dan Bongino, with the smelly Wal-Mart people, the irredeemable, deplorables that cling to their bibles, God, gun and religion over them any day. And because they are the ones that actually make the country great and work hard and pay their taxes, play by the rules, obey their laws, raise their children to be good citizens. I prefer them.

DAN BONGINO, CONTRIBUTOR, NRATV: Yes, Sean, I'm comfortable around the "b" people, right? The busboys, the bartenders and the bouncers. I don't need to know the owner of the bar. I'm with you, man. I grew up working for a living, right?

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: You are giving away my secret, right?

BONGINO: Yes. Hey, listen, you know, my fingernails, you know, they are still dirty from when I was a kid working in the cemetery.

But Sean, I read an op-ed piece not that long ago and it really changed me. It said one of the most successful fights we've had public relations-wise in the country was the battle against smoking. And why was that? It's because everybody knew a smoker, right? A parent, brother. They knew how to talk to them.

The Democrats have zero interest whatsoever in the media in learning how to talk to people across America who found meaning in the Donald Trump presidency. That is why they will continue to lose as I recommended to my audience over and over again.

The new rules are now in effect. The new rules are this. You guys are fighting with brass knuckles. We were fighting with 20-ounce gloves. The cutesy stuff is over. We win, you lose. On life, on taxes, on everything. The new rules are in effect.

HANNITY: Michelle, Donald Trump if he's running in November he would win re-election. I don't care who they put up. I don't see him losing.

MALKIN: Yes, I do, too. And you know what, you mentioned Andrew Cuomo's comments. And those folks in New York are among the most unrepentant smear merchants of Americans who don't believe the same things they do. And I thank them for their candor in voicing their contempt for American values.

Please keep going, Cynthia Nixon, Andrew Cuomo and Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez. I have a great friend in Rob O'Donnell who leads a group called brothers before others.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: It's Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters party. I don't want them to lose.

MALKIN: Yes, yes. And I just want to say about New York. That it is the brave men and women who worked for the police department and the fire department who are most offended by the dripping contempt and the hatred, vile hatred that those New Yorkers have for people who have made America great.

HANNITY: By the way, Cuomo once said people like me are not welcome in New York. Last thing. He has his own security detail. He's running against the NRA, which I know you work for, Dan. Interesting. I bet all of his security detail are armed, aren't they?

BONGINO: Hey, listen, you know the elites, right. What's good for the goose is not good for the gander. That's how they roll, Sean. We're just the great on Washington then.

HANNITY: Sad. All right. Good to see you both. When we come back, new details of a really disturbing story out of California. Authorities just arrested an allege member of ISIS who entered the country as refugee. And we have an update on the extremist compound in New Mexico.

Trace Gallagher has a full report. We got reaction. Geraldo Rivera versus Dr. Sebastian Gorka. You don't want to miss a minute, and Rush Limbaugh straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Tonight we are following two other very troubling stories. One, an alleged members of ISIS arrested in California. And there is also an update in the New Mexico compound horror story.

Trace Gallagher in the West Coast bureau with the very latest tonight. Trace?

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Sean, when the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force swarmed the Sacramento apartment complex you knew it was a high-level target. Prosecutors say 45-year-old Omar Ameen was a hitman for ISIS and Al-Qaeda, a founding member of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and high-ranking ISIS terrorist.

Back in 2012, Ameen fled from Iraq to Turkey where he applied to be a U.S. refugee. He was granted that status in June of 2014. But instead of going directly to the U.S., court records say he went back to Iraq where he shot and killed an Iraqi police officer. Five months later Ameen was living in the U.S.

Authorities say his refugee application was riddled with lies. But because many countries don't have extensive document on their citizens a complete background check is nearly impossible.

Experts say Omar Ameen is a prime example of why President Trump implemented the travel ban. Ameen will now be extradited back to Iraq to face trial and the possible death penalty.

And there is breaking news from that New Mexico compound where 11 children ages 1 to 15 were found living in horrific conditions. Bones found on scene have now been identified as a 3-year-old boy Abdul Wahhaj (Ph). He is the boy the FBI says was part of an exorcism to expel his demons and who died of a seizure after his father refused to give him medicine.

The father then allegedly told the other children Abdul would come back as Jesus and tell them who to kill. The five adults at the compound facing child abuse charges were set free by a judge until trial. And now the prosecutor says he is planning to appeal the judge's decision. Sean?

HANNITY: All right, Trace. Thank you. Here with reaction, the author of "Why We Fight" Fox News national security strategist, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, also the author of another bestseller "The Geraldo Show" Fox News correspondent-at-large, Geraldo Rivera.

Geraldo, liberals they don't want ICE. They want open borders. They don't want vetting. They don't want a travel ban. If we want to keep our family, our American family safe why doesn't anyone who wants to come and visit, why don't they get vetted? And they have to pay for it for the pleasure of visiting us.

And build a border wall with a big door. We do these things and we will be safer. The American people will benefit. Why don't we do the simple things?

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT AT LARGE: Well, Sean, in this case specifically, it seems to me that you had a notorious killer, ISIS, formerly Al-Qaeda fighter, later commander who was well-known in his hometown for planting IEDs, for kidnapping, robbery and for this murder with which he is charged, and on Monday will be hopefully extradited back to Iraq.

It seems to me that very little background checks were made.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: How about we keep him to jail?

RIVERA: They believed him when he said he was not a terrorist. I was ridiculous.

HANNITY: Dr. Gorka, why don't we just keep him in jail?

SEBASTIAN GORKA, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST: Well, this is--

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: Well, they will try him for murder in Iraq and he will be executed, I believe.

GORKA: This is the case study of why the travel ban had to happen. This is why Donald Trump became president. This is why the wall was the first policy platform that he built his campaign on.

It's just common sense. The fact, for example, that under the Obama administration you couldn't check somebody's social media accounts to find out if they had Jihadist proclivities, that's how you get the San Bernardino massacre with 14 Americans killed at a Christmas party.

The system is broken. It's being fixed right now. But it's just the same as when you controlled who comes in to your house. We have to control who comes in to America.

HANNITY: Geraldo, common sense.

(CROSSTALK)

GORKA: Yes. Common sense, Sean.

RIVERA: Common sense but there is a big difference -- there is a big difference between a 45-year-old ISIS battle hardened terrorist murdering f-ing and a 25-year-old apricot picker from Mexico. I mean, please. To equate these is false moral equivalent.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: How about we vet everybody? How about we just vet everybody and we control it?

RIVERA: I'm OK with that. I'm OK with vetting everybody. I'm OK with that.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I have changed him.

GORKA: Sean?

HANNITY: I have had profound impact on his thinking, Dr. Gorka.

GORKA Congratulations. I knew it would happen.

(CROSSTALK)

GORKA: Sean, let's look at New Mexico. New Mexico, another utter failure of common sense. Who is the court system meant to protect the most? The vulnerable, the aged, the children. The idea that these people are let out - let out without bail--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: All right.

GORKA: -- after a 4-year-old is killed or dies on that compound. It's--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: All right. Guys, I got to go.

RIVERA: And Paul Manafort is held pretrial because he is threat to flee.

HANNITY: Yes, 23 hours a day. When we come back, Rush Limbaugh when we come back sounding off on John Brennan losing his security clearance. You don't want to miss that. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Rush Limbaugh weighing in on John Brennan losing his security clearance. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, TALK SHOW HOST: Where is it written that John Brennan, above all else, must be granted his security clearance, when this guy is actively engaged in overthrowing a duly constituted elected president?

Well, you know the answer to the question, because the left doesn't care about the constitution, it doesn't care about the rule of law, it cares only about its power. None of those are cliches, none of those are exaggerations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Check mate, Rush Limbaugh. All right. We will always be fair and balanced. We're not the destroy-Trump media. Let not your heart be troubled. Ingraham time.

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