Former Clinton adviser: Mueller probe is bad for the country

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Former Clinton adviser: Mueller probe is bad for the country

Former Clinton adviser Mark Penn is criticized for writing an anti-Mueller op-ed; Penn and Sean Spicer weigh in on 'Hannity.'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 23 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right, Tucker, as always thank you. Great show.

Welcome to 'Hannity.'

Tonight, the dam is bursting on the deep state. Everyone involved in this plot to help Hillary Clinton and destroy President Trump are now being exposed. Lock up, get ready, it is going to be huge.

The president's now blasting what he is calling the criminal deep state and taking on James Comey, James Clapper, who are now trying to cover their tracks in a full panic tonight. Also, Judicial Watch is learning the FBI will order anti-Trump FBI lovebirds Strzok and Page to preserve bureau records and their personal accounts and personal devices. I hope they didn't acid-wash them.

And Senator Chuck Grassley saying one of these text messages actually is suggesting that the, quote, Obama White House is running this, running, what? Referring to an unspecified investigation.

Plus, the standoff between GOP chairman Devin Nunes, Trey Gowdy and the DOJ over classified documents is now coming to a big head. We're going to tell you what to expect at tomorrow's meeting and also, Rod Rosenstein created an unmitigated deep state disaster by appointing Robert Mueller. We have a law professor is now calling what Rosenstein did unconstitutional.

And brand-new tonight, the American Center for Law and Justice, they are reporting that 30,000 emails exist between the Clinton State Department and the Clinton Foundation proving that there was collusion.

Plus, former Clinton pollster chief strategist, this is a game changer, Mark Penn is blasting the entire Mueller investigation. He joins us live tonight.

But, first, a very important breaking news opening monologue.

(MUSIC)

HANNITY: The president now is reacting to a flood of information coming out about how the deep state targeted and in fact spied on his campaign. On Twitter, earlier today, he wrote, 'look how things have turned around on the criminal deep state. They go after phony collusion with Russia and a made-up scam and end up getting caught in a major spy scandal, the likes of which this country may have never seen before what goes around comes around.' We've been saying that.

Didn't we call this the year of the boomerang? It's exactly what this is. You have a criminal deep state and it's all coming out at breakneck speed.

It's literally hour by hour the things that we're learning. It's new and it's damning. The details are unbelievable. The president's slamming the entire scandal and giving it a new nickname. This is the tip of the iceberg.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We now call it spygate. You're calling it spygate. A lot of bad things have happened. I want them all to get together. They'll sit in the room. Hopefully, they'll be able to work it out among themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Because new information is coming out at a rapid-fire pace, deep state actors like the arrogant, sanctimonious James Comey, they are racing to try and cover their tracks.

Comey fired off a pair of tweets this morning. 'Facts matter, the FBI's use of confidential human sources the actual term we calm spies is tightly regulated and essential to protecting the country. Attacks on the FBI and lying about its work will do lasting damage to the country, how will Republicans explain this to their grandchildren?'

Well, here's a better idea, Jim. How will you explain what you did to your grandchildren? And you have to love how Comey is using FBI official jargon, confidential human sources to try and spin this. Did you have a spy in the Clinton campaign? Did you have a spy in that campaign?

He continues: 'dangerous time when our country is led by those who will lie about anything, backed by those who will believe anything based on information from media sources that will say anything. Americans must break out of that bubble and seek truth.'

Speaking of lying, that's exactly what Comey did under oath in front of Congress, when he falsely claimed that he didn't decide to exonerate Hillary Clinton before interviewing her and 17 other key witnesses. They were writing it months before.

And you know why? Because Comey is corrupt. Thank god the president fired him, and he can't keep his big mouth shut. We advise he has the right to remain silent.

And the president is right to fire back at the disgraced former FBI director. Let's take a look at what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think James Comey has got a lot of problems, if you look at what he did, if you look at all of the lies, the tremendous lies. If you look at all that's going on. I think James Comey has got a lot of problems.

Now, at some point, they have an I.G. report and then let's see what James Comey has to say. But I assume he's covered in the I.G. report. But if you look at what he said, all of the lies, all of the fiction, I think he's got a lot of problems.

I did a great service to this country by firing James Comey. And, excuse me, a lot of people have said it. And you go into the FBI and a lot of those great people working in the FBI, they will tell you, I did a great service to our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: My FBI friends tell me that every day and they are helping to expose the corruption in their agency. They want the truth out because it's not rank-and-file.

So, the soon-to-be-released DOJ I.G. report is supposed to hammer Comey's corrupt handling of the Clinton email investigation. We know it was rigged. We know Clinton committed felonies and crimes and obstructed justice. And Comey and his buddies and Strzok, they put the fix in to save Hillary's campaign. Then they quickly started spying on the Trump campaign, where's the warrant? Where's the justification?

Comey's deep state buddy, former Obama director of national intelligence, James Clapper, he is now in a panic, rushing to try and save himself. He's running from liberal media outlet to liberal media outlet, promoting his new book just like James Comey did and trying to spin what is a false narrative.

Take a look what he said with the ladies on "The View".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOY BEHAR, CO-HOST, THE VIEW: I ask you, was the FBI spying on Trump's campaign?

JAMES CLAPPER, EX-DNI: No, they were not. They were spying on a term I don't particularly like but on what the Russians were doing, trying to understand, were the Russians infiltrating? Trying to gain access, trying to gain leverage and influence.

BEHAR: So, what doesn't he like --

CLAPPER: Which is what they do.

BEHAR: So why doesn't he like that? He should be happy though.

CLAPPER: Well, he should be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Really? The president should be happy the Obama administration and people in the FBI were spying on his campaign without a warrant that we know of and then the FISA warrant, they lied to four judges? Is that not the deep state trying to destroy his candidacy now presidency?

And at this point, Clapper is just -- he's straight-up delusional.

The president -- good for him. He's not letting these lies slide either. He's taking them head-on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When they look at the documents, I think people are going to see a lot of bad things happen. I hope it's not so, because if it is, it has never been anything like it in the history of our country. I hope -- I mean, if you look at Clapper, he sort of admitted that they had spies in the campaign yesterday inadvertently. But I hope it's not true, but it looks like it is.

(ENDVIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: This is the biggest abuse of power corruption scandal in this country's history. It shows you just how pretentious, how egotistical people like Clapper and Comey really are.

They don't see that the crossfire hurricane -- well, it's now coming their way. The wind has shifted the direction. And like we have been warning they both have the right to remain silent apparently not listening to me.

What Comey and Clappy -- Clapper have done here is orchestrate a massive abuse of power, the biggest in American political history.

Look at investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson out with another great article: 'Eight signs pointing to a counterintelligence operation that was deployed against Trump's campaign.' Here they are: code name the FBI had one, Crossfire Hurricane, from Jumping Jack Flash in the Stones, which is the operation where they spied on the Trump campaign. Wiretap fever, Sharyl Attkisson is pointing out how seventh Trump associates were caught up in this surveillance web.

You also have the massive abuse of power, FISA abuse, lying to FISA judges on four occasions, spying on Carter Page, using a Clinton bought and paid for dossier, not telling of course the judges in that case never verifying, never corroborating. National security letters, the FBI bypassing all judicial approval to obtain phone records by using these national security letters. In other words, the power of our intelligence community.

We saw the unmasking, a dramatic 350 percent increase from key Obama officials, wow, magically in the 2016 election year, changing the rules remember in December of 2016, Clapper making it easier to share intelligence across all these government agencies that helps them cover media strategy. Clapper, Brennan, both regulars in the liberal media, Clapper reportedly leaking details about this phony bought and paid for Russian dossier to fake news CNN where he now works and is paid, leaking anonymous sources. They have been running to friendly outlets to selectively put out information, all designed to propagandize and lie to the American people and damage President Trump.

And friends, informants, snoops, the FBI had this informant, maybe others, spying on the Trump campaign. Comey had his friend leaking to "The New York Times" to get a special counsel, which by the way that probably was illegal. And the bureau working with former British spy in other words, oh, a foreign operative Christopher Steele, he put together this Clinton bought and paid for dossier.

The evidence of wrongdoing is overwhelming. It is incontrovertible, not to mention as we told you last night and Sara Carter further explained, the FBI's timeline is now collapsing and the investigation is not adding up. Former Obama A.G. Loretta Lynch telling Congress at the FBI, the DOJ officials were discussing Trump campaign associate Carter Page in spring of last year, maybe that would have been a good time to go say, Mr. Candidate, Mr. Trump, I want you to watch there might be some people that we have an eye on.

Remember, Trump said the most exculpatory thing he said to Comey was, is anyone around my campaign, I want you to -- you know, I want you to do your job.

And we've been told the investigation officially started in July with George Papadopoulos. So, this timeline is way off. It's going to the spring of 2016, which is why Congress needs to now see all the documents. Attorney General Sessions, I hope you're watching tonight.

Also, Judicial Watch learning that the FBI will order Trump-hating FBI lovebirds Strzok and Page to preserve agency records on their personal accounts and on their personal devices, if they haven't already acid washed them.

And according to Judicial Watch, earlier this week, a judge ordered the FBI to start processing 13,000 pages of previously undisclosed emails between Strzok and Page. We can only imagine what are in those text messages and emails, seeing how they trashed Trump constantly in their text messages, and struck at the center of all of this.

And then you have Senator Grassley, he's raising a red flag in a very disturbing message from Strzok and Page that actually suggests the White House of Obama is running this, meaning the Obama administration. It's unclear what investigation specifically they're referring to, which is why everything needs to be unredacted, but they did talk an awful lot about Trump.

And another top story tonight is absolutely stunning. Carrie Pinkett, she's at "The Daily Caller" reporting several FBI agents want to be subpoenaed by Congress so they can finally expose all the misconduct and corruption under Comey, and, of course, Andrew McCabe.

These FBI agents, they're also saying that they want to see McCain prosecuted since he lied on the old three times, and the inspector general, one that what General Flynn was accused of? Oh, and by the way, we know that nobody in the FBI thought he lied. This is why we always say, it's the upper echelon here at the FBI, in the intelligence community, the DOJ, who are the deep state actors. Not rank-and-file, they're helping us get to the truth.

And if it wasn't for these people the FBI, we wouldn't know the truth in the end. They are serving our country with honor and dignity and integrity and respect. They are ashamed of what their former bosses did, and furious about what has happened. That's why it is so important for all of us to get the truth, release the documents.

Also tonight, it's put up or shut up time for Rod Rosenstein, the king slow-walking, stonewalling and obstruction. Republican Committee Chair Devin Nunes, Trey Gowdy, they're set to be tomorrow with top FBI, DOJ intelligence officials about the documents they have been requesting forever to see.

And I got to tell you, given Rosenstein's track record, there's no way he's going to hand everything over. It's only going to be a briefing and here's why -- Rod Rosenstein, he wants to be able to control the flow of information, just like he's been doing from the get-go, begging Paul Ryan. Oh, don't release the information about FISA abuse.

Remember, Sara Carter reporting information that Congress is trying to see will hold the keys to all of this spying on the Trump campaign. Rod Rosenstein has more problems than just stonewalling tonight. Look at what law professor Steve Calabresi is now arguing, that Rod Rosenstein's appointment of Robert Mueller is in fact unconstitutional, as the great one Mark Levin said last night. He cites the majority opinion in Morrissey versus Olson.

The basic problem being that Mueller is more powerful than all 96 U.S. attorneys. Mueller was also never nominated, never confirmed by the U.S. Senate. And because Robert Mueller's appointment is unconstitutional and that renders everything that he has done since May 17, 2017 null and void. And that's why we heard just a couple of Fridays ago, Judge T.S. Ellis III demanding to see Rod Rosenstein's scope memo that gave Mueller the ability supposedly to carry out this witch hunt.

Judge Ellis just eviscerated Mueller's team and his pit bull Andrew Weissmann for going after Paul Manafort on a 2005 tax fraud allegation. That has nothing to do with Russia.

And he called out Mueller for putting the screws, the judge's words, to Manafort. Why? To get him to sing. Remember, singers can also compose and flip on Trump so they can prosecute or impeach him.

And as far as Rod Rosenstein goes, Steve Bannon says Rosenstein could in fact be fired and very soon. We'll have to wait and see what that's all about.

Also tonight, take a look at this headline from the American Center for Law and Justice. 'It was a favor factory, deep state forced to turn over thousands of Clinton-era State Department emails to/about the Clinton Foundation debunking supposed firewall.'

The ACLJ reporting that the State Department will be turning over nearly 30,000 emails between Hillary Clinton's State Department and her family foundation. This is why I keep saying, I know it takes more time than you want. We're unpeeling layers of an onion, and that means they were in constant communication.

And as the AP discovered in 2016, more than half of these people who met with the Clintons while she was serving as secretary of state ended up either personally or through an organization giving money and funneling it back to the Clinton Foundation.

And another major development tonight: clock is ticking for the DOJ and the FBI to hand over documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley about this highly suspicious case of Michael Flynn, a man who served this country for over 30 years. Grassley wants to see the documents related to Flynn's FBI interview as James Comey told Congress the FBI agents had talked to Flynn.

They didn't think he lied. So, why did Robert Mueller charge General Flynn with lying in the first place?
And also tonight, President Trump revealing new details about his potential June 12th summit with little rocket man. "Fox & Friends" co-host, our own Brian Kilmeade, spoke with the president earlier today out on Long Island after his roundtable on MS-13 gang violence. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS HOST: June 12th, are you going to be in Singapore?

TRUMP: We'll see what happens. I mean, right now, we're looking at it. We're talking about it and they're talking to us. We have certain conditions. We'll see what happens.

But there's a good chance, and it would be a great thing for North Korea. If that happens it'll be a great thing for North Korea. Most importantly, it would be a great thing for the world. So, we'll see what happens.

KILMEADE: Right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Don't miss the full interview tomorrow starting 6:00 a.m. "Fox and Friends".

Here with reaction to the night's breaking news and opening monologue, Fox News national security strategist Sebastian Gorka and attorney Victoria Toensing. Full disclosure, she has done some legal work for me in the past and I am proud to be a friend of both of them.

Let's start with you, Victoria.

A lot to break down here tonight.

VICTORIA TOENSING, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: Listen, Sean, since last December, my husband Joe diGenova and I have been saying that there was a brazen plot to clear Hillary Clinton and to frame Donald Trump if he became president. And now, we're seeing that plot unravel.

This Brennan, Clapper and I'm going to say it, the Obama White House targeted people on Donald Trump's foreign policy team and the professors, they tried to get two of them, Carter Page and my client Sam Clovis who I hope will be with us sometime next week, and they didn't bite.

But then they found the weak link, a 20-some year old George Papadopoulos. And here's what's been reported and it's really when you think about it and I started researching it today -- George Papadopoulos is told by a professor with close ties to the Kremlin that the Russians have Hillary's emails. That's in April. In May, George finds himself at a bar in London and some gorgeous blonde comes up and starts buying him drinks, my goodness.

And then she introduces him to her good friend the Australian ambassador and somehow the conversation goes to Hillary Clinton's emails.

HANNITY: Four-way hearsay. Four hearsay -- hearsay is not admissible in court, you're the attorney, correct, Victoria?

TOENSING: Yes, but that didn't matter here for goodness sakes. He's just saying that that -- he's just talking about Hillary's -- there's a term for it, Sean, it's called honey trapping. This is classic spy agency, CIA -- I used to be chief counsel for the Senate Intelligence Committee. This is classic spying technique, honey trapping, using the lure of sex to get somebody to open up.

HANNITY: Unbelievable.

TOENSING: And then to your exact information --

HANNITY: And oh, and Downer, by the way, paid 25 grand himself to -- the $25 million to the Clinton Foundation.

TOENSING: And then to use that flimsy information to start an entire surveillance and investigation of the Trump campaign just boggles the mind.

HANNITY: Sebastian Gorka?

SEBASTIAN GORKA, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST: We need to put this in perspective, Sean. Victoria's absolutely right when it came to what was done operationally. But what is this in the most concise terms. This is the first time in U.S. history that we have had industrial scale political espionage during a presidential campaign.

Our nation was founded in a rejection of the capricious usurpation of power. That's why we had the revolutionary war. Now, it's happening in the Obama administration at the highest level of the intelligence community.

We created these systems to detect, apprehend and prosecute Soviet spies, Nazis and terrorists, not people who simply have a different political persuasion. The president was right he was spied upon, he was surveilled, they tried to entrap his people and frame him.

HANNITY: You know --

GORKA: And we are just at the beginning of our -- I asked Sharyl Attkisson today, she said we have unveiled less than 2 percent --

HANNITY: Correct.

GORKA: -- of the real corruption.

HANNITY: We still have a masking. We still have a rigged investigation. We have spies in the Trump campaign.

We have Hillary working with Russian lies against the American people. Russian lies bought and paid for. FISA court abuse, to the point where they lied to four judges.

Where does it end, Victoria?

TOENSING: Well, I hope it's not ending we're starting. We're starting to unravel and peel back this onion. And God bless these FBI agents who want to come forward.

We were told that everybody in the FBI just loved James Comey. Well, it appears that there's some that want to see him indicted, and I hope that happens.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you both. Appreciate your insight.

When we come back, a live report. Ed Henry at the White House tonight, very important report.

Also, you don't want to miss former Clinton adviser Mark Penn agrees that the Mueller witch-hunt needs to end.

And Newt Gingrich right here in studio straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Joining us live from the White House right now, a lot to report tonight is, of course, about President Trump's spygate comments from today. And when we will officially know if, in fact, the summit is on with little rocket man next month.

Fox News -- he's our chief national correspondent, Ed Henry.

Every night, there's breaking news, never stops, by a second almost.

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sean, great to see you again tonight.

You're right that on the spygate issue, as the president dubbed it today, the relentless pressure from President Trump is succeeding in at least one way tonight. He is turning the tables on former Obama officials like James Clapper, James Comey. Today, Comey -- Clapper rather being forced into playing defense on CNN and denying that he ever committed crimes.

New, tonight, Clapper is telling PBS the intent was not to spy on the Trump camp but to figure out what the Russians were doing. That's a mile apart from March 2017 when Clapper completely denied there was surveillance of the Trump campaign.

All this leading the president today to call Clapper a lying machine. Today, he added it was a good thing for the country that he fired James Comey because of what the president called the former FBI chief's tremendous lies about surveillance and other matters.

Notice that Comey today shifted his own story as well. Look at this tweet. He says facts matter. The FBI's use of confidential human sources, the actual term, is tightly regulated and essential. So, he's saying it happened but it's regulated and essential to protecting the country. Attacks on the FBI and lying about its work will do lasting damage to our country. How will Republicans explain this to their grandchildren?

Well, Democrats today tried to stop Republican Devin Nunes and Trey Gowdy from meeting tomorrow to review this classified intelligence about surveillance with the FBI Director Christopher Wray and other officials. Chuck Schumer insisting Democrats be added because he thinks the GOP lawmakers are doing the bidding of the president.

But White House officials tonight shut that talk down by saying Democrats will get a second briefing after Memorial Day. While the president today told reporters he wants the truth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We now call it spygate. You're calling it spygate. A lot of bad things have happened.

I want them all to get together, they'll sit in the room. Hopefully, they'll be able to work it out among themselves. But not undercutting, we're cleaning everything up.

What I want is I want total transparency.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D—N.Y.: No one should trust anything they say coming out of that meeting.

REP. TREY GOWDY, R—S.C.: I don't care who comes. I'm not in control of the invite list. The only thing I would ask, Dana, is if you're going to show up, show up with an open mind and close the lips.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Meanwhile, on another important meeting, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this afternoon said that the administration is still planning to have this June 12th summit with North Korea. But tonight, breaking the foreign minister in North Korea is lashing out and making it sound like they don't want to meet, saying that, quote-unquote, unlawful and outrageous acts by the Trump administration may prevent this meeting.

I can tell you the president earlier today told everyone to calm down, saying he thinks it may still happen on June 12th or a later date, adding we will know for sure whether this summit is going forward next week, Sean.

HANNITY: We've already won a lot in all that and have given nothing.

Ed Henry at the White House.

HENRY: Good to see you.

HANNITY: Now former Clinton pollster advisor Mark Penn, he's causing quite the stir this week among Democrats, the left, after he wrote an article -- very important one. He wrote it in "The Hill": Stopping Robert Mueller to protect us all.

In this article, Penn writes, quote: Stopping Mueller isn't about one president or one party. It's about all presidents and all parties, it's about cleaning out and reforming the deep state, so that our intelligence operations are never used against opposing campaigns without the firmness of evidence.

It's a very honest comment and commentary causing crazy liberal Joe over at MSNBC conspiracy TV into a full-on meltdown on live television. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST: Let's be blunt about it. What exactly is Mark Penn selling, here's a guy who lost Hillary Clinton's campaign, does he have a Fox News contract? Is he writing for conservative Websites? I want to know.

As you know, in Washington, D.C., often when people do strange things like this, creatures of the swap, they're doing it for a reason.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Mark Penn joins us now along with former press secretary Sean Spicer. Mark, I didn't really actually expect you ever to be on the program. I'm not going to lie. We've been opposing each other in many ways for many years. I give you a credit and it's not because you agree.

MARK PENN, FORMER CLINTON POLLSTER AND ADVISER: Sure.

HANNITY: We've never had this happen to an American president ever. It's never been this bad. We got FISA lies. We've got deep -- we have a deep state, we got spies in a campaign. This is bad for the country. Explain what you meant.

PENN: Well, I think that's exactly right. Look, I spent a year fighting Ken Starr when I thought that was wrong. And a lot of people here at Fox News, yourself included were gung ho in that. And I saw how destructive that process was to the presidency, the people around him and how in the end it resulted in nothing.

And today, I look at this process and I'm a skeptical person. At first it seemed like it was a good process. Maybe it made sense. But as more and more questions came really to the fore -- how did this get started? What kind of techniques were used? What was behind the warrant? What kind of techniques do these prosecutors used where they're raiding people and shaming them and threatening relatives.

This doesn't seem like an American democracy. It seems like a star chamber of series of events. And now this thing is opening up after a year and testimony by every one of these former intelligence chiefs, they never said that they were using this kind of intelligence.

They've been consistently hiding what they were doing while they were doing it whether a Democrat or Republican, I think more people have to come together and say enough. We can't continue to criminalize politics. I may not agree with you or President Trump on tons of issues--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I'm working on you.

PENN: -- but I agree on this--

HANNITY: I'm working on it.

PENN: -- the way I have seen this unfold.

HANNITY: Listen, if we are going to have, and this is no offense to Hillary, the Clintons you work with. If she pays for op research, that's fine, that's part of politics, but a foreign national puts together a dossier and interrogatory and Great Britain says that was raw intelligence, maybe 50/50, and that becomes, to use the Grassley-Graham memo wording, the bulk of information to obtain a FISA warrant, three subsequent renewal applications more. And then we have spies in the campaign? That's not the United States to me.

You even mention the deep state, you use the term, that to me, we will lose the country if the tools of intelligence are turned on the American people this way.

PENN: Look, I say the deep state appears to be in a deep state of desperation. They know this I.G. report is coming down, they know that Nunes and other have really been successfully getting to the bottom of how this thing started. And they know this is all coming.

And you see these guys how they are changing their stories from day-to-day, how they become TV talking heads, it's just really, it's just incredible to think that the head of our national intelligence establishment. You know, I think this is going to come down I think this I.G. I presume will not Comey is not out of the box as a potential witness.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I would expect him--

PENN: And it doesn't -- and we're all wrong, you know, it will change my mind, but that doesn't -- you know, it's hard to see how that's not going to come down that way.

HANNITY: And Sean, I would expect in the end here a criminal referral. But there is never -- I am calling this the biggest abuse of power corruption scandal in history. And it really -- when you think about it, look at what Watergate was a break in, it ended up with a president resigning, a cover up that ensued.

But now we're talking about a sophisticated operation spying on any campaign, and then of course, lying to get a FISA warrant, the most difficult warrant to get. You have to lie before a judge time after time and not telling them that this is off research paid for by the other party.

SEAN SPICER, FORMER UNITED STATES WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Right. And I think the other thing important to note, you talk about in the past leading up to this, but the stories about Comey and Clapper in particular have continued to evolve and change as far as what they've originally said happened and what they say happened now.

And as more information comes out, whether it's Devin Nunes or Trey Gowdy or others that are digging and getting more and more of this of what happened, more questions are coming out that needs to get answers.

The president is right, that we need to get to the bottom of this, find out exactly what happened, when it happened, who ordered it to happen and why it was done.

But we continue to have more and more questions come out the more that people dig in. And you look at people like Devin Nunes and Trey Gowdy, Richard Burr in the Senate, the more people ask questions, the more they get attacked. I think there's a lot of people who are very concerned about finding out the truth of what happened last cycle, why it happened and who ordered it.

HANNITY: I think, Mark, where are your liberal friends? This is interesting. As Alan Dershowitz and I agree with him on some issues especially issues involving the Middle East, Israel, our closest ally.

Where are the civil libertarians that we -- that are supposedly in the Democratic Party because their voices have been silent. Is it just because political differences that they are willing to accept this type of intelligence abuse and abuse of power and spying on other candidates.

PENN: Well, look, even organizations like the ACLU that used to be for the First Amendment no matter what have changed their policy because you can raise a lot more money being on one side or defense or the other.

Look, I'm disappointed that more people aren't concerned what's going on here with the FBI. It's not about this president. This is not about this campaign. It is about all campaigns of all president as I said in the piece. We cannot allow the deep state to operate in this manner. We've got to get to really get to the bottom of what's going on here for sure.

HANNITY: Listen, if you were taking heat just for writing the article, wait until some your old friends see you on this show. God help you. But thank you for what you are doing. I think it's courageous and it's the right thing to do. This is a real danger to the country.

Thank you, sir. Sean, always good to see you.

When we come back, former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, right here in the studio, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, TALK SHOW HOST: OK, then, Mr. Clapper, if you are worried about the Russians tampering, why didn't you have a spy in the Hillary Clinton campaign? Why were you not concerned about the Russians trying to harm Hillary? Because after all you have said throughout all of this that that was the objective. The Russians were trying to hurt Hillary.

Well, then why didn't you have spies in her campaign to see if they were succeeding? The answer is -- all of this is B.S.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Wow, amazing take, Rush Limbaugh earlier today calling out James Clapper. Now joining us now with reaction, the upcoming book -- but we're not going to talk about it now, June 5th, BarnesandNoble.com. You can preorder it, it's on Hannity--

(CROSSTALK)

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER UNITED STATES SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This is like your--

HANNITY: Keep him all up.

GINGRICH: -- daily torture. Let's get Newt out here and we'll make sure we don't talk about his new book.

HANNITY: No, but I have -- we are going to do an hour on my radio show, and we're going to do an hour special.

GINGRICH: I don't know that. But let me go back to what I was saying.

HANNITY: Yes.

GINGRICH: Because I think this is so funny.

HANNITY: He's a genius by the way.

GINGRICH: Yes.

HANNITY: Absolute genius.

GINGRICH: But I said, I got into this last night with Laura. Because Laura showed me the Clapper stuff. And the point where Clapper talked about he didn't -- he doesn't like talking about spying. I couldn't help myself, I said, he was the national director of intelligence. He was in charge of every spy we have. How can you have a director of intelligence who doesn't like spying? I mean, the whole thing is crazy.

HANNITY: All right. As Russia's brilliant, you are one of the smallest people I know.

GINGRICH: Yes, but it's a very small circle.

HANNITY: OK. We've known each other a long time. But here's where we are. Hillary commits felonies.

GINGRICH: Yes.

HANNITY: She obstructs justice, you know, the leading the acid washing, then we got to cover it up and rigged investigation, writing an exoneration months before they interview her and 17 others. And on top of it, we have an unmasking problem.

Now we have spies in the campaign. We have FISA judges lied to, Hillary Clinton bought and paid for dossier that own the author said in interrogatory, that wrong intelligence, maybe 50/50.

That became the basis to get FISA warrant and three subsequent renewals. This to me, tell me if I'm wrong, is the biggest corruption abuse of power we've ever seen?

GINGRICH: By a huge margin. I talked about this one I think on the radio show. We really need to figure out how to physically show this. You have the Clinton corruption going back many, many years, I think all the way back to cattle features where the Wall Street Journey figured out it was mathematically impossible for her to make that much money honestly.

So they've been used to getting away with things since 1979, 1990. Then you have the people who covered up for her corruption, and I'm counting in the whole thing with the e-mails as part of the corruption. So that's a second layer.

Then you have the fear, my God, Trump could win and now you have a third layer which is how do we get the very people who are protecting her. And Andy McCarthy had a wonderful line, he said.

HANNITY: He's been great.

GINGRICH: He said, he wrote -- he wrote, "Democrats get away with murder and Republicans get murdered." And that's the current justice. So but now here is a new layer of that I began to realize in the last few days. All of a sudden all these guys who planned to bask in corruption are beginning to realize that they in fact could be indicted and convicted.

I mean, Clapper, I've known Clapper for years. Clapper used to be a serious professional. The guy I see on TV now is pathetic.

HANNITY: What about Brennan?

GINGRICH: Well, I mean, Brennan was a member of the communist party of the USA who--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: How did he ever become the CIA director.

GINGRICH: Only Obama would pick an exclusive communist to be the head of the FBI. I mean, I'm not sure who we thought Brennan would protect from who. But here's the point. Brennan now has this problem, Comey has this problem, McCabe has this problem, Clapper has this problem, and all of a sudden--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Lynch.

GINGRICH: -- Lynch has this problem. The truth is you are going to find out pretty soon it goes right into the White House.

HANNITY: There's no doubt.

GINGRICH: I have zero doubt.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I have not been wrong the whole time.

GINGRICH: You can't imagine Barack Obama not knowing.

HANNITY: If we do -- if the truth comes out, it will go right to the Obama White House.

GINGRICH: That's right.

HANNITY: And Jarrett, and Rise, and Power, and Ben Rhodes, and the rest of them.

GINGRICH: Yes. I mean, just given the way they ran a very tight operation.

HANNITY: They knew.

GINGRICH: Does anybody believe that Valerie Jarrett didn't know this stuff?

HANNITY: Remember they gave away the New York Times trying to do catch up which I felt was kind of, well, vindication away but in another way they just try to spin it. But they revealed very early on when that trip took place to Great Britain, that in fact, there were deep negotiations with Downer, with our State Department, that had to be at the top for him to allow himself to be interviewed by the FBI.

GINGRICH: Yes. I mean, you start to go down this list and then this guy that we've now sort of identified who is not identified and all this baloney who apparently got like over a million dollars over the years from the deep state.

HANNITY: Yes. Two years.

GINGRICH: Yes. And so you start saying, so it's OK -- and what I read was entrapment. I mean, he's saying to this guy--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: But that's what Victoria Toensing is saying.

GINGRICH: Yes. He's saying to this guy, come on, you really -- give me, give me, give me. Well, and the guy who said--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: There was even a cute blonde.

GINGRICH: -- there is nothing there.

HANNITY: Are you confident because if Hillary wins, none of this comes out. Are you confident we have the ability to get to the truth completely?

GINGRICH: No.

HANNITY: Neither am I.

GINGRICH: And what it's going to come down to is whether or not the president can keep focused.

HANNITY: He is.

GINGRICH: He is now. But this is going to go on for two or three years.

HANNITY: But they are setting traps for him to get mad and fire.

GINGRICH: But not just that. I mean, digging the stuff out, making the connections.

HANNITY: Where is Jeff Sessions doing? What is wrong with him?

GINGRICH: Well, I think if we had an attorney general.

HANNITY: We do, Rod Rosenstein.

GINGRICH: Well, but Rosenstein is -- but let's start I think your case is right. I am so saddened by Jeff Sessions in -- I don't know what happened to him.

HANNITY: He's paralyzed.

GINGRICH: But his inability to do his job.

HANNITY: Scary.

GINGRICH: And again, he's a guy I'd liked for a long time.

HANNITY: Me too.

GINGRICH: And he just folded.

HANNITY: We will -- I will have you on radio and TV. Great to see you in the studio. I don't get to see you anymore.

(CROSSTALK)

GINGRICH: And I will hold you to that.

HANNITY: I do. When we come back, well, we have some really mean, low class leftists. Really? Wait until you see what they did to Tomi Lahren, and assaulting her. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Our Fox News friend colleague Tomi Lahren over the weekend was verbally attacked, had water thrown at her while she's having brunch with her parents in Minneapolis. This is over the top beyond the pale.

Now many people both sides of the aisle have been coming to Tomi's defense. Rightly so, President Trump tweeted this morning, quote, "Everybody is with Tomi Lahren, a truly outstanding respected young woman." Even liberal actress crazy Kathy Griffin tweeted, "I couldn't disagree with at Tomi Lahren more but I don't think it's cool to resort to physical actions to make your point. The First Amendment is a beautiful thing. Use it."

Tomi is with us now. You know, I know because I'm watching your career, your trajectory go through the roof. And I'm very happy. You started a lot younger than when I started. And you have such a large fan base which is a tribute to you. This is so over the top for me. How hard was it for you and your parents?

TOMI LAHREN, CONTRIBUTOR, FOX NEWS: Well, of course it was humiliating. I think people forget that I'm a real person at the end of the day and these things do embarrass and humiliate me, and especially for my family, I didn't want them to have to be part of this. It's something that I've kind of grown used to. But it's not something I wanted to subject them to.

But at the end of the say like you said, Sean, I do have a following and that following is made up in large part by young girls. I hope that young girls will look at this, especially conservative young girls and see that if I can handle this with grace, they can too and never be discourage from having a voice. Don't let the bullies take your energy. Not worth it.

HANNITY: Let me just say this. You have no reason to be embarrassed and humiliated because some jackass coward, gutless, spineless, you know, extremist did this to you. And you did handle it with grace. So I think this is a good lesson for everybody. But it's a little -- things are pretty heated out there. You get this a lot.

LAHREN: Well, this isn't the first time something like this has happened. It's not the first time something has physically happened to me. I usually choose to ignore it. And I would have actually ignored this too if the video hadn't leaked.

The sad part about this, Sean, is that this girl was proud of what she did, she was bragging about what she did, she wanted to get it on video. That's also really a reality of the world we live in today that girls like this will do things like this to be social media famous. They'll even be ugly and disgusting and trashy to be social media famous.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I got to tell you.

LAHREN: I don't know why it's worth it to them.

HANNITY: You're right, because they obviously wanted to film that. I applaud your courage. We are glad you are on our team here at Fox. And to your family and mom and dad, I'm sorry they went through that too.

LAHREN: Thanks, Sean, I appreciate it.

HANNITY: When we come back, we'll show you the video of the day. The head of ICE fires back as the Democratic lawmaker accuse the agency -- accusing the agency of being anti-immigrant. Watch this, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: So the acting ICE director, his name is Thomas Homan, slammed a Democratic representative at a House hearing yesterday after she lectured a panel of law enforcement officials about demonizing people who have entered the country illegally. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS HOMAN, ACTING DIRECTOR, UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: We're law enforcement officers enforcing a law that you all enacted. So to sit there and say we're anti-immigrants is wrong. We are enforcing laws. If you think it's OK to enter the country illegally and shouldn't be arrested that is wrong.

The laws state you enter the country illegally it's a crime. And no one is up here saying all criminals -- all illegal aliens are criminals. A certain percentage of them are criminals. They commit yet another offense actually here.

I have said many times I certainly understand the plight of these people and I feel bad for some of these people but I have a job to do. I have to enforce the law and uphold the law I took to enact the laws enacted by you, Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And equal justice under the law. Checkmate in that exchange. Quick reminder and programming note. Don't forget set your alarm. You don't want to miss 'Fox & Friends' and their interview tomorrow with the president. That's all happening. Brian Kilmeade.

And as always we thank you for being with us. You make it happen every night. We thank you. And we'll always be fair and balanced. We're not the destroy-Trump media. Let not your heart be -- all right, why I take your comment tonight?

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