Graham: Mueller reached a conclusion the left didn't like

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Graham: Mueller reached a conclusion the left didn't like

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham reacts to Attorney General Barr's testimony and his decision not to appear in front of the House.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 1, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Tucker Carlson, slow news night, anything happening?

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: It's really slow.

Great to see you, Tucker. Great show.

All right. Buckle up. Welcome to “Hannity.”

Let me give you a quick headline, the details will follow, nobody else will report. The Mueller witch hunt is completely over. It is done.

Nobody listens to the attorney general, and yes, the attorney general admitted today, everything we recorded the last two years, full criminal investigations are now just beginning. Imagine that, a talk show host is right and so many in the fake news industry are wrong. We'll get to all of it.

But first breaking moments ago, the Attorney General Barr will not head back to Capitol Hill to be grilled by Jerry Nadler's lawyers because he's too weak to question him himself. And tonight, of course, predictably, more breathless hysteria, selective moral outrage from the left. They are desperately trying to revive what is now a dead, fake, phony narrative. That's finished.

They are wrong. They were wrong. They lied to the American people. They continue to lie to the American people.

They perpetrated a hoax. They pushed conspiracy theories. They lost and Operation Crossfire Hurricane has now turned into Operation Boomerang. We will have full coverage of how Barr, Horowitz, Huber are about to upend the corrupt actors in the deep state, those that abused power. They will bring equal justice and equal application of our laws to the American people.

It seems, tonight, finally, the Constitution and the rule of law will be followed.

Also tonight, we have a major breaking news report, brand-new from John Solomon surrounding Bruce and Nellie Ohr, who soon be in serious legal trouble. Yes, I think we predicted that too.

But the Mueller witch hunt is over. Don't let nobody else fool you. They can talk about it until the cows come home. They can sit, go home and their heads can spin around like Linda Blair in the exorcist. They can projectile and vomit the green stuff, it's not going to change the truth.

And the second part of that is, what we have diligently reported, night after night after night, for two years on this program, our ensemble cast, I can't name everybody. There's not a lot of us, but talk radio, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh, and a few others, you know, here on the channel. Like Laura, and Tucker, and "Fox & Friends", we have all been right.

So many others have gotten it dead wrong. They missed the biggest story in their lifetime, and we can confirm tonight the criminal investigations are, in fact, underway in a major way. That is the headline, the biggest headline to come out of today -- and I promise you, no one else will report it.

But not according to the Democratic and media mob. You know, the ones that are full of rage and psychotic hatred that, you know, borders all things Trump. They are obsessing about Barr's contentious hearing on Capitol Hill which could have basically been wrapped up in about two minutes. After these important questions, this is the money moment, if you will, Lindsey Graham, it says it all. It confirms what I just told you.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: Do you share my concerns about the FISA warrant process?

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Yes.

GRAHAM: Do you share the counterintelligence investigation and why it was open?

BARR: Yes.

GRAHAM: Do you share my concerns that the professional -- lack of professionalism, and the Clinton email investigation, something we should all look at?

BARR: Yes.

GRAHAM: Do you expect to change your mind about the bottom-line conclusions of the Mueller report?

BARR: No.

GRAHAM: Do you think the president's campaign in 2017 was thoroughly looked at in terms of whether or not they colluded with the Russians?

BARR: Yes.

GRAHAM: And the answer is no according to Bob Mueller.

BARR: That's right.

GRAHAM: He couldn't decide about obstruction. You did. Is that correct?

BARR: That's right.

GRAHAM: Do you feel good about your decision?

BARR: Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: There you go. No collusion, no obstruction and as we said the biggest headline that no one in the media mob will ever tell you how the attorney general has confirmed today, he is investigating FISA abuse, illicit spying, Clinton's rigged investigation, Clinton's collusion with her dirty dossier, the dirty dossier, Ukrainian collusion and so much more.

Remember, that is only beginning today. And there is so much -- there will be a cascade, an avalanche of information. We will get to Lindsey Graham who will join us in a moment.

But for nearly 24 hours, the predictable media mob is totally, completely about a new report for "The Washington Post" and "New York Times." Last night, just hours prior to Barr's hearing, these two far left media propaganda outlets lied again, conveniently granted access to a leaked letter from team Mueller to the attorney general's office that expressed frustration over how Barr initially summarized the report.

"Washington Post" headline, Mueller complained that Barr's letter did not capture the context, the entirety of the Trump probe. But within their own reporting, way underneath the headline, they actually contradicted their own headlines. And the actual truth emerged.

According to a DOJ spokesperson, now confirmed by the attorney general himself, the special counsel emphasized nothing. Zero, and the attorney general's four-page March 24th letter was inaccurate or misleading. Nothing.

But he expressed frustration over the lack of content, oh, and the resulting media coverage regarding the special counsel's obstruction analysis. Oh, he is criticizing the media too. Something Mueller and I have in common.

This is how Attorney General Barr responded earlier today. Let's go to the videotape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARR: I said, Bob, what's with the letter, you know? Why don't you just pick up the phone and call me if there is an issue? And he said that they were concerned about the way that the media was playing this and felt that it was important to get out the summaries which they felt would put their work in proper context and avoid some of the confusion that was emerging. And I asked him if he felt that my letter was misleading or inaccurate. And he said, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Oh, so according to Mueller, it's the attorney general's job to shape how the media reports a story? Really? Bob?

Now, Barr followed up with a shot at Mueller's band of Democratic donors, he appointed. Even the guy that was at Hillary's victory party, Mueller's pit bull, Andrew Weissmann, with an atrocious track record and, of course, that included the Hillary Clinton attorney as it relates to the Clinton Foundation. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARR: The letter is a bit snitty and I think it was written by one of the staff people.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, D-CONN.: Did you make a memorandum of your conversation?

BARR: Huh?

(CROSSTALK)

BLUMENTHAL: Did you make a memorandum or anyone else?

BARR: What?

BLUMENTHAL: Did anyone come either you or anyone on your staff, memorialize your conversation with Robert Mueller?

BARR: Yes.

BLUMENTHAL: Who did that?

BARR: There were notes taken of the call.

BLUMENTHAL: May we have those notes?

BARR: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: No. You've got to love that.

All right. Let's take a moment to lay out the facts one more time because -- well, some people just need to know where this is going. We are trying to educate them. And it is hard. They are so entrenched in their own conspiracy theories, lies in their own mind. I think they actually believe their lies at this point.

Mueller found zero evidence that anyone in the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. Mueller did not make a determination on obstruction. The attorney general indicated these basic findings in his letter on March 24th. The Department of Justice then determined, yes, no obstruction took place and April 18th, Mueller released the full report with only a few mandated reductions because of a law supported by Democrats following the Starr investigation into Bill Clinton.

The attorney general, he had no obligation whatsoever to release any of the Mueller report. That's the truth. That's the law. These are the facts.

And as Senator Ted Cruz pointed out earlier today, the complaints to the left are totally absurd. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TX: So their entire argument is, General Barr, you suppressed the 19 pages that are entirely public, that we have, that we can read, that they know every word of it. And their complaint is it was delayed a few weeks. And that was because of your decision not to release the report piecemeal but rather to release those 19 pages along with the entire 448 pages produced by the special counsel.

BARR: Yes.

CRUZ: If that is their argument, I have to say that is an exceptionally weak argument, because if you're hiding something, I will tell you right now, General Barr, you are doing a lousy job of hiding it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right, the media mob, Democratic mob, they don't care about facts. They're driven purely by an agenda, by the way, not serving you, we the people, which is why they are now smearing the attorney general, even calling for him to be impeached. It won't go anywhere, but take a look anyway.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the top law enforcement official in the limited did he mislead the Congress and the American people to protect the president?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was being deceptive and he knew he was.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was an ease in which Barr lied.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are contradictions. There are lies. It's a mystifying performance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think William Barr's credibility is really in tatters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And attorney general who says Tuesday is Monday and the sun is the moon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pure political hackery, filled with lies, filled with misrepresentation and now I think there are cases we can point to you that people will say are perjury. But what we have now is an attorney general who has presented himself in a way that is not reputable anymore. He has fully, obviously, corrupted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Once again, the media is merely doing the bidding of their allies in the new, radical extreme Democratic socialist party who are more interested in grandstanding and rage hating Trump than actually legislating on behalf of you, we the people.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLUMENTHAL: I think history will judge you harshly. Your credibility is undermined within the department, in this committee, and with the American people.

SEN. PAT LEAHY, D-VT: Mr. Barr, you seem to have known the filibuster rules better than the senators do.

I feel your answer was purposely misleading, and I think others do too.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO, D-HI: Now, the American people know that you are no different than Rudy Giuliani or Kellyanne Conway or the other people who sacrifice their once decent reputation for the drifter and liar who sits in the Oval Office. You have chosen to be the president's lawyer and side with him over the interest of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, believe it or not the fake news "New York Times" opinion page melodramatic where James Comey, well, theatrically exclaiming, quote, Mr. Trump, eat your soul in small bites -- I can't say it with a straight face.

And the disgraced FBI director who I said, you have the right to remain silent. I suggest you use it. You will probably regret not listening to me, inferring that the attorney general is now soulless because of President Trump.

Perhaps it's time for Mr. Comey to finally wipe away his tears from getting canned and realize -- Jim, the writing is on the wall. Trust me. You are in serious trouble tonight, legal jeopardy.

You abused your power. I know you are thinking you are super patriot but a lot of the FBI rank-and-file that I know are embarrassed by what you did it. It was the first FBI official to sign off on that FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign associate Carter Page, oh, based on unverified, uncorroborated, bought and paid-for the Clinton campaign op research and "The New York Times" is telling us may have been Russian disinformation. You signed up on that.

He is the one that told president-elect months later it's a dossier was unverified. It's not what he said in the FISA warrant. He said it was salacious months after he used the FISA warrant. Did he lie in October, or did he lie in January of 2017, October 2016?

He was the one who met with Susan Rice, President Obama, crazy Uncle Joe about the dossier after the election. Comey was the one who leaked government memos about his conversations with President Trump in order to spur special counsel investigation, that might be a crime even though he was the one that declare the president can fire an FBI director for any or no reason at all. He is the one who surrounded himself with partisan corrupt high-ranking officials who have all either resigned, been fired or demoted.

And now, Comey is the one, along with his fellow deep state counterparts the tables have now turned. There's a new sheriff in town. His name is Bill Barr.

And he confirmed today the investigation into your actions, the deep state spying and all the other shenanigans that happen, rigging Hillary's investigation, trying to bludgeon a president duly elected by we, the people of the United States. We now know Horowitz's investigation into FISA abuse, Huber's investigation into leaking, more investigations into Christopher Steele's bought and paid for dossier, paid for by Hillary, even Democratic collusion with Ukraine. They are trying to give us the evidence. Other probes into rampant unmasking request carried out by Susan Rice, Samantha Power in 2016, 350 percent increased -- criminal referrals are coming and here.

The United States of America is supposed to be democratic republic based on the rule of law, a constitution. It is not a bureaucratic dictatorship where power is abused and used by a select few unelected, unaccountable officials. We give you these tools because we trust you to protect this country. Not use them and turn them on the elected president of the United States or the American people.

This is now time we either get this straight or say goodbye, USA. Because as attorney general, Barr pointed out, our criminal justice system must never be used, ever used as a political weapon, ever again. Right, Jim?

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARR: The report is now in the hands of the American people. Everyone can decide for themselves. There is an election in 18 months. That is very democratic process.

But we are out of it. We have to stop using the criminal justice process as a political weapon.

To the extent there was over reached, I don't want to judge people's motives and come to conclusion on that. But to the extent there was overreach, what we have to be concerned about is, you know, a few people at the top getting into their heads that they know better than the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: I have said it before, I will say it again, Jim Comey, super patriot, you have the right to remain silent. I suggest you kind of listen. Maybe you should stop writing op-eds, start looking in the mirror and maybe beef up your legal team, which, by the way you cleverly did with people that might have testified against you, pretty smart, clever.

Joining us now, chairman of Judiciary Committee. He led today's hearing and did a phenomenal job.

And I would say on a scale of one to 10, you and the attorney general get a thousand.

That list that you went down, that's the headline. This is over. He's not changing his mind and this is all beginning.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: Well, to all my friends on the other side, we gave Mueller two years to do his job. He had 19 lawyers. He had $25 million and interviewed 500 people. He issued 2,000 subpoenas.

He had plenty of opportunity without interference.

The president gave him a million and a half documents. Everybody around the president and on the president's campaign testified voluntarily.

And here is what we know: there was no conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russians at all. The Mueller could not decide to -- chose not to press forward on obstruction. I always thought obstruction argument was absurd. It is over.

And the reason they are mad at Barr and me is because they didn't get the outcome they want. My friends on the other side want an outcome, and they don't care how they get it.

HANNITY: You know, Senator, I've known you a long time. I want you to delve into that line of questioning that I played where you went on your list.

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: FISA abuse, the rigged criminal investigation into Hillary. It was all rigged. She did violate the Espionage Act, 18 USC 793. There was classified top secret information on that server.

She had an intent by deletions, Bleach Bit and hammers and pulling SIM cards. The intent was to destroy the evidence, the very thing -- that would be obstruction -- which the very thing liberals are acting like they care about, that would be a slam dunk obstruction case to me.

What are your thoughts?

GRAHAM: Well, what I tried to show is that when it came to the Trump campaign, we had Bob Mueller, one of the most experienced lawyers, former FBI director, take two years, $25 million, 19 lawyers. Everybody in the country believed he was a fair-minded guy and he reached a conclusion that the left doesn't like.

But the verdict is in for Mueller. No collusion. No obstruction.

Now, what I tried to show the public was that when it came to Clinton, Clinton's email investigation, there was no Bob Mueller involved. There were Strzok and Page who hated Trump's guts, wanted her to a hundred million to nothing.

I want the public to know that the FISA warrant obtained against Carter Page was based on garbage, collected by foreign agent paid for by the Democratic Party, that is unverified to this day. And I want to find out that they open up a counterintelligence investigation against President Trump for bad motives. And we're going to get the answers to all those questions.

HANNITY: You know, I think this is important as well. OK, so the issue finding out with that they rigged the Clinton investigation --

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: By the way, is that the same time? Kind of interesting.

The -- where did this originate, this Crossfire Hurricane? Important questions.

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: Let's talk about the FISA abuse.

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: Now, "The New York Times" suggesting it might have been paid for Russian information? Wow, that's a big deal.

More importantly, do you believe as I do that a fraud was committed on the FISA court, in the FISA applications?

I read something. It was called, oh, the Grassley-Graham memo that said the bulk of information in the FISA applications was the paid-for dossier that might be Russian disinformation? Is that true, sir?

GRAHAM: Well, here's what I know -- that I know that McCabe said without the dossier that there would be no warrant. I know to this day there is no verification of the dossier. There's literally a bunch of garbage and the people certified to the court that it was reliable.

I know that Comey, the FBI director, after President Trump was elected, gave him the same dossier and told the president we can't verify. We just want you to know about it.

That doesn't add up. We're going to look at all of that.

But here's what I do know -- nobody cares when the other side, what the FBI did or didn't do when it comes to Clinton. They don't care what they did or didn't do when it comes to Trump. They are trying to destroy his presidency.

From their point of view, the rule of law is the tool to get an outcome. From my point of view, the rule of law protects all of us, including President Trump, including Republicans.

HANNITY: You know something, Senator, you were there with the Kavanaugh -- I thought you had one of your finest moments as a senator in the Kavanaugh hearings. It was interesting. There were a lot of "I believers" on the most outrageous allegation.

We have serious allegations now about the attorney -- I'm sorry, the lieutenant governor of the commonwealth of Virginia, rape and violent sexual assault by two women. I don't hear the "I believers".

I say that Donald Trump cured cancer, gave every American $5 million tonight and adopted the liberal agenda, they'd still hate him. Am I wrong?

GRAHAM: Well, now, you're right and it's sad because bipartisanship in their world is to be nice to their people, vote for their judges, set on the sidelines when they destroy a Trump judge. To give Mueller the space to do his job is not enough. When Mueller gives an answer they don't like, they'll destroy Bill Barr.

Bill Barr is a fine man. He will sleep well tonight. His critics are the problem and not him.

HANNITY: All right, Senator. Thanks for being with us.

And, by the way, I have no joy ever going after our great law -- FBI is the premiere law enforcement agency in the world, the 99.9 percent. The same with our intelligence community, they risk every day for us.

We have breaking news story with John Solomon, it just hit, about Nellie Ohr. It's serious.

Also, Sara Carter, Gregg Jarrett, a lot of ground left to cover. We're glad you are with us.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Breaking moments ago, from "The Hill's" John Solomon, Congressman Mark Meadows has now officially filed a criminal referral against Nellie Ohr over alleged false testimony to Congress and according to a new bombshell story from Solomon, we now have more evidence of a backdoor channel between Fusion GPS, the Department of Justice.

According to Solomon's report, during 2016 election, Nellie Ohr was feeding her Clinton funded op research to not only her husband, but two other prosecutors inside the Department of Justice, which appears to directly conflict with House testimony last year. That would be lying to Congress.

Here to explain it all from "The Hill" is John Solomon, he's also our investigative reporter, along with the number one bestselling author of "The Russian Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump", FOX News investigative reporter Sara Carter.

By the way, let me say to all three of you, that what Barr confirmed today, it's over. The Mueller report is over. He's not changing his mind, no collusion, no obstruction. But they did talk about criminal investigations into every single thing the three of you, I added a little bit myself, just a little.

And we have discussed for two-plus years on this program, I know -- by the way, I'm not happy about it. This isn't good for the country. But it is imperative for the rule of law.

John Solomon, let's go to Ukraine issue. Also, now, remember, there's "New York Times" piece trying to protect Joe Biden today because he literally held hostage American tax dollars as a means of browbeating the firing of the top law enforcement official in Ukraine who was investigating his own son.

JOHN SOLOMON, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, THE HILL: Yes. You know, a few times, Sean, you've asked, when will the mainstream media start paying attention to this? And I think we are beginning to see people pay attention to the two and a half year narrative that Gregg, Sarah and myself have tried to report out because it was the fact. Not because we have an agenda, because it was facts.

It's nice to see the news media paying attention to important developments in these stories. I think today Nellie Ohr is a really big sign of what's ahead. Everybody who had contact with the Justice Department, everybody who perpetrated the Steele dossier, everybody who signed a FISA warrant, everybody who approved intrusive tactics against the president and his campaign during this investigation are now under scrutiny.

Attorney General Barr made that incredibly clear today, and I think there's going to be a lot of bad conduct unmasked in the next few months, and I use the word unmasked with a little bit of tongue and cheek, because unmasking is one of the issues we have to get back to.

But everything that Gregg wrote about in his book, all the stories that Sara wrote about, all the things I've been able to write about at "The Hill", they are now being investigated in a serious way and that's very important development for the American people.

HANNITY: All right. Let me -- I could literally ask a billion questions, but, Gregg, you watched a lot today. I'll just throw it to you because basically corroborates the title, the substance of your book in a way that we all knew was true because we actually did the reporting.

We actually checked the facts. We actually know what exists.

GREGG JARRETT, LEGAL ANALYST: That's right, and the most important statement by William Barr today was, we have to stop using the criminal justice system as a political weapon. And what he meant by that was, all of the people at the FBI and the Department of Justice who abused their positions of power first to clear Hillary Clinton and then to frame Donald Trump for something he didn't do, and Barr today vowed in no one uncertain terms that he was going to examine not just a potential corruption in the Hillary Clinton Email Case in clearing her, but the origins of the Trump-Russian investigation. There was never any credible evidence to even start it and then using Christopher Steele.

And yes, he said he is going to look into Hillary Clinton's payment for Russian information to harm her political rival. The FISA abuse, lying to a FISA court -- and don't forget James Comey stealing government documents and leaking them to unauthorized individual.

So, I think the first thing that is going to happen in the next 45 days is the Inspector General's report. And I don't think it is possible that criminal referrals will not emanate from that. So people like Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, don't forget Brennan, Klapper -- I think they're all in legal jeopardy now.

HANNITY: And we also know from Strzok and Page closed-door testimony - this of course walks right into the Attorney General under Obama, Loretta Lynch's office and frankly, right into the Oval Office, Sara, but I'll let your general comments go.

SARA CARTER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Absolutely, Sean. I think they're going to look at a very expansive investigation into this. This is not just a fraud perpetrated on the foreign intelligence surveillance court and the FISA abuse, but this is a fraud against the American people and against their vote for a duly elected President.

So, what they're going to look at is everybody who played a role in here, all of the evidence that we, John, Gregg, you have put out over the past few years, they're going to look at that. They're going to look at the connections with the people, the most senior people in the Obama Administration.

Let's just bring up Ben Rhodes, I mean we just saw an interview with him with Nicholas Ballasy where Ben Rhodes says, "We'd knew nothing. We knew nothing about what's going on." Well, Ben Rhodes, that was -- his job was to know what was going on.

So, right off the bat, I think there is a conflict there in his own statement. He and Susan Rice would have certainly been aware of investigation. So, I think he is going to be drawn back into this. I think the American people deserve answers. Most importantly, just as Gregg said and John said, Michael Horowitz is going to come out with his report. There will certainly be criminal referrals.

HANNITY: Let me ask all three of you an exit question. And again, I applaud all of you. And I know you have a lot of work. We all have a lot of work ahead of us. This is going not be over in a day, a week, a month; it will take a year but it's coming out. Do you agree with my statement that the Attorney General confirmed today? It's over; the Mueller report is over and that he really announced today that everything we've been reporting for two years is now beginning. John?

JOHN SOLOMON, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST AND COLUMNIST, THE HILL: Yes. 100% agree with that. Yes, act one of the Russia collusion drama is over. There is a little sideshow with all these hearings going on now, but the next act of this drama is going to be the FISA abuse and misuse of our intelligence community. And there is going to be a lot of-- (CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: And Hillary's rigged investigation. Gregg, you agree?

JARRETT: Yes, I totally agree. You know, Barr today when he said, he seemed appalled that Trump was never given a defensive briefing instead.

HANNITY: Really?

(CROSSTALK)

JARRETT: The FBI decided to spy on Trump's campaign.

HANNITY: Sara, last word?

SOLOMON: Great point.

CARTER: Absolutely, the President of the United States did not conspire with Russia. That's an absolute fact, did not. And there was absolutely no obstruction because there was nothing to obstruct. And now, act two begins, as John said, the investigation into the investigators.

HANNITY: Part two now begins and that was now the story that we've been on and we will continue to stay on. When we come back, Karl Rove, Senator Josh Hawley on the disturbing display of just raw partisanship by the Democrats today. It's all noise at this point, but important, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY, R-MO: Peter Strzok says, just went to a Southern Virginia Walmart. I could smell the Trump support. I cannot believe that a top official of this government with a kind of power that these people had would try to do exercise their own prejudices and that's what this is. It's open blatant prejudice. We tried to use that in order to overturn a democratic election.

And to my mind, that's the real crisis here and it is a crisis because if there is not accountability, if this can go on to United States of America, Oh my goodness and gracious, we don't have a democracy anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Senator Josh Hawley earlier today exposing the real corruption scandal inside sadly the highest levels of our government. Joining us now more reaction to today's Senate hearing. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, Fox News Contributor Karl Rove, a great column on this by the way. Senator, I'll go - sorry, I called you Josh, disrespectful. I'm a professional.

HAWLEY: Sure you can.

HANNITY: In all seriousness, I want to know if you agree with my conclusion. The Attorney General's answers to Lindsey Graham were clear. Not changing his mind on the Mueller report. Karl wrote about this today. And that these other issues are now in full investigative mode. Do you agree with that conclusion of mine?

HAWLEY: Absolutely. That's absolutely right. The Attorney General couldn't have been more clear. The Mueller report lays this false narrative of collusion and coordination, and conspiracy. To rest, there was none of that stuff, there was no obstruction. What we need to find out now, Sean, is how did we get here? How did we get to the place that the FBI is treating the President of the United States as a spy, the elected President?

And I'll tell you why, it's because of contempt. It's because people like Peter Strzok, a top official in the FBI at the time have nothing but contempt and condescension for the people who voted for Donald Trump. They mock them, they look down on them. Peter Strzok doesn't want the people who voted for Donald Trump to actually have their votes count, and that's why where we are where we are. We've got to make sure that this never happens again.

HANNITY: Karl, the Senator is right, because of what I've been saying for a long time now that if we don't -- I love the FBI. My mom was a prison guard and my dad family court probation, all of my cousins are cops, two guys were (inaudible), they made it to the FBI. I don't want to talk about the few in the FBI that did wrong when so many, the 99%, do it all right. But if we don't get to the bottom of it, we lose - we have a serious issue in terms of this country being a country that is founded on a constitution and rule of law.

KARL ROVE, CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, well look, I think Inspector Horowitz is looking into some of these issues and the Attorney General today clearly signals that all of these are going to be reviewed and reviewed in detail. It would be nice if as a country we could come together and agree with some of these practices shouldn't be used whether you are a Republican or a Democrat.

But the Committee hearing today demonstrated to me there is a complete lack of self-awareness on the part of Senate Democrats, which makes them unlikely to come around and focus on the problems we face as a country. Take Senator Blumenthal. He went after Attorney General Barr accusing - saying you're defending the President lying to the American people.

Well, wait a minute, wasn't Richard Blumenthal, the Senator who lied for years about having been a Vietnam War veteran? Cory Booker went after the Attorney General saying you are attempting to normalize contact between American campaigns and Russian operatives who provide material support to that campaign.

Well, what did Christopher Steele do with the money that he was paid by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign? He goes in contacts KGB and FSB agents in Moscow to say, do you have anything dirty to say about Donald Trump?

HANNITY: I think the evidence is overwhelming intra controvertible. Hillary Clinton violated the Espionage Act. She had the intent when she deleted, bleached it, beat up devices with hammers and pulled SIM cards. That was the intent for underlying crime which was the Espionage Act. I believe the dossier The New York Times may be on to something that in fact that could be Russian disinformation.

That was the bulk of information for FISA application. That was one direction to spy on the Trump campaign. Another was Stefan Halper approaching Papadopoulos and Clovis and others, and Page, and that to me would be fought in the courts. And then they used the same lying Russian disinformation to bludgeon a duly elected President to take him out. I mean, Karl. ROVE: And then today, Booker sitting there and saying - acting as if nothing ever happened with Christopher Steele going to Moscow, calling up his pals in Moscow and saying, got any dirt on Trump?

Same with Kamala Harris. She just grates on me and she goes after Barr and says, did you ever look at the underlying evidence? He said well no, as a matter of fact, I assumed - I took as fact what Bob Mueller told me in his 400 page report. Well, she was the Chief Prosecutor in San Francisco.

Can she look to camera straight in the eye and say that on every decision that she made--

HANNITY: No, no.

ROVE: --to indict somebody or not indict somebody.

HANNITY: It was laughable.

ROVE: --that she looked at all the underlying evidence, or did she rely upon the police? You are absolutely right. And yet this is the kind of stuff that they were doing routinely today and it just speaks to the rage and the anger and the lack of credibility of so many of these Democrats here on that Committee today who were sitting there presuming to judge, when they're saying things that just go straight back at them - blind Dick Blumenthal.

HANNITY: You agree, and then I'm going to give the last word to the Senator. This is political suicide, what they are doing, for them. I don't want to stop them being stupid and the New Green Deal is icing on the cake.

HAWLEY: Well, I do think it is bad. This is what my column that you were kind enough to mention is about on The Wall Street Journal tomorrow. I wish they wouldn't do it--

HANNITY: Whoops, I didn't know it was early copy.

HAWLEY: --it's not good for the country, but it's certainly not good for the Democratic Party.

HANNITY: I've already seen it, sorry. Last word, Senator, where do we go from here? Do you believe Hillary might have broken the law, FISA Court obstruction happened, in other words FISA abuse fraud and did they try to use Hillary's bought and paid for dossier to unseat the duly elected President? Do you believe all that?

HAWLEY: Well, I believe that all of that's possible and I believe we've to get the facts, Sean, and that's where we go from here. We find out what happened. We find out what the facts really are. We find out how a spy investigation against a duly elected President got launched. That's what we need to do.

If we need a Special Counsel for that, by the way, I'm all for it. But the American people deserve to know or else we don't have a democracy.

HANNITY: Well said, alright thank you both. Karl, sorry I gave away your column. I didn't know it was tomorrow, I thought it's today. I read along, you sent it to me.

Anyway, Andy McCarthy calling Mueller's letter a neat trick. He joins us and Ken Starr is going to explain how, in the case of the Attorney General, he didn't have to release any of this because Democrats wanted it that way after the Starr report. Straight ahead.

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HANNITY: Andy McCarthy out with a new op-ed discussing last night's convenient leak to The Washington Post on Mueller's letter to Barr were he express misgivings about Barr's summary of the Special Counsel's report. McCarthy's piece calls it a neat trick. Joining us now with reaction, Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy, and former independent counsel Ken Starr.

You know what's interesting, Andy, because when you look what they did, they wanted to stir the pot and they got the leak. And then you have to look in the body of what it says in that Barr called Mueller, and Mueller - no, nothing inaccurate or factually wrong in what you said in your four- page letter, nothing.

ANDREW MCCARTHY, CONTRIBUTOR: Yes well, Sean, look here is what happened here. Mueller, when he got this investigation, was teed up for basically as an obstruction investigation. I think by then it was pretty clear already that there was no collusion case, especially if you stripped out the Clinton provided Steele dossier.

And he didn't - that is Mueller didn't resolve the obstruction charge, which is really the only thing arguably you needed a Special Counsel for. Barr put out a letter setting forth what the conclusions of the investigation were, and that letter made it obvious that Mueller had advocated on the one thing he was needed for.

Mueller got a lot of criticism about that and it upset him. So he obviously wrote a letter to Barr complaining. But what he was complaining about was not Barr's articulation of the findings, it was that the media giving him a hard time. When you've been the subject of a fawning press for a couple of years and all of a sudden, you're catching darts, it's upsetting.

HANNITY: You know, Ken Starr, great to see you. Correct me if my memory is wrong, maybe I'm off here, isn't it true people like Jerry Nadler -- you worked under the old independent counsel statute. Guys like Jerry Nadler didn't want the Starr report coming out, and other Democrats, just recollection maybe I'm wrong, I don't think I am.

And didn't the Democrats, aren't they the ones that wanted to change and get rid of the independent counsel law after the impeachment? By the way, didn't you have 11 specific crimes that Bill Clinton committed in your report, maybe I'm wrong, that you mentioned specifically? And they are the ones that gave Barr the authority not to release anything. He didn't have to release one word.

KENNETH STARR, FORMER IDEPENDENT COUNSEL: That's exactly - that's exactly right. We've really gone back to the old regime of the independent counsel statute and we had turned our back on that. We said no, we don't want that anymore. That was really a bad period. 21 years under the independent counsel statute, so for 20 years, Sean, we've now had I think a very reasonable set of regulations.

But Bill Barr said something very interesting today. He said I overrode the regulations. He had the power and the authority to do it. But the irony is, Bill Barr is being savaged even though he has erred on the side of transparency just as - and you're absolutely right about Jerry Nadler.

When he was in the House of Representatives then, as opposed to now, he was opposed to the release of the Starr report. He was right then. And why was he right, because it was highly - obviously highly private material. But nonetheless it was highly relevant to the House's consideration of the 11 counts of articles of impeachment.

HANNITY: How many specific crimes I think - look, I was right about Nadler and I guess I got lucky. Were there specific crimes that you talked about with Clinton?

STARR: Absolutely.

HANNITY: How many?

STARR: We began with perjury in the civil deposition. Well, there were 11 counts in all, but it boiled down to perjury and two venues obstruction of justice, and then here is the key, abuse of power that was count 11.

HANNITY: Wow, I can't believe I'm right on that, wow amazing. Great work both of you. Thank you both for being with us. Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann, well his lawyer friend of mine, Lin Wood, filed another lawsuit and we're going to tell you which Trump heating media organization better lawyer up and better check their bank account because they are going to pay a fortune. Straight ahead.

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HANNITY: Important news, Covington High School student Nicholas Sandmann and his lawyers, well Lin Wood, they're not finished taking on the mainstream fake news media mob. Trace Gallagher has a very important report in our West Coast Newsroom. Trace, this is fascinating, how much, who?

TRACE GALLAGHER, CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot. Yes, the court battles you have to be away, Sean, but difficult to argue that media outlets did not vilify Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann. And now Sandmann's lawyers have filed a third lawsuit, this one against NBCUniversal which includes MSNBC for $275 million.

The suit alleges that they used "vast corporate wealth, influence and power against Nicholas to falsely attack him by relying heavily on biased and unreliable sources without conducting any reasonable investigation of the circumstances."

Remember when a snippet of video was posted on social media, showing Sandmann staring down a Native American man, the media narrative was that Sandmann and the MAGA hat wearing Covington kids were wrong.

But the entire two hours of video showed the altercation began with the students being verbally attacked. Even an independent investigation showed the students were not the instigators. Sandmann's lawyers have sued The Washington Post and CNN, and they say more are yet to come. Sean?

HANNITY: All right, get your checkbooks out because you're all going to pay massive amounts of money and you deserve to.

All right, we'll never be the fake news media mob and Mueller is dead and now chapter two begins. And let not your heart be troubled.

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