DiGenova: It's clear the Mueller team is acting in bad faith
Former U.S. attorney Joe diGenova reacts to Hannity's interview with Rudy Giuliani and says that the president should not grant an interview to Robert Mueller.
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 3, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right, Tucker. Great show, as always. And welcome to "Hannity".
President Trump's attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani made massive news right here on this program last night. Now, he took James Comey the task. He said crooked Hillary ought to be in jail. He slammed Mueller's out-of-control witch hunt. He took James Comey to task and so much more.
But tonight, this abusively biased news media in this country, they only cared about one 30-second clip. We had a 40-minute interview all making news.
Now this, of course, regarding the revelation surrounding Stormy Stormy Stormy. Now, in moments, we're going to show you just how insane ridiculous the anti-Trump media and their echo chamber has now become in this country.
Plus, we have breaking developments tonight over the FBI's investigation into Michael Cohen. Earlier today, fake news NBC reporting the FBI wiretap Trump's longtime personal attorney. Well, now, we're learning that much of that story was fake. We'll explain coming up.
And finally, we have a massive development out of North Korea while the media is howling at the moon over Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels and Russia Russia Russia, they're visibly yawning over the report that three of our fellow Americans that were imprisoned by Kim Jong-un, they may soon be released.
Sit tight, we've got this and so much more in tonight's important breaking news opening monologue.
(MUSIC)
HANNITY: Last night, right here on this program, we did something you don't often see from so-called journalists. Yes, we actually broke news.
Our lengthy interview with Rudy Giuliani covered a wide range of topics. It unearthed a lot of important insight into the Trump legal team, including this moment when the former New York City mayor, now President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani called out Robert Mueller's pathetic witch hunt. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The president's right when he says witch hunt?
RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: Yes, sure. You can't explain this any other way. First of all, they never should have been investigation. There was no Russian collusion. We're now a year and a half two years into this, no Russian collusion, case over.
In falling all over themselves to investigate him, they have committed numerous violations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Giuliani did not stop there. He also slammed the special counsel's questions to President Trump, you know, the ones recently leaked to the fake news "New York Times". Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: When you look at those questions about what does the president think, what does the president feel, what does the president really desire, those are all questions intended to trap him in some way in contradictory, and what is in fact a very, very solid explanation of what happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The former mayor is absolutely right. And breaking tonight, while Robert Mueller sets a perjury trap for President Trump, the special counsel has filed a request for 70 blank subpoenas in the case of Paul Manafort. In other words, Mueller now has the power to subpoena dozens of Americans, so long as he writes the name on the paper before he serves the documents.
Wow, this is interesting. We'll analyze all of that, what is seemingly an aggressive legal tactic and one that we would expect from him.
But, first, more news from my sit-down with the former mayor, including these comments that he made, the media paid little attention to, pay attention now about Hillary Clinton. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: Thirteen crimes she committed and we got up to about 18. I'm sorry, Hillary, I know you're very disappointed you didn't win, but you're a criminal. Equal justice would mean you should go to jail. I do not know why the Justice Department is not investigating you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Equal justice would being Hillary goes to jail.
Giuliani also took on the disgraced former FBI Director James Comey. Let's watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: You have an investigation in which Mueller is selected the day after he's turned down for FBI director by Rosenstein who was there when Mueller was turned down. There are thousands of people that could have been selected for that job. Also, a friend of James Comey and James Comey seems to be their core of their investigation. He's telling the truth the president isn't. I know James Comey, I know the president.
Sorry, Jim, you're a liar, a disgraceful liar. Every FBI agent in America has his head down because of you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: A disgraceful liar. The former mayor also slammed the FBI's handling of the Michael Cohen investigation. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: The $130,000 payment, a settlement payment, which is a very regular thing for lawyers to do. The question there was, the only possible violation there would be was it a campaign finance violation. But usually the result in a fine by the way not this big storm of stormtroopers coming in and breaking down his apartment and breaking out his office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Let's take a step back if you can believe it -- all the news we just laid out for you all those crucial developments that you just watched that we aired last night live on this program were largely ignored by the abusively biased news media in this country. Instead for 24 hours, these lazy these abusively biased echo-chamber people and the fake news overpaid media have been erupting over only one 30-second clip again and again and again. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: Having something to do with paying some Stormy Daniels woman $130,000, I mean which is going to turn out to be perfectly legal. That money was not campaign money. Sorry, I'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. It's not campaign money. No campaign finance violation. So - -
HANNITY: They funneled it through the law firm.
GIULIANI: Funnel through a law firm and the president repaid it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: As usual the media's analysis their interpretation is all wrong. This doesn't change the fact the President Trump did not initially know about the payment or that the purpose was the payment that he didn't know initially, until a long time after the transaction took place. It doesn't change the fact that Michael Cohen took this action to benefit the company that he served as vice president and attorney for.
Let's help the media follow the bouncing ball pay close attention so you can keep up. In January, "The Wall Street Journal", they first reported about the Cohen payment to Stormy Daniels which we know happened in October before the election. Then in February, in an interview with "The New York Times", Michael Cohen denied that neither the Trump campaign nor the Trump Organization had reimbursed him, meaning Michael Cohen. He had said he'd used his own money. Clearly leaving open the possibility that the president himself, then president-elect at the time might have reimbursed him from personal funds.
On April 1st, President Trump -- well, he said this aboard Air Force One. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Mr. President, did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, no. What else?
REPORTER: Then why did Michael Cohen make it if there was no truth to her allegations?
TRUMP: You'll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael's my attorney, and you'll have to ask Michael.
REPORTER: Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?
TRUMP: No, I don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And I meant when he's president.
The president, he obviously knew about the story at this time. It had been so widely reported since January. What he is saying is he didn't know about the payment prior to the story being covered now of course this did not stop the mainstream media and their hysteria from reaching yet another fever pitch like the Russia, Russia, Russia story that they have no evidence on.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening, Rachel. And I have to confess I did not watch all of your show tonight because Rudy Giuliani went on the other network, went on Fox News and he stayed on longer than he should have because that's when he got to the Stormy Daniels admission, which is gigantic, which is blockbuster.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, MSNBC: And I thought he could be someone out there publicly defending the president and also someone who would take a harder line when it came to the Mueller investigation. But he seems to have just created another mess.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There seems to be a basic assumption that Rudy Giuliani had a strategy of some sort at all and I just remain unconvinced at this point that that's the case.
JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC: If Rudy Giuliani had been let's say counsel for IBM and delivered a performance that undercut IBM like he did last night for the president of the United States, he'd be fired the next morning.
ANDREW KIRTZMAN, AUTHOR: In many ways, you know the hero of 9/11 is almost being forgotten. He's severely damaged his legacy.
DANA BASH, CNN: What do you make of Giuliani's legal strategy here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I liken it to a murder-suicide. He metaphorically murdered the president and committed suicide with respect to his own reputation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: The 24-hour non-stop coverage was so constant, so obsessive, so outrageous -- well, it's actually almost funny, except it's too serious. But take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC: We'll begin with that stunning revelation from President Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani. Last night telling Fox News that Trump reimbursed his fixer Michael Cohen.
PETER ALEXANDER, NBC: This was a stunning admission that Giuliani overnight says was approved by his boss the president, offering lately contradictory account about that payment to Stormy Daniels.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN: After saying he did not know anything about the hush money payments to an adult film actress who said they had sex, now he says he reimbursed his lawyer for making those payments.
GAYLE KING, CBS: Startling admission by Rudy Giuliani leaves President Trump facing new legal questions this morning about whether he knew it about an attempt to silence Stormy Daniels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: How many times have I said journalism in America is dead it's almost unbelievable but it's all too predictable. The media just cannot stop playing this show meaning, "Hannity", and the interviews that we conduct. It seems like they're featuring me more than their own hosts.
I'm beginning to think at this point maybe I need to start collecting a paycheck from ABC, CBS, NBC, fake news CNN and the conspiracy theory network MSNBC, and you know what, because I'm providing the real news that they rarely make on their own.
Let's turn to even more fake news. Earlier today, and this is serious, NBC broke a big story, a serious story about Michael Cohen. OK, according to the original report, Cohen had been wiretapped weeks before the FBI raided his home and office and his hotel room. And there was even more damning developments from NBC News.
Take a look at their report.
(BEGN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM WINTER, NBC: This wiretap occurred several weeks before the now public search warrant that was executed here in New York several weeks ago. In addition to that, we've learned that at least one phone call conversation between a line belonging to Michael Cohen and the White House was also intercepted. We know from court papers, federal prosecutors have already said that they conducted covert surveillance of Michael Cohen's emails leading up to the search warrant being executed. So, this is a lot more than just knocking on the door and asking for some documents.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And now we're learning that a major component of this report was once again fake news.
NBC was forced to issue a, quote, correction, that reads in part, quote: 'Three senior U.S. officials now dispute the wiretapping, saying that the modern monitoring of Cohen's phones was limited to a log of calls known as a pen register, not a wiretap, where investigators can actually listen to the calls.'
Yet again, fake news from NBC.
While the media is busy reporting all the fake news about Michael Cohen and spinning in circles over a small tiny portion of my 40-minute interview with Rudy Giuliani, well, we have actual news about the lives of three of our fellow Americans long held hostage by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The little rocket man.
President Trump is currently working on their release and is hinting of some very hopeful news on Twitter. He wrote: 'As everybody's aware, the past administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from a North Korean labor camp, but to no avail. Stay tuned.'
This is just one new positive development from the Korean peninsula that is seeing now tremendous progress under our new president.
Let's break this down. Three American lives are at stake. Your mainstream media is yawning, paying very little attention. Kim Jong Un is making unprecedented concessions, the mainstream media is yawning.
We're talking about denuclearization of the entire Korean peninsula, we have historically low unemployment now in states, record lows -- the media yawns. Americans receiving unemployment is the lowest since 1973, the media could care less. African-American unemployment, Hispanic unemployment, women in the workforce unemployment 17-year lows record lows, the media could care less.
Do you need any more proof that the news media in this country does not care about the truth, about doing their job, about you? They care about their liberal left-wing pathetic agenda and they're like one big huge massive echo chamber with a bunch of overpaid, spoiled brat anchors that don't do their job.
Joining us now, former U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova. For full disclosure, as always, he has done some legal work for me in the past. He and his wife Victoria attended my radio show Christmas party and we did share drinks together and we talked and we laughed.
Good to see you, sir.
JOE DIGENOVA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: You too.
HANNITY: You know, so much news was made in that interview.
DIGENOVA: Indeed.
HANNITY: And you saw the coverage, let's start there, your reaction. What does it say -- what does it say to the American consumer about the news industry in general in this country?
DIGENOVA: Well, I think when you take a look at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and the conduct of the people there and when you look at the absence of coverage of something so major as your show last night, it's pretty clear, Sean, that you're right. American journalism is dead, it's dying, it's in a coffin and the fact is these people are not journalists anymore. They're people with an agenda. They want to prove something. They don't want to find something out. They want to say something on their own and this is an example of it. It's really a sad day, a sad, sad day.
HANNITY: Joe, we've had massive surveillance abuse unmasking abuse we've had the leaking of raw intelligence. Samantha Power, unmasking a person a day.
And then we have the bigger scandal, Rudy Giuliani is right, Hillary committed felonies, Hillary obstructed Justice. James Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Andrew McCabe, and Loretta Lynch, they rigged that investigation. Then, of course, with the supposed Trump Russia collusion, it turns out Hillary is paying a foreign national to get use Russian sources that turn out to be debunked, and then those -- that false political document, that dossier is using for a FISA warrant to spy on an American associated with the Trump campaign in the lead-up to an election.
They're virtually silent on the biggest abuse of power, scandal in the history of the country.
DIGENOVA: Well, I don't think there's any doubt that that judgment you've just made is absolutely correct. It is quite evident now that the Mueller probe is illegitimate this effort to attempt to interview the president of the United States has now reached the point where there's no doubt at all that the president should refuse to be interviewed by them, and that's because it's clear that Mueller and his team of Democratic thugs are acting in bad faith.
They that the president under Department of Justice rules cannot be indicted. They have no evidence to indict him. The office of Robert Mueller was created by Rod Rosenstein illegally, there he mentioned no crime to be investigated. All of this leads to the ultimate conclusion that the perpetuation of this investigation by Mueller is doing grave damage to United States, it's doing grave damage to United States foreign policy. It's doing grave damage to U.S. law enforcement because of the thug-like tactics that have been used in the Manafort case and in the Cohen case.
And it points to something that really is disturbing. After watching the deputy attorney general of the United States, Rod Rosenstein, accused Congress of trying to extort him and others in the department by conducting legitimate constitutional oversight, I would say that between Mueller and Rosenstein and the absent attorney general, God bless him, we have a very serious crisis in American federal law enforcement.
HANNITY: Oh I agree, and I think it's the biggest abuse of power, corruption, scandal in our history.
DIGENOVA: Yes.
HANNITY: I'll stay on Rod Rosenstein a second.
DIGENOVA: Yes, please.
HANNITY: Rod Rosenstein wrote a letter said the FBI could never recover if James Comey stayed at the helm, so he would be a witness on that part of it.
DIGENOVA: Correct.
HANNITY: We've also discovered that Rod Rosenstein, we talked about the FISA applications that relied on unverified, uncorroborated -- a dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton, they never told the judge it was paid for by Hillary, and then he went on to say that if you had -- there are false information presented to a FISA court, there's serious consequences, isn't he implicating himself the same statement when he said that he's not going to be extorted?
DIGENOVA: Of course. The problem here for Rod Rosenstein and he has multiple conflicts of interest, he shouldn't be supervising this case. He wrote the memoranda that led to the firing of James Comey. He signed the FISA applications. He continues to know and personally care about Comey and Mueller and others.
He should be removed from this case. This is absolutely disgraceful. And now, he will pretend that he is above all of this, but when all is said and done, Mr. Rosenstein represents a part of the department that I thought we had lost a long time ago when the Obama administration people left office. But apparently, they haven't left office.
HANNITY: Joe, we're headed for a showdown --
DIGENOVA: Yes.
HANNITY: -- and that is every attorney that I know says the president should never sit with Robert Mueller, Andrew Weissmann, his pit bull, with his atrocious track record, his team of Democratic donors only. And if the showdown goes down and the president says, no, if they won't agree to a proper written answers to legitimate questions which I don't think they will at this point, then that means that it's likely that Robert Mueller will then subpoena the president of the United States before a grand jury. This is where it gets somewhat legally a little bit tricky.
Let's walk down that road. What happens when and what should the response be?
DIGENOVA: Well, first of all, I think that if Mueller issued a subpoena to the president, it would be an unconstitutional subpoena, since he knows the president cannot be indicted and since he knows that the president is not a necessary witness to anything that he is investigating. It is clear that he would be using the grand jury subpoena for only one reason, to get testimony from the president to use in an impeachment recommendation report to the deputy attorney general.
That is an illegal use of a grand jury subpoena. The president should resist it. They should take it all the way to the Supreme Court because under Article II of the Constitution, all executive power rests in the president of the United States. He had -- he had ultimate authority to fire James Comey and he did. Mueller cannot ask him about that.
HANNITY: And if the court makes a wrong decision and --
DIGENOVA: Oh, of course, the courts can always be wrong.
HANNITY: We know that.
DIGENOVA: It's going to go all the way to the Supreme Court if he issues a subpoena.
Let me make a prediction: Mueller will never issue a subpoena.
HANNITY: Why?
DIGENOVA: Because he cannot win. I disagree with some of the comments of Judge Napolitano earlier about the fact that that Mueller will win ultimately on a subpoena. Let me just say this, Mueller will lose ultimately on a subpoena because it is unconstitutional --
HANNITY: If it was granted and the president pled the Fifth, then they would offer him immunity and then the perjury trap remains, correct or not?
DIGENOVA: That is technically correct, but you cannot issue immunity to someone when you are doing it illegally under the statute, because the only reason he would be giving him immunity would be to force testimony for an impeachment report. Mueller does not have the authority to issue an impeachment report and he does not have the authority to use a grand jury subpoena to get presidential testimony for impeachment or any other criminal activity that never occurred because he's dealing with the power of the president to fire people.
So, if Mueller wants to have that fight and tie it up in the courts for six months to a year he can do it, but he will be doing a grave disservice to himself. Because at this point, Mueller has become a cross between Madame Defarge and Inspector Javert and it's an embarrassment.
HANNITY: All right. Joe DiGenova, always appreciate you being on the program.
All right. When we come back, things are just getting started. Dan Bongino, Sebastian Gorka, they are coming up.
And also, don't miss him, the great one, Mark Levin, weighing in. He has a lot to say tonight as we continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: I know James Comey, I know the president. Sorry, Jim, you're a liar, a disgraceful liar. Every FBI agent in America has his head down because of you. This has become a witch hunt like the president said and if you look at those questions that are being asked their trap questions, a first-year prosecutor would do better than that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: What were you thinking about James Comey, Jeff Sessions and the special counsel -- you're allowed to have thoughts. You can't criminalize thoughts. That's how idiotic that list of questions was.
Anyway, that was more of my interview from last night with Rudy Giuliani. The media continues to distort every aspect of this interview. Look at, for example, Joyless Behar on "The View". She went off the rails yet again today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY BEHAR, THE VIEW: I'll take a psychological position. I think that Giuliani is unconsciously throwing him under the bus because he didn't make him the attorney general or the chief of staff there. That's what's going on.
Giuliani loves to be the center of attention. When Bill Bratton was on the cover of "Time" magazine, because he cleaned up crime in the city, he was fired very shortly thereafter, because Giuliani wanted to get -- that's Giuliani. I'm going to give you a tip from --
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That's Joy Behar. She's not a genius and obviously she didn't watch the full interview because Rudy Giuliani said on the program last night, he was offered the job and he regretted turning it down. They want to pay attention.
Anyway, joining us now with reaction, former deputy assistant to the president, FOX News national security strategist, Sebastian Gorka, NRATV contributor, former Secret Service agent, Dan Bongino.
Let's start with you, Dr. Gorka. It's a pretty fundamental thing, all the things that the mayor said last night, the president's attorney said last night about Hillary, about Mueller, about Comey, about the investigation, huge news that he's making here, and they focus on 30 seconds because that's where the corrupt media goes. They don't want to hear the truth.
DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST: First things first, Sean, I have to congratulate you because you're getting close to the president's record for living rent-free in the mind of the liberal left media.
(LAUGHTER)
GORKA: They're obsessed with you. They're obsessed with you.
And I like how they spend the whole day -- I followed it all day -- how they selected one half a sentence from the mayor's statement on your show, but they missed the beginning where he said, amongst other things, that's the reason why he was fired.
These people haven't even past year one in journalism school, and they have to maintain a narrative. It's like those 49 questions. Those 49 questions are a mark of desperation. There is no case, there is no conclusion, so three quarters of those questions are about trying to police your thoughts. We only do that in dictatorships. We don't do that in America, Sean.
HANNITY: Yes, and by the way, these are the actual questions. What did you think about Comey's testimony? What did you think about Sessions' recusal? What did you think about the appointment of a special counsel?
It doesn't matter what he thought.
GORKA: No.
HANNITY: It matters what he did, and the fact that that goes over their head, on the one hand, it infuriates me, on the other hand, I got a laugh.
Dan Bongino, look at this, that Rudy Giuliani the president's attorney, talked about how Mueller's questions are a perjury trap. He talked about Comey -- we just played it -- being a disgraceful liar, and how the probe is tainted. He talked about how Hillary's a criminal belongs in jail and that Comey fixed the entire case with Hillary.
Then he talked about how Comey should be prosecuted for leaking confidential information. None of that for the most part is covered today. But the only thing they cover is Stormy, Stormy and they even got that wrong.
DAN BONGINO, NRATV CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Sean, they are invested in it now. They can't get away from the Russia hoax. They are embedded in this. And sold it for a year. But Sea, this is a case built by liar for liars. The three liars, Clapper, Brennan and Comey. They built this on a bed of lies as collusion hoax for liars up on Capitol Hill and people in the media that had to obstruct the Trump presidency with a fake collusion hoax.
This is nonsense. And on the topic of the question, Sean. Let me just tell you, when I was a Secret Service agent. I went to a very sophisticated advanced interrogation school. I actually came to our training center, one of the things they always taught us, when you are trying to get people into a trap, in an interview is ask open ended question. Don't just ask is your Sean Hannity. You are just going to say yes.
An open ended question would be, well what is your name? Be if you are involve in an identity theft case, you may slip up and actually give the wrong name. That is what they are trying to do. Do not do this interview, it is a huge mistake, it is a trap.
HANNITY: What do you think, Sebastian? To the very point?
GORKA: The president right now, I had been saying this from the beginning, should never, ever sit down. Joe, Victoria are right. And they have no right to do this. And the president cannot be indicted. At the end of the day, this is a perjury trap. Nothing more, nothing less. This man wants a scalp. Mueller wants to scalp and along with Comey and McCabe, they have destroyed the reputation of the FBI. I am getting text today from FBI agents saying, they record every meeting they go to now, because jurors no longer believe them. These men have destroyed the FBI.
HANNITY: No. I will never sweep with a broad brush here. This is a few in the top. Not the rank and file. Dan, you said you work with this guys. We know how great they are.
BONGINO: Great. They are terrific. But Sean, all they -- listen to me, guys. They have nothing. Do you understand Mueller has nothing? You can't fabricate collusion that didn't happen. This isn't back to the future with Marty McFly. There is nothing here, Sean. So what do they have, all they have is process crime leading to the FBI and a perjury trap. They have nothing.
HANNITY: When you think for the President of the United States. You would think for the country, first here. For them to succeed --
GORKA: They don't love their country, Sean. It is about them, it is about America.
HANNITY: That is sad.
And if we lose, this is Venezuela and it is not the United States. When we come back, the great one, Mark Levin, you do not want to miss this and Sara Carter, Gregg Jarrett, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. As Mueller's witch hunt continues, you might remember the great one, Mark Levin right here on this show, last summer explaining the DOJ policy that said the sitting President cannot be indicted. This is something that the media trying to forget. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK LEVIN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: It has been the position of the United States Department of Justice under Republican and Democrats, in a 1973 memorandum and in an October memorandum, under the Clinton administration. That you must not and cannot indict a sitting President, not that this President would be. That is not my point.
As a matter of constitutional interpretation. For 44 years that is the position of the Department of Justice. We have had law professor and homeless people, would be law professors, all over TV and radio talking about obstruction of justice. We had media types talking about it. We have members of Congress talking about it. And it doesn't matter. The official position of the Justice Department is, we don't charge a sitting President with a crime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Mark reiterated that point on this show just a few weeks ago. You may remember.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEVIN: A sitting president's immune ability to indictment and criminal prosecution, the indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting president would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the Executive Branch to performed its constitutionally assigned function. Page after page after page. Saying a sitting United States President cannot be indicted. Now, my question is this, did they issue another memo over that, the Justice Department, reversing this two memo's during the Nixon administration and the Clinton administration. No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: He joins us all with reaction, the host of CRTV Levin TV. The host of Life, Liberty Levin. The number one show Sunday night, 10 Eastern right here on the Fox News channel and I call him the great one. Mark Levin, I wanted to play that again, because as usual on legal matters you are ahead of the curve, you are a constitutional attorney and our lazy overpaid liberal activist that calls themselves journalist are wrong like 99 percent of the time. So, I want you to go through this legally tonight and give you the opportunity to explain to them yet, again.
LEVIN: All right. Sean, this is not me speaking, this is the Department of Justice speaking and the position of the Justice Department has not been repealed and has not been amended since the last decision on October 16th, 2000. The president of the United States, this is getting way to complicated and unnecessarily so. You have a lot of second tier slip and fall lawyers all over TV. Spewing things they don't know. They don't understand the constitution, they haven't studied the cases, and I have.
First of all, this opinion said among other things like grand jury and prosecutors cannot supplant Congress. It cannot supplant Congress. The only way to remove a sitting president is through the impeachment process. Not through the indictment process. They cannot disable or ham string a presidency which is what they are trying to do as I speak.
A prosecutor cannot trigger the 25th Amendment. The 25th Amendment is the purpose is not to be triggered by a prosecutor and he can't step in and try and take advantage of it. These are things that were discussed.
A President cannot properly defend himself in litigation under the constitution as an individual American, when he has time that he has to spend on official duties. Unlike so many other individuals, the president of the United States they point up is so unique in our constitutional system that it is enormously damaging to him, because he can't focus on his defense which is different on civil litigation and he can't focus during that time on the nation's security and well-being.
And the President can't function properly with these kinds of burdens. This is what the memo says. And he can't be indicted as a sitting president. Period. This is why, despite all the problem about our presidents have received subpoenas before. Tell me, name one president who has ever been before a federal grand jury. There has never been a president in front of a Federal Grand Jury.
Ken Starr's team subpoena Bill Clinton by having among other things not sex so much for an intern in the Oval Office, but lying about litigation that was taking place. And he was subpoenaed and he decided to do a video. So here is my advice, to the President of the United States. He didn't seek it and to his lawyers. Focus. You are making this too complicated. The constitution is on the side of the president.
The Department of Justice's its own position which you can brief yourselves is on the side of the President of the United States. Historical precedent is on the side of the president of the United States. Legal president is on the side of the president of the United States. Stop listening to all of the babbling and pleading the Fifth and should he sit down with a subpoena. I would say if I were the president's lawyer to Mr. Mueller. We want you to present us with an explanation of your defiance of the Department of Justice policy which you are required to follow as an employee of the Department of Justice.
Moreover we want to understand how it is that you believe that you can burden a president like this while he is in office. And while I am at it, Sean, it seem to have a few Republicans in the senate who are very confused about this things. Who had voted to protect Mr. Mueller rather than protect the Office of the President and the Constitution, and the American people? And they seem to think that they have the power even though we have a separation of powers and tell the president who he can hire and who we can fire.
The part of the problem of the president has is his dealing with ignoramuses spoken inside his party and outside of his party and some whom are dressed up as lawyers. So, I would take this all the way to the United States Supreme Court. I would make Mueller and his band of Democrat prosecutors make their case all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
If they try to subpoena him in any `way to appear before a federal grand jury and make them and make their case against their own Department of Justice against Supreme Court precedent and against the constitution of the United States. And if it takes six months, it takes six months. If it takes six years, and by god it takes six years, we are not just talking about the President which would be enough. We are talking about protecting the Office of the Presidency, separation of powers and when you look at those 49 areas of questions. There is not a single criminal statute. There is not a single obstruction. What has been obstructed? They are not investigating Russia. What is it that they are not investigating that they don't want to investigate?
No. They want to know his intent on whether he obstructed. They want to treat him like they treated Martha Stewart. Well, guess what, he is the President Mr. Mueller. This is a one year failed anthrax cases or one of your failed Bloody Borger cases (ph). This is the president of the United States. You know what that means? We the people have a stake in this and we the people get to decide. The frame is decided, the only way you remove a President is through the body politics, from the House and the Senate and it is a heavy burden, not by some rogue prosecutor with a bunch of Democrat prosecutors. They don't get to do it and the people need to rise up and demand. Demand that this go all the way to the Supreme Court to put this rogue prosecutors in their place.
HANNITY: That is why I call you the great one. This abusively, politically biased and frankly ethically challenged Mueller team. There is the answer, Mark Levin. Every Sunday night, 10 Eastern, Life, Liberty, Levin. Thank you, sir. Always good to have you. When we come back, Sarah Carter, Greg Jarret, they weigh in on some breaking news. Straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GUILIANI, FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: I'm sorry, Hillary, I know you are very disappointed you didn't win. But you are a criminal and equal justice would mean you should go to jail. I do not know why the Justice Department is not investigating you.
HANNITY: Did James Comey --
GUILIANI: James Comey fix the whole case in this.
HANNITY: It was rigged.
GUILIANI: Well, you can't read the stupid report that he wrote. Which is the beginning of his disruption in which he -- he said we are not going to prosecute. No reasonable prosecutor would indict her. No honest reasonable prosecutor wouldn't indict her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. That was the president's attorney Rudy Guiliani on this program last night. Yes, talking about Hillary Clinton. Hillary is a criminal and Comey fixed the whole case. Oh that is pretty big news. Joining us now with reaction, Fox News contributor, Sara Carter, the author of the soon to be released book. Look at her right there. Already the liberals are attacking it. They haven't read it yet, The Russia Hoax, the elicit scheme to clear Hillary Clinton and framed Donald Trump. Fox News Legal Analyst, Gregg Jarrett. Now, this whole issue of allowing the president to talk to Mueller. Rudy said first thing, there is not a lawyer in the country that advices that.
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEAGL ANALYTS: No, because Mueller is proven that he cannot be fair and neutral and objective. Why would you subject your client, the president of the United States to somebody who has every intent of being unfair to you? So my recommendation would be, if Mueller will not accept answers to a limited number of written questions. Then let Mueller subpoena the president in front of a grand jury and then I would ignore the subpoena, why? Because Mueller would then have to move to hold the president in contempt which eventually means detention or arrest. That would be unconstitutional and the framers wrote that in the Supreme Court has confirmed that that would be unconstitutional. And interior unelected officer may not remove --
HANNITY: So, why is anybody -- why are they all making such a big deal about it? He does not have to do a thing.
JARRETT: Well, because I think the misunderstanding part, because the thing that President Clinton complied with the subpoena, he didn't. The subpoenaed was actually withdrawn by mutual consent and it was relative to a civil case and not a criminal case.
HANNITY: Very different and all the while which we had been pointing out, all of this other news, Sara. A lot of it corroborating your hard work as an investigative journalist. You know beyond the fact that Mueller is setting a perjury trap. But Comey is a disgraceful liar. Gregg is talking about, I talked about it, and you have talked about that.
Mueller's probe is tainted. Hillary is a criminal. It all begins with Hillary Clinton. It all begins with 18USC793 in the espionage act and the obstruction which was represented by the leading subpoenaed emails, acid washing a hard drive and beating up your devices with a hammer and Strzok and Comey and McCabe and Loretta Lynch and others put the fix in the exoneration before the investigation.
SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely and Rudy Guiliani was right on the Mark. Look, we know that Michael Horowitz is going to release a report very soon on Comey's handling.
HANNITY: How soon?
CARTER: Very soon. I would imagine within weeks. He is waited -- look he has waited for Comey to begin talking and he is listening to what he says. He is going to be listening to that to include it in the report. And all we have to do is look back, Sean. All we have to do is look back and realize that from the very beginning. Remember it was May 9, so it is almost a year to this date, when Comey was fired.
When Comey was fired by who? None other than Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who advised the President to fire him. And what did he cite in his memorandum. He cited the Clinton investigation saying how it just completely destroyed the FBI. He even put quotes in there from former FBI Directors, from Intelligence Director, really hammering on Comey and his handling of the case. I can tell you this, Horowitz is going to have a scatting report against Comey. Comey knows that is coming out. That is why he lawyer up and he has a lot of problem.
HANNITY: Who else is likely to be mentioned?
CARTER: Oh, Andrew McCabe, certainly. I would imagine that Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, Bruce Ohr. So there is going to be a very intensive investigation.
HANNITY: And Loretta Lynch?
CARTER: Yes. Absolutely. Loretta Lynch. She was a big part of all of this.
HANNITY: What about -- I don't throw this -- what about people like Clapper and Brennan? Brennan, really, I took it as a threat, you know, stay tuned to the President of the United States.
JARRETT: Yes. I think Brennan and to some extent Clapper were the two instigators of the phony dossier.
HANNITY: By the way, did they both lie under oath?
JARRETT: Well, one can argue that Brennan or Clapper certainly did and got away with it and the statute of limitation --
HANNITY: It won't happen.
JARRETT: Well, there could be, but look, they were the instigator, but those who I think very clearly should be prosecuted under felony statute would include James Comey at the top of the list and Andrew McCabe.
HANNITY: When we hear about Susan Rice. When we hear about ben Rhodes, Sara, when hear about Samantha Powers basically unmasking an American a day?
CARTER: I hope we do hear about Samantha Powers. I don't know if we are going to hear about all of the players. But I do have one thing to say Sean, Brennan was in charge of the CIA. The CIA is supposed to deal with exclusively with foreign issues. What is Brennan doing involving himself in whether it is FBI issues and our nation's security issues that have nothing to do with foreign issues. We should be asking Brennan, why are you involving yourself in this? This is not part of the CIA.
HANNITY: We got to break. All right. Thank you both. Good luck with the book. We will review the following, Hillary Clinton's latest excuse of why she lost next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right since her crashing election lost in 2016. Hillary Clinton has come pretty long list of excuses as you can see inside of your screen. Yesterday at the Shared Value Leadership summit, she twice failed presidential candidate a loser, had a new excuse take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You may be the only presidential candidate since World War II that actually had to stand up and say, I am a capitalist. And you did. Did it hurt you?
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Probably, I mean, you know, it's hard to know but, I mean, if you are in the Iowa caucuses and 41 percent of Democrats are socialists or self-described socialists, then I answer you are a capitalist and I say yes, but with appropriate regulation and appropriate accountability. You know, that probably gets lost in the, oh, my gosh, she is a capitalist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: You lost because you had a terrible vision for the future, and Barack Obama had 13 million more Americans on the food stamp rolls, 8 million more on poverty and we are doing so much better now. All right, that is all the time we have left this evening. We will always be fair and balance. We are not the destroy Trump media, @seanhannity on Twitter. Let not your heart be troubled, there she is - I got the football.
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