Kellyanne Conway: Let's have a James Comey memo tour

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Kellyanne Conway: Let's have a James Comey memo tour

Former FBI director James Comey's memos about Trump are released; senior counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway reacts on 'Hannity.'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 19, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Absolutely zero. This is the busiest breaking news night we've had in well over a year, short of the strikes last Friday. Thank you, Mark.

Welcome to 'Hannity.'

All right. We'll get to my opening monologue, which is going to be extensive tonight, in just a minute. There's so much news today.

But, first, in fact, Fox News has now obtained a redacted version of the Comey memos that were just handed over to lawmakers.

And joining us now live in Washington with all of the details is our chief national correspondent Ed Henry.

Ed, I heard ironically, it says, oh, I am not sneaky, I don't leak. OK.

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is remarkable, Sean.

One of the Comey memos is James Comey putting together the details of the late January 2017 dinner in the Green Room at the White House with the president of the United States. We've heard about this before. It was leaked out to "The New York Times" many months ago, and has since been confirmed that the dinner took place.

But yes, what is new tonight is that James Comey himself says that he told the president in terms of whether he may stay on as FBI director, this is obviously a short time before he was fired, he says, I don't do sneaky things, according to the memo James Comey wrote. I don't leak. He goes on to say the FBI gets a lot of the blame, but in fact, I think they leak very little, people inside the FBI.

How ironic, Sean that these memos are coming out on the day when the president is tweeting about how he believes James Comey has leaked classified information. By the way, that memos I have, I should note, are redacted, the ones that we're obtaining tonight because we believe there is classified information in what Comey put together and then leaked out through a professor friend to 'The New York Times' and elsewhere.

Remember, Republican Charles Grassley has had at least four of the seven memos that we are looking at tonight have classified information. Also these memos coming out, James Comey in one of them again, saying the FBI doesn't like, I don't leak. This is coming out, Sean, on the same day that Comey's number two at the FBI, Andrew McCabe, has -- is facing a criminal referral that has just been sent today by the nonpartisan inspector general at the Justice Department to the U.S. attorney here in Washington for criminal charges for Andrew McCabe for, yes, leaking information to the media against the wishes of the FBI, number one. And number two, more importantly perhaps, lying to FBI investigators about that.

McCabe today says he will be vindicated. He doesn't think he'll face charges. But that is an ironic twist to this.

I want to note another quick thing, which is that there is a point in here where Comey recaps that late January 2017 dinner and he says among other things, the president was talking about, quote, the extraordinary luxury of the White House, which he favorably compared to Mar-a-Lago, of course, his estate in palm beach. Why do I mention that?

Remember, there was a story that came out saying that the president had allegedly said that the White House is a dump, he can't stand it. It's not as good as his properties. The president at the time said this is fake news, I never said that. James Comey now and one of these memos, Sean, is saying the president at dinner said the White House was quite luxurious and better than Mar-a-Lago. So, I don't know what version of events you can believe.

Finally, I'll note. I'm going through these pages, about 14, 15 pages of Comey memos. There is not a piece of information from James Comey that suggests there was any Russian collusion or that he talked to the president about that, and I'm talking -- I just got off the phone about five, 10 minutes ago with a top congressional aide who received the unredacted, some of the unredacted versions of this, is saying that there is nothing new on collusion and nothing new on obstruction.

So, this is remarkable that early in the Comey book to her, as he faces questions about his candor, the Comey memos are now coming out and don't really seem to have any blockbusters, Sean.

HANNITY: And I can also confirm that when I first interviewed the president right after he took office, he said to me, the most luxurious place he's ever been in. That's a fascinating tidbit.

And also, 18 USC 793, which we have been informing this audience about, you cannot leaked classified information.

Great report. We're going to check in with you. Keep combing through that as it comes in as we speak.

HENRY: Yes.

HANNITY: All right. Also tonight, on such a busy news night, there are reports tonight Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has told the president -- pay attention -- he is not a target in both the special counsel's investigation and in the probe of his personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Now, that would mean, no Trump-Russia collusion, as we have been saying. Is the media paying attention?

Also brand-new tonight, Rudy Giuliani, other lawyers, joining the president's legal team.

Plus also tonight, the DOJ's inspector general sends a criminal referral for a former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to U.S. attorneys in Washington, D.C. This just happened today.

Now, this comes as McCabe's old boss James Comey is saying he could in fact be witness in that potential criminal case. And after almost a year of trashing President Trump, James Comey is now suddenly changing his tune. We have the tape.

And the former FBI director is playing dumb about the Clinton email investigation. We have that tape. And you won't believe what he is now claiming.

We'll play all of that and so much more in tonight's breaking news opening monologue.

(MUSIC)
HANNITY: Buckle up, this is a busy news night. We start with crushing blows for the radical left and destroy Trump media. According to reports, the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, has told the president last Thursday he's not a target in the Mueller Russia probe or the separate investigation into the president's personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Rod Rosenstein reportedly, voluntarily shared that information with the president during this meeting at the White House last Thursday. And this comes as president Trump shot down wild rumors and speculation that he will fire Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein. This has been going on for months.

These developments are good news for the president and a major setback for the conspiratorial media and liberal Democrats in this country. For over a year, they have been saying that there is a major bombshell evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. One problem, it doesn't exist. And that is confirmed in force tonight.

It's all been one big giant farce, total fabrication, conspiracy theory, designed to smear and undermine and delegitimize the president of the United States. As we are now seeing tonight, it continues to fall apart.

Another key development we are following tonight, the president is adding some very serious firepower to his legal team. Former New York City mayor, former federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani and two other key attorneys have just been added. Now, Rudy Giuliani told 'The Washington Post' that he is coming aboard because he hopes to negotiate an end to the Russian probe for the good of the country. I say amen because the American people, all of you, deserve better that this.

It's a crucial move because as we have been telling you, Robert Mueller, his merry team of Democratic donors, they need to stop this ever-expanding insanity. Russian collusion now has become and evolved into Stormy Daniels, this madness has to end.

And also tonight, the former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, he is in some serious legal trouble. The DOJ inspector general has issued a criminal referral for McCabe after finding that he lied under oath three times in an investigation about media leaks. Jim Comey, are you paying attention?

Even though the evidence against him is overwhelming, McCabe's legal team is firing back with a statement that reads, quote, 'we are advised within -- the referral within the past few weeks, although we believe the referral was unjustified. The standard for an I.G. referral is very low. We have already met with staff members from the U.S. attorney's office and we are confident, unless there is inappropriate pressure from high levels of the administration, the U.S. attorney's office will conclude that it should decline to prosecute.'

Here's the problem with that statement. The investigation into McCabe had nothing to do with President Trump. This is the DOJ inspector general, his name is Michael Horowitz -- get used to that name because you're going to hear a lot about it in the next few weeks -- he independently reached the conclusion about McCabe lying and he was appointed by President Obama.

And this part is key. McCabe's old boss and his friend James Comey, he is now admitting that he is the ones that kick-started the entire probe against Andrew McCabe. Not Donald Trump. Comey is also saying that he could end up being a witness in a possible criminal case against Andrew McCabe, his number two at the FBI.

Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: If they ultimately bring a case against Andrew McCabe, would you be a witness for the prosecution?

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Potentially. I don't know whether the reporting is accurate. I don't know it's CNN reporting, but I don't know it of my own accord. But sure, given that the I.G.'s report reflects interactions that Andy McCabe had with me and other FBI senior executives, I could well be a witness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Looks like McCabe is clearly channeling his inner Hillary Clinton and pretending like there's some vast right wing conspiracy out to get this guy. But it was his own friend, his boss, his number one, he was number two, James Comey, he is not sticking by him.

President Trump is weighing in on this on Twitter. He said, 'James Comey just threw Andrew McCabe under the bus. Inspector general's report on McCabe is a disaster for both of them, getting a little -- a lot -- of their own medicine.'

And speaking of Hillary Clinton, McCabe's growing legal exposure, this could be a very bad sign for her and other Obama deep state actors. As we explained last night, nearly a dozen GOP lawmakers, they sent a criminal referral to the DOJ and the FBI demanding investigations into possible crimes committed by Clinton, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Loretta Lynch, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and other Obama era officials. It's a massive story.

Take a look at the side of your screen. These are the criminal charges that they are recommending for just James Comey. They sent a letter to the FBI, the DOJ, U.S. Attorney John Huber laying out a pretty case against the former FBI Director. As we've warned him, don't write the book and don't go on a book tour.

They explained how Comey fixed the Clinton email investigation, again, remember, how long have we have been telling you? Exoneration before interviewing Hillary Clinton and 17 other key witnesses, it doesn't work that way. These lawmakers lay out how Comey gave conflicting testimony under oath, possibly even committing perjury, and admitted to having a friend leak the information about his memos to 'The New York Times,' which in light of the Comey memos just released, he said, I'm not sneaky, I'm not a leaker. Well, he admitted that he leaked.

The lawmakers are also referring criminal charges to Hillary Clinton over the scheme that she used, what funneling over $12 million to Fusion GPS through a law firm Perkins Coie that then hired a foreign national. Remember, foreign nationals are bad. Not supposed to influence our election, Christopher Steele. And he is the one that used and created the unverified, uncorroborated dossier that was full of Russia and Russian government lies and propaganda, all in an effort to mislead you, the American people in the lead up to an election.

Criminal charges are also being recommended by these lawmakers for former Attorney General Loretta Lynch threatening the Uranium One informant. He was on the show with reprisal. Anti-Trump FBI lovers, Strzok and Lisa Page, they are also being referred for criminal charges.

This congressional letter is also asking Andrew McCabe and other Obama deep state officials, those involved in the dossier, being investigated for possible criminal conduct.

And finally tonight, James Comey's media circus is turning into what is an unmitigated disaster for the disgraced former FBI director. Just this weekend, Comey was trashing President Trump to Clinton sycophant, BFF George Stephanopoulos. Remember this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS: You write that President Trump is unethical. Untethered to the truth. Is Donald Trump unfit to be president?

COMEY: Yes. But not in the way I often hear people talk about it. I don't buy the stuff about him being mentally incompetent or early stages of dementia. He strikes me as a person of above average intelligence, who's tracking conversations and knows what's going on. I don't think he is medically unfit to be president. I think he is morally unfit to be president.

A person who sees moral equivalence in Charlottesville, who talks about entry and treats women like they are pieces of meat, who lies constantly about matters big and small, and insists the American people believe it, that person is not fit to be the president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: So, after being called out for taking those petty, cheap shots -- well, Comey, all of a sudden, yes, yes, uh-oh, he's beginning to change his tune. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: You write that your experience will give you a lifelong hatred for bullies. Do you think President Trump is a bully? And do you hate him?

COMEY: I definitely don't hate him. There are things he does that make me uncomfortable and I think are inappropriate that are in some ways like a bully-like behavior. But I don't hate Donald Trump. I don't even dislike Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: So, Comey can't seem to make his mind up.

The guy spent the past year slamming President Trump, including mocking his appearance in every way imaginable and now we're supposed to believe that Comey when he tells us that, oh, he doesn't hate the president? Does he think we're that dumb? It is a massive contradiction for James Comey.

But it's not the only confounding answer this guy is giving. Here's Comey claiming that he's never been asked if Hillary Clinton obstructed justice in her email case during a radio interview on WTOP in D.C. This is unbelievable. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

HOST: Why wouldn't smashing cell phones on the destruction of thousands of emails during an investigation clearly be obstruction of justice?

COMEY: Now, that's a great question. That's the first time I've been asked that. And the answer is, it would depend upon what the intent of the people doing it was. Lots of people smash their cell phones so they are not resold on a secondary market and your personal stuff ends up on somebody's hands. But if you smash your cell phone, knowing that the investigators want it and they have a subpoena for it, for example, that is a different thing and can be obstruction of justice.

HOST: The law requires intent?

COMEY: Yes, not just intent, the prosecutors demonstrate corrupt intent.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HANNITY: Seriously? He was never asked if Clinton and her team obstructed justice? Really?

Try this. Subpoenaed emails, subpoenaed -- OK, imagine, then, if we have to worry about intent, after the subpoena, you delete 33,000 emails. You use acid wash, BleachBit, which most Americans have never heard about. Then someone on your team smashes your mobile devices with a hammer.

Seriously, after the subpoena, there's no intent? Good luck to any of you that try that with any court or any prosecutor in the country. I don't think it's going to work out well.

Comey is either totally and completely incompetent or he must think we're fools. This is why so many people have been calling for an unbiased investigation into what Hillary Clinton had done here. Do we have equal justice under the law? Equal application under the laws? Are we a constitutional republic?
Here with reaction, the author of "Trumped Up", Harvard Law School Professor, Alan Dershowitz, who many in the media said I'd never invite back on the show, which is totally untrue. And FOX News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett.

Welcome back, both of you.

Gregg, I know you have been pouring through all of these memos.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

HANNITY: What is remarkable, I think, is what Ed Henry picked up on. I'm not sneaky and I don't leak.

OK. Apparently, he's sneaky and he leaks.

JARRETT: We know he's sneaky and he leaks. And so, that puts a lie to that statement. Two things that jump out at me is that the president expresses that he's got this Russia cloud hanging over him. Can you look into it? And clear it up and lift the cloud, because if Comey had told the president, you know, he did not find any wrongdoing on his part.

And when the president says, please lift the cloud, Comey says we are running it down. The other thing that strikes me is, there is absolutely no evidence here of any obstruction of justice. You know, this is a recounted conversation exactly as his testimony. There is nothing else in there, no red flags, no smoking gun that would incriminate the president, and so as Trey Gowdy, who had see that several months ago said, it's the best exhibit A defense of President Trump.

HANNITY: You know, let me go to professor Dershowitz and professor, you are always welcome on the show. Whether we agree or disagree. I have deep respect for you. And I know we disagree on a lot of the Hillary part of this, which I'll be glad to get into that.

But let's -- let's first go to the leak. That's a crime, if we are going to be technical, 18 USC 793. Gregg Jarrett, you've taught me a lot in the last year.

Number one, when you couple this, nothing about Russia collusion, Rod Rosenstein's statement to the president, that he is not a target, in either case, the New York case or Mueller's case. Does that put emphasis on the fact that there is no collusion whatsoever?

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, PROFESSOR, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: Well, collusion is not a crime. I've seen no evidence of collusion. Obstruction of justice can't be charged against a sitting president for exercising his authority, under Article Two of the Constitution.

But if I were the president, I would be concerned about the Southern District of New York, which is probably why he brought Rudy Giuliani onto his team, who was this former U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, because I've told clients, for 53 years, you can't have any confidence that your best friend, your brother, your sister-in-law, won't flip if the government charges them with serious crimes. You can charge people with a series of technical crimes that could result in life imprisonment. The pressure is intense.

And then, the pressure is not only to sing, but to compose, because what happens is a witness knows that he'll get a better deal if he can elaborate, if you can make up stories, if he can tell the government what the government wants to hear. That may not always be the truth. So, I don't think that President Trump is out of the woods yet.

HANNITY: Agree.

DERSHOWITZ: I think he has to be concerned about the Southern District of New York.

I don't think he ever had any real vulnerability from a special counsel's investigation of the Russia thing. But I will tell you, all the stuff that is coming out now confirms what I've said from day one. There should have been a nonpartisan national commission of experts looking into the entire 2016 election, faults on all sides, what was the effort, what did they do, what did each of the candidates do without recrimination, just to avoid a repetition of this in my future. When you start looking for crimes, you don't end up getting the truth.

HANNITY: Devin Nunes warned everybody. It was public. In an op-ed in "The Washington Times" that Russia was going to do this, number one, and if you remember just a couple of weeks before the election, it was President Obama saying, no serious person would ever believe that any foreign entity could ever have any impact on our elections and lectured Donald Trump to stop whining. That's a quote.

DERSHOWITZ: Well, first of all, President Obama tried to have an impact on the election of Benjamin Netanyahu. I have absolutely no doubt that he and his administration --

HANNITY: Thank you. You're the only one that says that.

DERSHOWITZ: -- tried to get Netanyahu unelected.

HANNITY: Check mate.

DERSHOWITZ: And, you know, the United States has tried to influence foreign elections, going back years and years to Central America and South America. So, of course, we should be concerned about the Russians trying to influence our elections.

HANNITY: Absolutely, of course.

DERSHOWITZ: You know, what we did is nothing compared to what the Russians tried to do.

Now, whether they succeed or had any impact, I don't know, but I do think that this is a national problem that all Americans should be concerned with on a nonpartisan basis.

(CROSSTALK)

JARRETT: But this is something of the Russians have always done.

HANNITY: This is a nonpartisan comment. I'll throw this to Gregg. That's why you can't take classified, top-secret special access programming information, and to avoid congressional oversight, put it on a mom-and-pop shop server that Comey even wrote in his original exoneration of Hillary Clinton, that we believe probably Russia, foreign intel agencies got a hold of.

Let me ask you about this criminal referral today about Andrew McCabe and the fact that a Comey could be a witness against his own number two.

JARRETT: Yes. I mean, you've got to Comey that says that McCabe is a liar. McCabe says that Comey is a liar. Well, someone is a liar and maybe both of them are liars.

DERSHOWITZ: Or none of them. Or none of them, you know --

JARRETT: Or none of them, although, I must say, that today, the inspector general said that the lies were, quote, knowing unintentionally made and they have evidence of that. That's very powerful language.

HANNITY: It is.

JARRETT: So, I would expect that McCabe would be charged, may be as many as four different charges for four different lies. And Comey may soon be sitting nearby in another court room facing his own charges. I count at least six potential criminal statutes that Comey may have violated.

HANNITY: And so, you agree with Congressman DeSantis' letter. Did you agree with him on the law, Gregg?

JARRETT: Yes, absolutely. He nailed the law, and exactly the same fashion that you and I have talked about for months and we put on the screen all the different statutes, DeSantis on the other members of Congress cited the same statutes.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I have one question to Professor Dershowitz, because we are almost out of time.

DERSHOWITZ: Sure.

HANNITY: And this may be as an area where we do disagree. And I urge you -- I know that if I had subpoenaed my server and my emails and I deleted, after subpoenaed, 33,000, acid wash, clean the hard drive with Bleach Bit, and bust up devices with hammers, that to me shows full intent, which would fulfill the mandate that even Comey acknowledges as it relates to obstruction.

But more importantly, I think you will agree with me, professor that as a civil libertarian, that when Hillary Clinton pays for a dossier, through literally a foreign agent that they hired through Perkins Coie and funneled the money to Fusion GPS, the FBI and at the DOJ, nobody verified the information, corroborated it. It's presented to a FISA court, they don't all the FISA court judge that an opposition party candidate gave it to them.

That is -- we lose our country in my view, professor, if that happens again. Is that dangerous?

DERSHOWITZ: Look, I agree. I think failing to give the FISA court all the negative information so it could evaluate the credibility and lack of credibility of that request for a warrant was a serious, serious flaw. My problem was when you list all these statutes, you make my point, and that is under a federal criminal law, almost anybody can be charged with anything if you look hard enough.

On the area of perjury, remember Scooter Libby.

HANNITY: Yes.

DERSHOWITZ: I believe he told the truth. Somebody else told a different truth. And they prosecuted him for perjury. I think that happens more often than anybody thinks.

HANNITY: Let me --

DERSHOWITZ: And you have to be very worried about expending the criminal law and targeting people based on this accordion-like criminal law that every several libertarian should be concerned about.

HANNITY: Well said, professor. By the way, you are always welcome, even if you want to yell at me.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: Great point --

DERSHOWITZ: I will when I think you deserve it.

HANNITY: Oh, I know. Oh, I am very well aware. It was all over the place.

Thank you, sir. I appreciate your insight.

And, Gregg, thank you.

All right. Joining us with more of our top story tonight, Comey's memos just released. We have copies. Fox News contributor Sara Carter, civil rights criminal defense attorney David Schoen.

Sara, number one on the release of the memos, and number two, to your credit, you have been saying this criminal referral as it relates to Andrew McCabe has been coming for quite a while on the show.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, we've been reporting that for some time. And it's because -- look, the facts stand on their face. And if someone is caught lying, particularly to the FBI, I mean, he is the deputy director, was the deputy director of the FBI, he got caught in lies. I think as is stated by the inspector general today, very clearly, he knowingly lied to, intentionally lied to. And that's something that he is going to have to deal with now.

And as for the Comey memos, Sean, I got to tell you something jumped out at me right away as I read this. On the first -- it was January 6th when they went to Trump Tower, and Comey's first memos, he talks about Clapper asking him -- James Clapper asking him to brief the president-elect on this dossier privately. And remember, it's Clapper that Congress believed allegedly leaked the information eventually to CNN that broke on the 12th of January, 2017, about the dossier.

CNN and a lot of other news agencies actually had this dossier and didn't want to run with it because it was salacious, it was unverified. They didn't want to do anything with it. But until they briefed the president, that was where they built a foundation so that the dossier could be leaked to the public.

And another thing, Comey did not -- Comey did not inform the president that they were using this dossier as a bulk, of course, to investigate him.

HANNITY: This is the irony. It was used as the basis for the FISA warrants in October. Comey knew all about it. He knew it was unverified.

They never -- he is admitting it in interviews this week. He didn't verify it. But you use it before a FISA judge.

David Schoen, why again do I feel, if anybody in our audience, if I did, and if you did it, and if Sara did it, we'd be locked up. You don't lie to a judge. If I'm one of those four FISA judges, I'd be apoplectic. I want to know what they think tonight.

DAVID SCHOEN, CIVIL RIGHTS AND CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I would imagine that the FISA judges are outraged and they want a lot more information. Look, in any circumstance, a prosecutor is not permitted to lie or omit evidence, information when getting a warrant.

But the FISA court of all things, since 1978 has been recognized as the exception. It's a secret court. It's a court in which the government makes ex parte unilateral submissions. They must be above board, the full disclosure at all times.

And I'll tell you this, the government is being a bit selective, Mr. Comey and others a bit selective with what they want to disclose. Another thing in those memos are questions the president asked about whether a FISA application was up as to Mr. Flynn, and Comey said, well, on this occasion, he would tell him, but in the future there's a different protocol. Can't be selective in those kinds of disclosures.

HANNITY: All right. What about Rod Rosenstein telling the president last Thursday, Sara, that he's not a target and either probe? Now, I get that status can change. Why would Rod Rosenstein volunteer that information and Rod is releasing this now tonight. But we still have 1.2 million documents we've been waiting for that was subpoenaed by Chairman Bob Goodlatte and others.

CARTER: Well, let's start with the documents first and then I'll go to Mr. Rosenstein and what he did there. As far as the documents are concerned, I have been told that there's roughly of the 1.2 million, 46,000 documents that pertain to these cases in particular.

Remember that the inspector general has asked for the whole of all the documentation, of all the people that he's investigating. So, sometimes that is all different cases, cases that may have nothing to do with this or emails that may have nothing to do with those. Of those documents, of those 1.2 million, it's 46,000. Of that, Congress has only received over 3,000.

HANNITY: Unbelievable.

CARTER: So, they have every right to be upset. And as for Mr. Rosenstein, why did he tell the president that? Well, right now, we have seen a lot of tension between the White House and Department of Justice. And maybe Mr. Rosenstein is trying to give the president for making a move that he thinks he might make, which is maybe firing him. That could be one reason.

HANNITY: It's unbelievable.

CARTER: But the president said he wouldn't. So, I mean, that is another thing. We got to go with of the president said, that he has no intention right now of firing him. They are both still working there. You know, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as well as Rosenstein.

HANNITY: Thank you. David, we'll give you the last word, we have some breaking news in a second. Go ahead.

SCHOEN: OK. Subject that you raised earlier. Sara Carter's article yesterday about Congress' referral, Mrs. Clinton, et cetera, very, very important. We are seeing constitutional structural lesson here. Article One, the legislature now is flexing its muscle. For anyone who says they don't do anything, in this case, they're taking an active role.

The president is being laid back in the sense, as ironic as that sounds, he could be doing a lot more with his Article 2 power and the Justice Department. But he's letting that run its course. Congress is now taking an active role, it's very important constitutional lesson. Everyone should read that article.

HANNITY: All right, great job come both of you. Sara, thank you. David, thank you, both. Ed Henry, he has now been pouring over these just- released Comey memos. And he joins us from Washington. You were very quick to pick up, oh, I'm not sneaky, I don't leak, and we know better now. What have you got?

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I've got something new here, Sean, that's important I think. A March 30th, 2017 memo from James Comey, we've just gone through it. It is summarizing a phone call that Comey we had with the President of the United States.

What is significant is that Comey says the President was not trying to shut down the FBI investigation of collusion. Instead, Comey says the President wanted to find out if anyone in the campaign did anything wrong, number one.

And number two, wanted to Comey, as we've heard previously, not really new, wanted Comey, the FBI, to go out there, and say the President was not personally under investigation, because he felt like this was hurting him in domestic politics here, health care votes, but also on international negotiations.

So here's the key point. In this memo, Comey writes that at one point, quote, Trump said that if there was some satellite, Comey took this to mean some associate oh his campaign that did something, it would be good to find that out.

But that he had not done anything, and hoped I would find a way to get out, that we were not investigating him. This is why it significant because James Comey in this March 2017 memo is saying that the President told him he wanted to find out if anything had gone wrong with collusion.

He didn't do anything personally, the President insisted. But of some satellite, some advisor, someone had done something wrong, and had contact with Russia, he wanted to find it out.

The point being it would not be consistent with obstruction of justice if you are telling the FBI director, please find this out, but oh, by the way, please also tell the public I'm not personally under investigation. One other...

HANNITY: He's actually telling, Ed -- He's actually saying to them, if somebody did it, I want you to find it.

HENRY: Let's find out, get the truth.

HANNITY: He's not only not shutting the investigation down, he is literally encouraging him to find the truth, which that is the smoking gun in the memo that nobody...

HENRY: Not according to sean Hannity, but according to James Comey, which is the key. James Comey is saying it, right?

HANNITY: Good point. That's a very good point. You know, every one of my guests, just feel free, just take a shot at Hannity. Alan Dershowitz, Ed Henry, just fire at Hannity. All right, keep pouring through all of that.

HENRY: We'll come back if we get more.

HANNITY: Great job as always. Ed Henry in Washington tonight, and joining us now on these latest developments, he is the host of CRTV's LevinTV, the host of the hit show, Sunday night, 10:00 eastern, right here on Fox, 'Life, Liberty, and Levin,' I call him the great one, Mark Levin.

Let me puck up right where we just left off there, the President of the United States, and James Comey's own words in the memo is saying, he did not shut down the investigation, if there are associates, or satellites, or people that are around me that did something inappropriate, I want you to get to the bottom of it. I don't think it gets any more exculpatory than that, Mark.

MARK LEVIN, LIFE, LIBERTY, AND LEVIN HOST: These memos actually help the p resident. There's nothing incriminating in them. I took 25 minutes to read as best I could, I went through them, see these redacted areas, they incriminated Comey because he said he didn't release classified information.

At the bottom of a number of these pages, it says classified. Comey said he didn't classify information, so he's got some explaining to do. But I have gone through this, the President is furious about these allegations, about prostitutes, and you know, and so forth, and he continually denies it. That didn't happened, and so forth, and so on.

These are Comey's notes. And Ed Henry made the other points. But I want to point out some become too, Sean, which is this. So today as you reported, the Deputy Attorney of the United States, Rosenstein, told the president last week that he is not a target in the Michael Cohen case, or the Russian case, or both cases. Let's get something straight.

I was on your program back in July last year. I've got two -- two memoranda, one, under the Nixon administration, one under the Clinton administration. The Clinton administration memorandum is 39 pages long with a zillion footnotes. And here is it says, America, and this is what you need to know that has been going on to your country.

The memo is addressed to the Attorney General of the United States for many office of legal counsel, which handles constitutional issues. A sitting president's ability to indictment or a criminal prosecution -- the indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting president would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.

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 there at the Justice Department, reversing these two memos during the Nixon administration, and the Clinton administration? No! No.

Mr. Rosenstein, you are the deputy Attorney General of United States. You've been overseeing Robert Mueller. You tell the President of the United States last week that he's not a criminal target.

He can't be a criminal target under the memoranda that have been written by the Justice Department! Moreover, Justice Department regulations require the special counsel of the United States to follow the rules, regulations, and quote, policies of the Department of Justice.

Mr. President, don't you sit down with this special counsel. The special counsel doesn't have the power to indict you, and for good reason! Let me read this one paragraph. This is from the Clinton administration Justice Department.

In 1973, the department concluded that the indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting president would impermissibly undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.

I'm hoping Professor Dershowitz is listening. We've been asked to summarize, or review the analysis provided in support of that conclusion, and consider whether any subsequent developments lead us to reconsider, modify, or disavow that determination.

HANNITY: Mark.

LEVIN: Please, one more sentence. We believe that the conclusion reached by the department in 1972, still represents the best interpretation of the Constitution.

They are saying, Mr. Mueller's boss, Mr. Rosenstein's boss, unless Attorney General Sessions has rejected the Department of Justice's position that a sitting president cannot be indicted, so what are we doing?

HANNITY: Well, you know what they are doing. What they are doing is that they want to set up an impeachment possibility...

LEVIN: Exactly.

HANNITY: ... depending on -- well, and that is why this whole -- listen, if anybody talk about monopoly or any type of board game, how do you go from, you know, past go, all the way to boardwalk, and park place if, in fact, now we are at Stormy Daniels.

But I have a more important question. Last night, Congressman Ron DeSantis, and 10 other congressmen sent criminal referrals for Strzok, and for Page, and McCabe, and Comey, and Hillary Clinton, and these other people involved in this dossier.

Then we have the criminal referrals today for Andrew McCabe from the inspector general. Walk us through the legal aspects of this, where this heads next, and what -- I know you have called for the firing of the attorney general, and he's a friend of yours over these years.

LEVIN: No, I did not call for the firing. I said he should step down.

HANNITY: OK, I apologize.

LEVIN: He is a friend of mine, and I don't -- I don't really enjoy it. I've known him for 30 years. And here's the problem. The deputy attorney general is out of control. The President of the United States has his shoulders pinned to the wall.

It's the job of the attorney general to control the deputy attorney general. The Deputy Attorney General of the United States is usurping the powers of the attorney general. The attorney general was confirmed by the Senate. He's a presidential appointee.

This is what our Constitution requires. An inferior officer cannot usurp the power of the Attorney General as Mr. Rosenstein has done. I'm going to tell you something, there's a case that has been taking place in the Manafort case.

They went into district court, and they said Mueller is exercising authority he doesn't have. This took place today with all of the rest of the stuff going on. I don't know what this federal district judges going to do but you know what she said in open court? They are making a fair point here.

Mr. Rosenstein gave the special counsel such a remarkably broad powers that it may well be unconstitutional. So let's sum up. The deputy director of the FBI may well be under criminal investigation because he's a serial leaker. The former FBI director may be a witness against his former deputy, and the deputy may be a witness against the former FBI director who he says is lying. What?

HANNITY: OK. There are a couple of things. I want to go back to a question I asked Professor Dershowitz because this is important. Everything that we now know about Hillary Clinton, and if I -- you would be my best lawyer. I'd call you. You are my friend. You are the great one. I call you the great one.

But if I deleted 33,000 subpoenaed emails, acid watched the hard drive, beat the crap at devices, or had someone else do it that would be destruction of justice. You know it, I know it, the American people know it.

When he wrote, Comey, and his Trump hating buddy, Strzok, the exoneration, before the investigation, we know the fix was in. You don't write that in May, you don't interview her until July, which they did.

And then if we have a dossier, you will hand that dossier to a foreign national, Russian lies, to a FISA court judge, and don't say who paid for it, and you don't verify it, Mark, you have said this is a post constitutional America.

That -- these instances verify what you wrote in your last book has 100 percent accurate. These are scary times if you believe in the rule of law, equal application under the law, and the constitution. Explain.

LEVIN: This is the greatest scandal in modern American history. We have the highest echelons of the FBI, and a lot of former FBI officials who are friends of mine because I've worked on the Justice Department, who are corrupt. I don't mean on the tape, I mean politically corrupt.

You are seeing that play out now. And you are actually -- the American people are getting a real taste of Mr. Comey, and they don't like him. You are also seeing the criminalization of politics. And you are also -- we haven't even gotten into what the intelligence side has done.

Let's be honest about this. The Democrat Party nominated somebody who is under criminal investigation. Mr. Comey stepped in and protected her. Hillary Clinton is too stupid to understand that he protected her from being indicted not ones, but twice.

Can you imagine, we could have had a candidate for federal office indicted. She clearly violated the Espionage Act, not once, but repeatedly. Mr. Comey says you need specific intent in a statute that talks about gross negligence. But we had to specific intent.

She specifically intended to have a server that was off-line, that didn't have a security necessary, she knew she would get classified information, and she knew she would use --write classified information.

Mr. Comey was a special pleader for Hillary Clinton, and this is why the Democrats hated him until the second after Donald Trump fired him, and then they could make their claim about Russian collusion, obstruction of justice, and try to impeach him.

HANNITY: Mark, thank you so much. The great one, you can see 'Life, Liberty, Levin' 10:00 eastern, every Sunday night. Congrats on the success of the show by the way. We love having you here at Fox.

All right, let me just read something quick from Chairman Goodlatte, and Gowdy, and Nunes on this statement on this, if can read this. It says, the memos also show Director Comey never wrote that he felt obstructed, or threatened while Comey went to great lengths to set dining room scenes, discuss height requirements, describe multiple times he felt complemented, a myriad of extraneous facts.

He never once mentioned the most relevant fact of all, which was whether he felt he was obstructing the investigation. The biggest find was by our own Ed Henry tonight who said not only did Trump say, keep looking, he said, even if its people next to me, keep the investigation going. Wow. The media is going to be eating a lot of crow. We have a lot more to get to. Stay with us. Kellyanne Conway is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Welcome back to Hannity. In just a second, we'll be joined by Kellyanne Conway, and more breaking news from Ed Henry. I want to read this from Goodlatte, Gowdy, Nunes statement on the Comey memos. This is quick.

It's a number of points they make, one, the former director shows the President made clear he wanted allegations of collusion, coordination, and conspiracy between the campaign, and Russia, even associates of him, investigated. That doesn't sound like somebody's trying to stop an investigation.

As a matter of fact, he is saying, keep going, even if they're close to me. The memo also shows the former director never wrote that he felt obstructed or threatened. And here is another great point.

These memos also lay bare the notion that Director Comey is not motivated by animus, he was willing to work for someone that he deemed morally unsuited for office, capable of lying, requiring personal loyalty, worthy of impeachment, and sharing the traits of a mob boss, and director Comey was willing to overlook all of the aforementioned characteristics to keep his job.

In his eyes, the real crime was his own firing, great point in this memo. Another point, the memo shows Comey was blind to the bias within the FBI. He has terrible judgment with respect to Andrew McCabe on multiple occasions.

He and in his own words, defended the character of McCabe after President Trump questioned McCabe. But more importantly, he lied about not leaking. I'm not sneaky, I don't leak. Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the President. This helps Donald Trump tonight. This is a big, big beginning to the end of what has been a witch hunt for pretty much day one.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: Sean, this week, we have the Comey book, and now tonight we finally have a Comey blockbuster that actually would interest, and animate the public. What you just revealed is truly remarkable, and breathtaking on many different levels.

You revealed what the president -- what Comey though the president was asking him to do, and most importantly, not what Comey claims that the pzresident was asking them to do. And I think the most remarkable thing about what you just revealed is that this is a president who from the beginning has been compliant, and transparent, and has never gotten away from this investigation.

What's remarkable to me this week is, you know, 30 days of Comey is going to be about 29 and a half days too much. And he's already not wearing while on the so-called book tour. For somebody to name his book Lies and Leadership, what is a lie is he talking about, Andrew McCabe, was number two, who just had a criminal referral tonight, now has admitted liar. What leadership? What leadership?

When the people at the highest level who are investigating Hillary Clinton aren't even bothering to tell the FISA court judge that her political enemies have offended that phony dossier to the tunes of millions and millions of dollars?

And in the case of James Comey, why didn't he tell president-elect Trump the January 6th in Trump Tower, right? Why didn't he just write it on his hands? What am I going to tell the president? Oh your political opponents funded the dossier.

Didn't even bother to tell him that, told George Stephanopoulos this week, I can't answer that question. It wasn't part of my goal. It's phony all the way. And the fact that he released, I think he should go on a Comey memo tour. Let's do that. Let's go to Comey tour instead of a Comey book tour, because that's where the truth lies.

HANNITY: You know -- but Kellyanne, the seriousness of what they have put this country through. Now, he leaked -- he said I'm not sneaky, I don't leak, B.S. He leaked. And he leaked for the purpose of getting...

(CROSSTALK)

CONWAY: He admitted under oath.

HANNITY: But you add everything together, Hillary obstructed justice, they protected her, as Mark was saying earlier tonight, absolutely because she committed crimes, that is a fact. It's irrefutable and it's incontrovertible.

And they thought she'd win, Sean. And they thought she'd win. We would never know any of this. And they thought she would win, they thought Hillary would win.

HANNITY: Everybody did, except us.

CONWAY: That's really important here, because we would know none of this - - we would know none unless -- if Hillary Clinton had actually won, which Comey admitted, he was influenced by the phony baloney national media polls -- anybody was doing national polls, the statewide polls were relevant as you know, that's what he did at the campaign.

But more importantly, we would know none of this, we would not know that the key at highest levels investigating Hillary Clinton had the fix in for her, and against Trump -- against, candidate Trump, but let these memos out there.

People have been calling for transparency, and accountability, and continued investigations for over a year. Look, people have called into question Jim Comey's credibility, and everything this week, that's fine, but I am grasping with his essential relevance at this point in this book. The relevance of Jim Comey is probably in these memos, not in the book. This is somebody who hardly knew the president, he is knitting together a limited amount of time.

HANNITY: This now needs to end for the sake of the country. Kellyanne, good to see you, great points as always. When we come back, Ed Henry has new breaking details of the Comey memo, he'll share it with us next, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Joining us now with more information from Washington is Ed Henry. Listen, I think you nailed it before. Trump encouraging Comey to continue with the investigation, even if it's people close to me, we need to know. That is huge news tonight.

HENRY: I've got two things for you on top f that, Sean. You are right, you are referring to a March 30th, 2017 memo where James Comey himself summarizes a phone call with the President, I believe it was a 11 minutes long. So this is not just a quick hello's. This is a detailed call where James Comey writes later that the President told him to investigate the Russia collusion allegations, if you find wrongdoing, just I want it out there, I am not personally under investigation.

Here's a new nugget. April, 2017, there's a new phone call. And you can see the statement for most Republican leaders that were just on the screen saying that this shows that the president was saying, investigated.

But then there is another call, and in April 2017, Comey writes a new memo where the president says, are you going to put it out there that I am not personally under investigation? And Comey goes on to say, bottom line, you should have Mr. President, the White House counsel's office call the acting attorney general, Dana Boente at the time because Jeff Sessions had recused himself.

And see whether they will do that. Obviously, they never did that, they never put up that statement. Here's my point. James Comey never in this memo says, I was outraged, and the president asked me to do that. This was inappropriate.

No, James Comey just said, look, I don't think the FBI should do that. But if you can get the White House Counsel's office to call the Justice Department, and say you are not personally under investigation, I don't have a problem with that.

So here's the very bottom line, Sean, one of our viewers is tweeting this that is looking at our coverage saying, remember that we were all told that these Comey memos, once they leaked, let Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General, to appoint a Special Counsel Robert Mueller, because he just had to.

There were so much evidence here. Read through these memos. People can find them online. What led Rod Rosenstein to say there needs to be a Special Counsel? Instead, you know, the President of the United States was saying investigate this.

HANNITY: You know, look, there's a part of me tonight, for a lot of reasons, what happened last night, the criminal referrals -- the criminal referral today, we have learned a lot, and we know where we are.

There is a sad part of this story, that this country has been put through all of this, and that was a memo from a very get go. We've got two main things here. A, the President never obstructed. B, there is no Russia collusion when you look at what happened today as it relates to Andrew McCabe. This is a huge night.

(CROSSTALK)

HENRY: These officials have seen this for months, Sean, over a year.

HANNITY: Yes, that's...

HENRY: And now we are getting transparency.

HANNITY: We are getting transparency which means the whole thing -- the come of country has been through this for absolutely no reason. It is unbelievable. And you've done a great job. By the way, you work really well under pressure.

HENRY: That's nice to hear from you, Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you so much, Ed Henry. All right, that is all the time we have left this evening. I will break all of this down tomorrow. I promise. Be with us. But right now, you're heart be troubled. We'll always be fair and balanced. Laura Ingraham has had a full hour to study.

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