Donald Trump Jr. on 'Hannity': In retrospect, I would've done things differently

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Trump Jr.: I probably would've done things differently

On 'Hannity,' the president's son details his meeting with a Russian lawyer

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 11, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity," and this is a "Fox News Alert." Donald Trump Jr., is here tonight to set the record straight about his June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer. He will join us for an exclusive in-depth interview. That's coming up in just a minute.

And by the way, for all the members of the destroy media that have to tune into my show tonight, get out your pad and your pen. You may actually learn a thing or two. And we have a message for you, so maybe you want to take notes. Now, we're going to lay out the real scandals that you are not covering that you should be covering. If you were actual journalists, you would be.

But first, let's lay out the facts of this story. And that is tonight's very important "Opening Monologue."

All right, so earlier today after The New York Times started reporting on the content of email exchanges prior to this meeting at Trump Tower, Donald Trump Jr., released what he says is the entire email chain. Now, contact was initiated by Rob Goldstone. He's a music publicist who represents a Russian pop star who knows the Trump family from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant that took place in Moscow.

And on June 3, 2016, Goldstone emailed Donald Trump Jr., quote, "Good morning. Emin" -- the Russian pop star -- "just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. The crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high-level and sensitive information, but is part of Russia and its government support for Mr. Trump, helped along by Aras and Emin. So what do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly? I can also send this information to your father via Rhona, but it's ultrasensitive so wanted to send to you first. Best, Bob Goldstone."

About 20 minutes later, Donald Trump, Jr., replied, quote, "Thanks, Bob. I appreciate it. I am on the road at the moment, but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer. Could we do a call first thing next week when I am back? Best, Don."

And in following emails, the two go back and forth about setting up that phone call. And then they eventually work out a time for a sit-down meeting with this Russian lawyer.

Now, Donald Trump Jr., also released a statement earlier today explaining that he was releasing the emails to be transparent. He also detailed why he took the meeting.

His statement reads, in part, quote, "The information they suggested they had about Hillary Clinton I thought was political opposition research. I first wanted to just have a phone call, but when that didn't work out, they said the woman would be in New York and asked if I would meet. I decided to take the meeting. The woman, as she has said publicly, was not a government official. As we have said, she had no information to provide and wanted to talk about adoption policy and the Magnitsky Act. To put this in context, this occurred before the current Russian fever was in vogue. As Rob Goldstone said just today in the press, the entire meeting was the most inane nonsense I have ever heard. And I was actually agitated by it."

In addition to all of that, the Russian lawyer at the center of this story spoke to NBC News where she denied working for the Russian government. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, NBC NEWS)

KIER SIMMONS, NBC CORRESPONDENT: Have you ever worked for the Russian government? Do you have connections to the Russian government?

NATALIA VESELNITSKAYA, RUSSIAN ATTORNEY (through translator): No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, NBC is also quoting the Russian lawyer as saying, quote, "I never had any damaging or sensitive information about Hillary Clinton. It was never my intention to have that." And in a previous statement, Donald Trump Jr. said the same thing, that the lawyer never produced solid information about Hillary Clinton. In fact, he says she didn't even really make sense when talking about Clinton.

And it's worth noting, by the way, that President Trump's legal team pointed out that they think the whole meeting could have been a setup that was made to look like potential Russia collusion. Now, the legal team also says that this Russian lawyer is connected to Fusion GPS, which is the opposition research firm that produced the discredited Christopher Steele dossier on Donald Trump.

And by the way, as The New York Post has reported, Fusion GPS has several ties to the Democrats, including Clinton allies and even Planned Parenthood.

So from looking at the facts as we have them, a friend of the Trumps offered to coordinate a meeting to share opposition research on Hillary Clinton, which Donald Trump, Jr., agreed to. Nothing came of it because there was no information exchange. And it ended there.

Democrats, the mainstream media are right now hysterical over the story. By the way, we're glad you're all watching. But they have completely ignored an example of actual election interference, and I would argue probably because it involves a Democrat. So to be fair to you, the American people, tonight -- and we want to be balanced -- we need to point this out.

And the question you people in the media need to start asking yourselves is, why don't you tell the American people every story? For example, back in January, the Politico, hardly members of the right-wing conspiracy, published this explosive report. Quote, "Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire." Now, the report there lays out how a DNC operative and Ukrainian government officials tried to aid and assist Hillary Clinton and damage Donald Trump.

Now, this DNC operative, who according to Politico used to work at the Clinton White House, well, spearheaded this entire effort, including by meeting with Ukrainian officials at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, D.C., to discuss ways to go after former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Now, this operative even told Politico the Ukraine diplomats were, quote, "helpful" in tracking leads.

And then there's this bombshell. Quote, "She occasionally shared her findings with officials from the DNC and Clinton's campaign." And on top of all of that, the operative claims that she gave guidance and off the record information to, quote, a lot of journalists who were writing about Paul Manafort and Donald Trump's potential ties to Russia."

Now that you, our audience, have evidence from both sides, you got to decide for yourself. We report, you decide. What's worse? And I'll pose this question to everybody in the media that's forced to tune in tonight. Which is worse? Why haven't you covered that story? And better yet, well, why didn't news organizations extensively report on Ukrainian collusion? Now, Politico -- they did all the heavy lifting for you. All you had to do was follow up.

Is it because many of the so-called top news organizations in this country exposed before the election as having colluded with the Clinton campaign? Remember WikiLeaks? And if you're interested, really interested in election interference, why didn't you care that a congressional investigation found in 2014 an Israeli political group used a $300,000 Obama State Department grant to create a political apparatus to try and defeat our ally, our friend, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Or how about the WikiLeaks email that shows a Clinton a campaign ad talking about how a Chinese ambassador wanted to have a private off-the- record meeting?

So in other words, do you members of this corrupt media, do you even know about these stories? And by the way, since you are so interested in prosecuting people and accusing them of crimes, well, let's talk about real crimes that have been committed that you in the media so often ignore.

Hillary Clinton -- let's see. We know she mishandled and destroyed top secret special access program classified government information. But what about a real Russian collusion conspiracy? That's the Uranium One deal. Remember, as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, she signed off on giving up to 20 percent of America's uranium to Vladimir Putin and the Russians. And all those people in the deal? Well, they kicked back over $100 million to the Clinton Foundation. And by the way, Bill Clinton doubled his speaking fees in Moscow.

And let's not forget the Clinton Foundation. They took millions of dollars from countries that have the most atrocious human rights records.

And how about a Senate report showing that the Trump administration has had to deal -- since he took office, the president --with 125 deep state leaks in 126 days, which, by the way, are all likely felonies and happened at a rate which is seven times greater than the previous two administrations.

What about Lieutenant General Michael Flynn? You all followed the story. Have you been reporting on the fact that he was unmasked and that intel, raw intelligence, was leaked to the press? Well, that would be a crime.

Then there's James Comey, a report from The Hill saying that four of Comey's seven memos contained classified information and that the considers the memos to be government property, meaning that Comey may have committed two felonies, broken the law, removing those files from the FBI.

Now, I'll end it on this note to the mainstream media. You have zero credibility left. You have been caught time and time again spreading fake news stories -- you'll be critical of all my interviews -- and you carry out your personal attacks against the president, against his family and anybody that dares to be associated with the president.

By the way, here's just one minor small example. Liberal Joe, NBC -- what has he called the president of the United States? A schmuck, a goon, a thug, mentally unhinged. And then the president fights back a little and you in the mainstream media, are you proud of how NBC News handles things, or CNN? My guess is you probably have defended all this.

Since, really, the media in America today, we have an information crisis -- overpaid, lazy, rigid left-wing ideologues. But that's for another night.

Tonight, we have Donald Trump, Jr. We will ask him every single question I can think of on this topic.

Don Jr., good to see you. Welcome back.

DONALD TRUMP JR.: Good to be here.

HANNITY: Appreciate it.

TRUMP JR.: I didn't know there was any time left.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: I've been told that before, but they're highly rated opening monologues...

TRUMP JR.: I like it.

HANNITY: ... and I figured while I have a captive audience, I wanted to get my points out to them.

Let's start with the emails. Let's start with the first email. First of all, let's talk about, who is Rob Goldstone?

TRUMP JR.: Rob Goldstone is a talent manager for Emin Agalarov, who's an Azerbaijani Russian singer, who performed at Miss Universe, and later performed at the WGC (ph) championship golf course tournament that we held at Doral.

HANNITY: All right. So do you know ...

TRUMP JR.: I met him through that, through the golf course. I wasn't even at the Miss Universe pageant, but I met him throughout (ph) there, so I had a casual relationship.

HANNITY: With him. OK. So he sends you this email. We'll put it back up on the screen, and give you a chance to look at this. This is the one that says the crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father, meaning Emin's father, and in their meeting, offered to provide the Trump campaign with documents, information that could incriminate Hillary Clinton, et cetera. Obviously, highly sensitive information. But it's part of Russia and its government's support of Mr. Trump. And then they ask the best way to handle this.

This email comes in. What are you thinking?

TRUMP JR.: Honestly, my takeaway, when all of this was going on, is that someone has information on our opponent. You know, things are going a million miles an hour. You know what it's like to be on a campaign. We just won Indiana, but we're talking about a contested convention. Things are going a million miles an hour again. And Hey, wait a minute, I've heard about all these things, but maybe this is something. I should hear him out.

HANNITY: OK. When you read the parts about the Russian government, or Russia supporting your father, did that put off any sirens in your head?

TRUMP JR.: Honestly, I don't know. I mean, I think -- this was, again, just basic information that was going to be possibly there. I didn't know these guys well enough to understand that if this talent manager from Miss Universe, you know, had this kind of thing -- so I wanted to hear him out and play it out and see what happens. But you know, people are trying to reach out to you all the time with this.

HANNITY: All right. So you spent a lot of time talking about, and you actually said at one point that, Hey, if it turns out to say what you say it is...

TRUMP JR.: Of course.

HANNITY: What did you think it might be?

TRUMP JR.: Listen, I'd been reading about scandals that people were probably underreporting for a long time. So maybe it was something that had to do with one of those things. I mean, this is her perhaps involvement with the Russian government.

So you know, again, I didn't know there was any credibility. I didn't know if there was anything behind it. I can't vouch for the information. You know, someone sent me an email. I can't help what someone sends me, you know? I read it. I responded accordingly. And if there was something interesting there -- I think that's pretty common.

HANNITY: What about the timeline of this? This is pre, for example, WikiLeaks and the DNC emails...

TRUMP JR.: Well, honestly, this is pre, like, Russia fever. This is pre Russia mania. You know, this is 13 months ago, before I think the rest of the world was talking about that, trying to build up this narrative about Russia. So I don't even think my sirens, you know, went up or the antennas went up at this time because of it because it wasn't the issue that it's been made out to be over the last, you know, nine months, ten months since it really became a thing. So I think there is an element of context to that. At the time, it wasn't this big news story.

HANNITY: Right. What did you know about Emin -- Emin's father? What did you know about them from Moscow? Was it just the pageant you met them at and the Doral concert...

TRUMP JR.: That they had the pageant and they're successful real estate developers over there. So you know, that's the extent of, you know, my knowledge with them. I'd met Emin one or twice and you know, maintained a casual relationship there, talked about some potential deals, and then (ph) to that (ph) the extent of it. They really didn't go anywhere.

HANNITY: What do you know about this Russian lawyer? What did you, at the time, if anything ...

TRUMP JR.: I actually didn't know anything about it. Again, an acquaintance, you know, sent me this email. As a courtesy to him, I said, OK, let's meet. But I didn't know who I was meeting beforehand, never heard of the person, never got the information until they were in the room.

HANNITY: At any point, were you told either in a phone conversation or otherwise, what they might tell you, what Goldstone seemed to be implying you would receive?

TRUMP JR.: No. As I recall, it was all basically this email coordination. Let's try to set up a meeting and see what happens, and that it was going to be interesting information. And you know, in the end, it wasn't about that at all.

HANNITY: Let's go into the meeting.

TRUMP JR.: Yes.

HANNITY: All right. So you meet at Trump Tower.

TRUMP JR.: Yes.

HANNITY: OK, the meeting was described earlier today on "The Today" show.

TRUMP JR.: Uh-huh.

HANNITY: Did she describe it accurately?

TRUMP JR.: I think fairly accurately. I mean, I was a little taken aback by her saying -- you know, talking about me pressing for the information. But as you can see from the emails, the pretext of the meeting was, Hey, we have information. And there was, you know, some small talk. I don't even remember what it was. It just was sort of nonsensical, inane and garbled, and then quickly went on to, you know, a story about Russian adoption and how we could possibly help. And really, that's when we shut it down, which is, Wait a second, what does this have to do with what we were talking about?

HANNITY: Did you even know what the Magnitsky Act was?

TRUMP JR.: I'd never even heard of it before, you know, that day. You know, I think it became pretty apparent to, you know, Jared and Paul, who -- I think Jared left after a few minutes. Paul got on the phone...

HANNITY: Well, she said that, yes.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP JR.: I do remember that. We were all there. I was basically sitting there, listening as a courtesy to my acquaintance who had set up the meeting. And you know, in his own words, you can hear what he said, and you played it earlier, about it. I mean, he apologized to me walking out of the meeting basically for wasting my time.

HANNITY: Well, and he did say -- at the end of your statement today, you did point out, as Goldstone said today, the entire meeting was the most inane nonsense I've ever heard. And I'm actually, you know, agitated by it.

TRUMP JR.: Yes. Listen, I...

HANNITY: And he called -- he called and apologized to you?

TRUMP JR.: No ...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP JR.: There wasn't really follow-up because there was nothing there to follow up. You know, as we were walking out, he said Listen, I'm sorry for that. I think what happened -- he sort of goosed (ph) up. He built up. There was some puffery to the email, perhaps to get the meeting, to make it happen, and you know, in the end, there was probably some bait and switch about what it was really supposed to be about. And so, you know, there is nothing there.

HANNITY: So she is saying that she had no information to provide. Do you remember what she suggested, that you were pressing her a little bit for information?

TRUMP JR.: Well, I imagine I did. I mean, I was probably pressing because the pretext of the meeting was, Hey, I have information about your opponent. It was this, you know, Hey, some DNC donors may have done something and Russia and they didn't pay taxes -- I was, like, What does this have to do with anything? You know, especially in light of everything that was out there, I was, like, This isn't ...

HANNITY: Did you ever have any contact with this woman again?

TRUMP JR.: No.

HANNITY: Did you ever have any contact with Goldstone again?

TRUMP JR.: Casual, Hey, how's it going? Emin's going to be in town performing, something like that. But ...

HANNITY: Did you ever see Emin again? Except ...

TRUMP JR.: I don't believe so, no.

HANNITY: The Doral concert...

TRUMP JR.: I don't think I've seen Emin since this transpired.

HANNITY: OK. So this is a hypothetical. At any point in your mind, did Don, Jr., have a siren saying, OK, they're talking -- again, I go back to the first email about Russia, Russian government, meeting with this person. You were going to talk on the phone. Did you ever think maybe this might not be ...

TRUMP JR.: Listen, I think -- like I said, in retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently. Again, this is before the Russia mania. This is before they were building it up in the press. For me, this was opposition research. They had something, you know, maybe concrete evidence to all the stories I'd been hearing about, but were probably underreported for, you know, years; not just during the campaign.

So I think I wanted to hear it out. But really, it went nowhere and it was apparent that that wasn't what the meeting was actually about.

HANNITY: OK, let me -- let me ask a hypothetical. And I know (ph) hypotheticals -- maybe you've thought about it since and since this has now become Russia, collusion, Russia collusion and et cetera. Did you ever meet with any other person from Russia that you know?

TRUMP JR.: You know, I don't even know. I've probably met with other people from Russia...

HANNITY: I mean during the campaign.

TRUMP JR.: ...not in the context of actual -- a formalized meeting or anything like that because why would I? You know, in the grand scheme of things, how busy we were, it -- it was much more important to doing (ph) this. This was a courtesy to an acquaintance.

HANNITY: Let me play a montage. And these are Democrats attacking you today.

TRUMP JR.: Yes.

HANNITY: And give you a chance to respond to what they're saying and what the left is saying. I mean, they have taken it to the ultimate extreme. And I'll ask you about some perspective about some of my comments at the beginning of the show. Here's what they're saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIF.: We now know that through intermediaries, the Russian government sought to approach the Trump campaign to see whether they would be interested in damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

We now know that the response that the president's son gave to the Russians was that he would love it if they would provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Rather than report this overture by the Russian government to provide damaging information to intervene in the presidential election in a way to help his father, neither the president's son nor the campaign reported this information to the FBI.

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, D-MD.: We get this email exchange today showing clear collaboration between the Russian government and Russian government agents and the Trump campaign at the highest levels, where the email is very clear that the Russian government is weighing in to help elect Donald Trump.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-CALIF.: We need Donald Trump Jr., and other campaign associates to turn over any and all documents and electronic communications that investigators ask for. And we need public testimony under oath of Donald Trump, Jr., who has changed his story repeatedly.

SEN. TIM KAINE, D-VA.: We're now beyond obstruction of justice in terms of what's being investigated. This is moving into perjury, false statements and even potentially treason.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Schumer's -- did you hand over any and all documents?

TRUMP JR.: Well, I will. I've said it publicly. I said it yesterday, more than happy to cooperate with everyone. I just want the truth to get out there. And that's part of why I released all the stuff today. I wanted to get it all out there.

HANNITY: But this isn't...

TRUMP JR.: They're trying drag out the story, Sean, in all fairness. You know, they have it. They want to drip a little bit today, drip a little bit then. So I was, like, Here it is. I'm more than happy to be transparent about it, and I'm more than happy to cooperate with everyone.

HANNITY: So as far as you know, as far as this incident is concerned, this is all of it?

TRUMP JR.: This is everything. This is everything.

HANNITY: Was anybody else at any point in the campaign said, Oh, I got information about Hillary, that you remember?

TRUMP JR.: No. No.

HANNITY: Let me go back to what Tim Kaine said -- well, if it is what you said, you're especially -- you know, we would want it released later in the summer. You think that's unusual for a campaign to want op research? And I'll get to the Ukrainian issue, which I think had been underreported, especially in light of this coverage. But...

TRUMP JR.: Well, like I said, I think we had more important things to worry about. I wasn't sure of the credibility of any of this stuff. At the time, I'm sitting there, Indiana had just probably happened, you know, I'm worried about hearing a contested convention, contested convention. So you know, we're going to fight. This is the first time we've ever done any of this. This is -- you know, I'm still way in the learning curve on all of this.

So it wasn't that urgent to me, if I'm saying, Hey, it can wait until the end of summer. But yes, I basically want to hear the information. I mean, that's what we do in business. If there's information out there, you want it, and then you make what you do with it.

If there was something that came from it that was shady, if it was a danger to national security, I would obviously bring it right to someone. But I didn't know what anything was. It turns out it was nothing, and therefore, there was nothing to be able to actually talk about.

HANNITY: The whole contact took how long? How long was the meeting?

TRUMP JR.: About 20 minutes or so.

HANNITY: About 20 minutes. And Jared left after 5 or 10?

TRUMP JR.: Yes.

HANNITY: Like she said? And Paul Manafort was on his...

TRUMP JR.: On his phone.

HANNITY: The whole time?

TRUMP JR.: Pretty much.

HANNITY: Pretty much.

TRUMP JR.: It -- it -- listen, like I said...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP JR.: ... pretty really apparent that this was not what we were in there talking about.

HANNITY: A lot of people are going to want to know this about your father. Did you tell your father anything about this?

TRUMP JR.: No. It was such a nothing. There was nothing to tell. I mean, I wouldn't have remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. It was -- it was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame.

HANNITY: All right. So, we're going to take a break. We'll come back. We'll have more Donald, Jr., -- Donald Trump, Jr., right after the break.

Liberals in the destroy Trump media once again have worked themselves into frenzy. They're frothing at the mouth. News (ph), Donald Trump, Jr., met with a Russian lawyer next (sic) summer. Donald Trump will react -- Donald Trump, Jr., will react next and much more straight ahead tonight on "Hannity."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." So shortly after The New York Times broke the report about Donald Trump, Jr.'s, meeting with a Russian lawyer last year, well, the Russia-obsessed media in the country went on the attack. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

MARK HALPERIN, MSNBC: Even you they accept his Sunday version -- accept his Sunday version, ask no questions, have no suspicions -- he's in a world of hurt.

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC: The president's son, according to this new reporting, was informed, Hey, the Russian government has dirt on Hillary Clinton, and apparently, the response to that was...

ANA NAVARRO, CNN: He was admitting that he had met with this Russian lawyer for the purpose of receiving information against Hillary Clinton. I thought, My God, this kid was dropped on his head as a child. Could he possibly be admitting this?

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC: I mean, how stupid of Don, Jr. I mean, I guess it runs in the family to go on Twitter when he is clearly in legal jeopardy.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN: This can't be dismissed as people out to get Donald J. Trump, Jr., or fake news. This is evidence of willingness to commit collusion.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: And we continue with Donald Trump, Jr.

What's your reaction to that? They're saying you're colluding. It's a -- your reaction.

TRUMP.: Listen, I think politics is a dirty game. We've seen the sides that they take. We've seen the commentary they've had on my father. You know, I think it's a little bit ridiculous and overplayed. And I think people are getting that.

I think the media has really done themselves a disservice by picking sides so flagrantly. They've really driven people to actually have to think about it because it's just a tough game.

HANNITY: What about -- anyone on your team -- I guess you have a staff of people that work for you. Did anyone research the lawyer or anybody involved in this?

TRUMP JR.: Well, again...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP JR.: We didn't know who it was before the meeting.

HANNITY: You didn't know who the woman was?

TRUMP JR.: No, we didn't know who she was before the meeting. You know, apparently, she was a prosecutor in Moscow who hasn't done that since 2002. So you know, 14 years ago at the time of the meeting, she was a prosecutor.

And it was such a nothing, I literally wouldn't have remembered the meeting, especially when you think about it in the grand scheme...

HANNITY: Were you annoyed when you walked out of the meeting?

TRUMP JR.: What's that?

HANNITY: Were you annoyed based on...

TRUMP JR.: It was a waste of time. But again, you know, sometimes you do things differently for acquaintances and for friends.

HANNITY: Let me ask a hypothetical. And I hate hypothetical questions, but I think it's relevant in this case. If the meeting resulted in information that you felt in any way was illegal or compromising or collusion, to use the media's term...

TRUMP JR.: I said it earlier, 100 percent I would bring it to the proper authorities. There's nothing that I would do to ever endanger this country.

I think the reason we fought so hard during this campaign, whether it was my father and the work that he put into it, whether it was the rest of our family and the efforts that we put into it -- and you know those efforts well -- it's because we'd do anything for this country. So we're never going to put that in jeopardy, ever.

HANNITY: This, as far as you know, are all the emails that exist on this case. And you don't think there's any other one.

TRUMP JR.: I do not think there's anything else. We've scoured it thoroughly just to be sure. But there isn't anything else there.

HANNITY: All right. And there was no follow-up. I think this is important. No follow-up with any of them?

TRUMP JR.: No.

HANNITY: Never heard from the woman again.

TRUMP JR.: It was such a nothing, there was no reason to follow up. It was a waste of time.

HANNITY: All right. Did you learn about the adoption issue when you were there? Did that...

TRUMP JR.: Well, again, I think I gave them a little bit of time as a courtesy, so I probably heard whatever I heard in the room. But you know, it's a big issue for a lot of people, I guess. But this wasn't a campaign talking point. This wasn't something we were -- you know, this was not something I was going to worry about at that stage. I mean, we had a lot of bigger fish to fry. And that's what I was focused on.

HANNITY: When we come back, I want to address the media coverage -- the issue of the Ukrainian story that I brought up and whether you think there's a double standard and the treatment of your family by the media. We've got all the tape you'd ever want, and much more. We'll continue with, Don, Jr., on the other side of this break.

And when we come back, we'll ask him about the Trump family, how they feel about the daily attacks against their father and everybody else by the media.

Also tonight, we'll get a legal opinion. Jay Sekulow will weigh in, as well, as we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JACKIE IBANEZ, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Live from America's news headquarters, I'm Jackie Ibanez in New York.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell keeping senators in Washington for another three weeks. They were supposed to begin their recess July 31st. Earlier a group of Republicans called on the majority leader to shorten or cancel the August recess to work on health care, tax reform, and the rest of their campaign promises.

A federal judge halting the deportation of 1,400 Iraqi nationals to give courts a chance to review their cases. The government says they face deportation because they committed crimes here in the U.S. Many of the Iraqis who are Christians say they fear torture or death if returned to Iraq.

And a wildfire in northern California destroying dozens of homes, the flames consuming some nine square miles near Orville 60 miles north of Sacramento. At least 4,000 people are under evacuation orders tonight, but there are no reports of entry.

I'm Jackie Ibanez. Now back to "Hannity."

HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity" as we continue our final moments with Donald Trump Jr.

At the beginning, look, this is an opinion show but I wanted to ask every question I could think of regarding this issue. I can't think of anymore, in all honesty. But I did bring up this issue of the Ukrainians working with the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign. I also talked about a lot of other issues, the V-15 group that Obama's operatives and taxpayer dollars went to defeat Bibi. If going after foreign countries' elections is so bad -- very little media coverage. Real crimes have been committed in this country. I would argue Hillary Clinton destroying emails, mishandling, destroying them. I would argue Hillary Clinton, the Uranium One deal and the 100 million plus dollars kicked back to her. Comey, we know it's classified information and we know a violation of the Records Act. Loretta Lynch's meeting with Bill Clinton on the tarmac, 125 leaks from the deep state in 126 days. The media that's watching this now never told the American people about the Ukrainian story except for "Politico" to their credit, and a few others, not many. What is your reaction to the double standard?

DONALD TRUMP JR, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SON: I think the double standard is upsetting. You see it every day. We tune in obviously, we were probably junkies before and now it's a lot harder to not take it personally, and you try to do it. And I would love to rant and rave about it, but candidly, right now, with everything that's going on, I think people see it. I think they are starting to get it.

And I think the mainstream media has probably done themselves a pretty big disservice by going so far, by going so extreme, by being so sensational. And I think it's pushing regular people away because they want to see what my father campaigned on. They want to see jobs. They want to see the numbers that he's putting up. The stock market keeps breaking hits. We have the all-time highest employment in the country in terms of overall numbers, all these things that he promised he would do, they're happening. They are actually happening. And that's not getting any coverage. And that's a real shame. That's a real disservice to the people of this country.

HANNITY: I agree with you. I think the forgotten men and women is something I talked about last night. Obviously Robert Mueller announced earlier tonight he's going to be looking into it. You said in a tweet you would fully cooperate with any investigation.

TRUMP JR.: Of course.

HANNITY: Completely.

TRUMP JR.: A hundred percent.

HANNITY: Turn over everything that they want and you feel you already have.

TRUMP JR.: Yes.

HANNITY: Yes. And you have nothing to hide. That means you will testify under oath, all of that?

TRUMP JR.: All of it.

HANNITY: Any other issue? Your sister was attacked. I could play montages of that. Joe Scarborough called your father a schmuck, a goon, a thug. That's NBC's coverage. You've got the severed head issue. You've got, you've been attacked. It seems like one by one, they try to pick off anyone around the president. Why do you think there's this reaction that is almost like there are so many groups so opposing your father, I've never seen it in all the years I've covered politics.

TRUMP JR.: I think we are just so far away from the political elite. Whether you are on one side or the other, you're still part of that group. They was never necessarily consequences for inaction, for doing things their way. So I think when you come from so far out. Look at the attacks on Ivanka. I was pretty vocal about that stuff this weekend. If she was anyone else's daughter, she would be a feminist icon, this incredible, brilliant, well-spoken woman. And they try to belittle her at every chance. It's really sad.

For me, as a family member, as her brother, her older brother, you do take it personally. It does make you want to fight back. That's perhaps what we are. We are fighters. And they don't take well to that either because most people they don't like being called on their stuff.

HANNITY: Last question. One of the things you said tonight maybe not be so Trump-ian I guess in a sense, although I do think your father and you are a lot alike, you said in retrospect. Explain that with a little bit more detail.

TRUMP JR.: I think I probably know more now. I think in the grand scheme of the hysteria that has been talked about over the last eight, nine, 10 months with Russia, things are probably different than they were 13 months ago when there were a couple people talking about it and they launched this notion, it's just a little bit different. In retrospect I know more now, but hindsight is always 20-20.

HANNITY: Don Jr., thanks for coming in.

TRUMP JR.: Thank you.

HANNITY: You answered every question I could think of.

When we come back we'll ge a legal perspective, Jay Sekulow with reaction to our exclusive interview with Donald Trump Jr. as we continue. And Terrence Williams speaks out. He gets the final minute tonight on "Hannity."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP JR.: I'd been reading about scandals that people were probably underreporting for a long time. So maybe it was something that had to do with one of those things. This is her perhaps involvement with the Russia government. So, again, I didn't know there was at any credibility. I didn't know there was anything behind it. I can't vouch for the information. Someone sent me an email. I can't help what someone sends me. I read it. I responded accordingly. And if there was something interesting there, I think it's pretty common.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." That was Donald Trump Jr. from our exclusive interview just moments ago. Here with reaction is one of President Trump's attorneys, he's also the chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice Jay Sekulow. General reaction at first.

JAY SEKULOW, AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE: Well, first, here's the first thing I'll say, and my friend, Governor Mike Huckabee said something very similar. So the media is going after Donald Trump Jr. for doing what? Releasing the full email chain unlike Secretary Clinton who deleted her emails. Let's put that in perspective, number one.

Number two, you look at it from a legal perspective here. There's no illegality in the meeting. The fact is nothing transpired. So what do we have here? I think Donald Trump Jr. said it correctly. There's a media frenzy on Russia right now. This has been going on for several months. But when you look to see what actually took place, a meeting took place. Nothing happened as a result of this 15 or 20 minute meeting. And at the end of the day, there's no illegality. So the people -- they want to create a media hysteria on this. But the reality I'm just trying to look at the lawyer and saying, OK, what statute of law has been violated? What code section has been violated here? And it doesn't exist.

HANNITY: What about what the Democrats are all saying -- between the media insanity and Democrats this proves collusion and oh, my gosh, again, I will ask you as an attorney. Tell me what laws -- and the second thing is, how is what I said in my opening monologue tonight about Ukraine, about the Russian dossier, Fusion GPS, about influencing the Israeli elections, didn't those things all happen, Jay Sekulow? And nobody talks about any of them. Isn't the Ukraine issue a real meeting, real information, real impact on the campaign?

SEKULOW: So what does the Ukraine issue show you? It shows you that in the heat of a political campaign groups come forward with opposition research and meetings take place. So of course that's getting completely overshadowed, was barely reported by I think it was "Politico" that did the report on that. But there you have DNC operatives meeting with Ukrainian officials, swapping information back and forth. So let's put that in perspective. So here what do you have? A meeting that takes place and nothing happens.

And then you raise the issue which I've been concerned about for a long time, and that was the whole issue of State Department funding going over to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars to a group that's running political campaigns against the Prime Minister in the state of Israel. Talking about engaging in electioneering in a foreign country, there you have it.

But again, it's not even fair to say double standard. But I want everybody to remember, Donald Trump Jr., what did he do today? He put forward the entire chain of emails. He didn't delete them as others have done in other campaigns, as we know.

HANNITY: I never run out of questions on this show. And I felt like I ran out of questions. I just don't know at that point what else he can do. He released the email, answered every question, explained what happened and didn't happen. It seems consistent with what the woman says, the lawyer from Russia, Jared says. I don't know what Manafort was saying. I don't know what there there is, and wouldn't every campaign, if they were told there's information, op research, isn't that what Hillary's campaign, the DNC did with Ukraine?

SEKULOW: Remember, let's put this into the perspective of what was going on. They were in the middle of a campaign that was in the heat of the campaign here. What happens? Someone comes forward with opposition research. Is anybody saying, by the way, why did the DNC have their operatives meeting with the Ukrainians and actually getting information? Why is that not one standard and this is another? But let's look at again what law was violated here? Some of the theories that some of the commentators have put forward are ridiculous. There was no illegality in that meeting. In the end, on top of that, there was no information that was obtained. So there you have it.

HANNITY: We will take a quick break. We'll come back. More with Jay Sekulow with reaction to our exclusive interview with Donald Trump Jr.

And you don't want to miss this later tonight --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRENCE WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: There the Democrats go again. Trump colluded with Russia. The Russians hacked the election. No, y'all just lost the election fair and square.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right, he gets the last word all week, conservative Twitter and social media sensation Terrence Williams. And we'll get his take on the Democrats obsession with Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP JR.: In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently. Again, this is before the Russian mania, this is before they were building it up in the press. For me this was opposition research. They had something, maybe concrete evidence to all the stories I had been hearing about but were probably underreported for years, not just during the campaign. So I think I wanted to hear it out. But really it went nowhere and it was apparent that that wasn't what the meeting with actually about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: So it's being reported tonight -- Donald Trump, by the way, from our exclusive interview tonight. Jay Sekulow, who is with the American Center for Law and Justice, chief counsel, also a counsel for the president.

Here is what the amazing thing -- we've got Ukraine. We've got the Bibi Netanyahu, Obama tried to impact that election. You've got the MI6, the intelligence guy from Great Britain, his dossier. Who paid for that? And then we've got real crimes. For example, do you believe or have any doubt that Hillary Clinton committed crimes, mishandling and destroying classified, top secret special access program information?

SEKULOW: Look, we could start with the server that was held in the townhouse in Colorado. Then you go to what James Comey said when he saw the evident, that it was extreme carelessness, which, by the way, is the definition of gross negligence which is what the criminal statute has for mishandling.

Then let's talk about James Comey and add him to this. Here's a guy that leaks information, think about this, he leaks information based on conversations he had with the president of the United States, leaks them to go to a reporter through a friend of his at Columbia Law School for the sole purpose of doing what? Obtaining a special counsel which ends up getting appointed. So basically, look at this, Sean. The special counsel is appointed based on evidence that was illegally distributed. Think about that for a moment with the legitimacy of this entire process. And instead what we've got now is Donald Trump Jr. comes forward, releases all the emails, the emails chains, and the media is in a frenzy because he released the emails, unlike the opposition, who did not.

HANNITY: And over $100 million gets kicked back to the Clinton Foundation, and she's one of nine people that signed off on a waiver that allows 20 percent of America's uranium potentially to go to Vladimir Putin and Russia. Where I grew up, that's called bribery, pay to play, use whatever phrase you want. Do you doubt that was inappropriate and illegal?

SEKULOW: Let me tell you who would have never signed a deal like that for the United States. President Trump would have never authorized a deal like that, period.

HANNITY: Agreed with that. And then we have got other issues. Then we've got Loretta Lynch, the tarmac meeting, it's a matter, it's not an investigation.

SEKULOW: But look what she did. Look what Loretta Lynch did. She has this meeting with President Clinton while President Clinton's wife, the former secretary of state, Democratic nominee for president, is going to be interviewed that very weekend. She has this meeting with the president on the tarmac, right? Did she recuse herself from the investigation? No. She said she will abide by whatever the FBI decides but she did not formally recuse herself.

So think about this for a moment. You talk about a double standard at play here. This is the ultimate discussion or ultimate example of a double standard. But look, I think at the end of the day, when you look at all of the evidence, there is one thing that becomes clear, and that is no illegality in that meeting. So the media could talk about it, but show me the criminal statute that is actually met with that kind of situation.

HANNITY: Jonathan Turley, George Washington Law School professor, he agrees with you. He went on to say --

SEKULOW: I agree with him. There you go.

HANNITY: And then he says needs to calm down. Jay Sekulow, thank you, appreciate it.

SEKULOW: Thanks, Sean.

HANNITY: And up next, we wrap the show with a smile. He gets the last word all week on the program, Terrence Williams. Let's take a little look at what you're getting next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: There the Democrats go again. Trump colluded with Russia. The Russians hacked the election. No, y'all just lost the election fair and square.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Conservative social media Twitter sensation Terrence Williams, he gives us a brand-new video. He gets the last word tonight and all week. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Time once again for conservative Twitter and social media sensation Terrence Williams. He gets tonight and all week, he gets the last word. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: There the Democrats go again. Trump colluded with Russia. The Russians hacked the election. No, y'all just lost the election fair and square.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: Y'all just need to get over it. It is OK to lose. But y'all have not gotten any rest since Hillary Clinton lost. So y'all need to stop by y'all local pharmacy, grab some medicine, and go home and go to bed, because y'all have not been feeling too well lately. And this Trump colluding with Russia, it is all a dream, it is all a fairy tale, it is fake news, it is part of y'all denial stage. It is part of depression. Go home and get some rest.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: You just got to love Terrence. You can see them on social media.

That is all the time we have left for this evening. As always, thank you for being with us. We will always be fair and balanced. Stay tuned, a special edition of "The Specialists" coming up next right here tonight on Fox.

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