Newt Gingrich: No excuse for FISA warrant to be redacted
On 'Hannity,' former House speaker calls on President Trump to be tougher amid the major FISA abuse scandal.
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 23, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity."
Tonight, we have confirmation right now tonight that America's top secret FISA court system was totally abused for political gain, judges lied to repeatedly and on purpose by the top echelon in our FBI and others. The FBI has now released their foreign surveillance warrant against one-time Trump campaign associate Carter Page. These contents go to the root core of our constitutional republic.
Now, we on this program were right for a year. The media is now missed the biggest political scandal in our history. We'll explain all of this, just as we have been reporting the bulk of the FISA warrant we now know for sure was based on the unverified uncorroborated phony bought and paid for Russian lie dossier of Hillary Clinton. Clear proof your federal government has been using opposition research the deep state, to spy on a political campaign to impact, steal a presidential election.
This should rock the soul of every American in this country, regardless of political affiliation. Now, to your core, we're going to reveal the baseless corrupt motivations that are behind all of this abuse. We're going to call out all of these high-ranking deep state officials.
They literally weaponized surveillance. They saved one candidate from being indicted and they turn their guns on another candidate politically speaking. And this, of course, amid the abuse of the ongoing politicization of the intelligence gathering.
Now, the Trump administration rightly is looking to remove security clearances from former high-ranking officials. We're going to tell you who they are and why they should be removed, something that the media won't tell you tonight.
And we also have a message for Robert Mueller -- Bob, pay very close attention tonight. We found Russia collusion none of it involves Donald Trump.
Buckle up, sit tight. This is an important hour when we start with our very important breaking news opening monologue.
(MUSIC)
HANNITY: All right. This is sad news. Everything we have been telling you for months, we have been reporting for months that the media has ignored for over a year has been confirmed this weekend. I want you to pay very close attention. It gets somewhat complicated, but it's a sad chapter in American history.
You have a Trump campaign associate, his name is Carter Page, he was spied on during the height of the 2016 election by Barack Hussein Obama's DOJ through the use of a FISA warrant, the hardest warrant to get.
And tonight, we know for sure totally confirmed that the justification for this warrant was a document. You've heard it before, the unverified, uncorroborated, phony dossier put together by a foreign national with funneled money through a law firm to an op research group paid for by Hillary Clinton and the DNC.
And, by the way, this was all full of Russian lies. The whole bunch of it, Russian lies. Every single thing that they said about Donald Trump was not true.
Now, we told you about Perkins Coie, the law firm. We told you about Fusion GPS. We told you about the foreign national Christopher Steele. They dug up dirt on Clinton's opponent with Russian lies.
Let me repeat, Mr. Mueller, Russian lies to the American people to affect the outcome of a presidential election. Let me put it more simply: Obama's DOJ and FBI were spying on the campaign of an opposing party, in a presidential election year, using op research that Hillary Clinton paid for, deep state operatives tried to rig and steal a presidential election.
This is what happens in banana republics. This is Venezuela. The type of propaganda would rival Pravda in the former Soviet Union. This should never happen in the United States of America, period.
And the mainstream corrupt media in this country has been completely missing in action. Make no mistake: this phony, dirty Russian dossier wasn't just referenced in the newly released documents on late Saturday night, instead Steele's dossier was in fact the FISA application, all four of them.
But still, look at your screen, see these names? James Comey, Sally Yates, Dana Boente and Andrew McCabe, Rod Rosenstein all signed off on this warrant and all three subsequent renewals. They repeatedly lied to FISA court judges four separate times. Rod Rosenstein lied, McCabe lied -- nothing new for him -- and Yates and Comey and the rest of them all lied, and they all signed off on a warrant application based on a document that is so duplicitous even Steele himself in court proceedings and Great Britain conceded that the dossier was not confirmed or verified. He referred to it as raw intelligence and he said the chances of some of it even being true were 50/50. And Christopher Steele was ultimately fired as an FBI source for lying and leaking and still in the FISA warrants after his firing, they claimed to FISA judges that Steele was credible. He was fired for lying and leaking.
And meanwhile, James Comey admitted he knew that dossier was unverified and salacious and let's not forget, fired FBI director actually denied he told a lie to our own Bret Baier that the dossier was, in fact, playing a major role in the FISA application, the hardest warrant to ever get. They lied to the judges repeatedly.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRET BAIER, HOST, "SPECIAL REPORT": You called the dossier unverified, salacious. Why did you use that to the FISA court to ask for surveillance for Carter Page? Not only use it, but you led with it, a bulk of that FISA application deals with that dossier. Why?
JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: You know, that's not my recollection, Bret, and I don't know that the FISA application has been released. My recollection was it was part of a broader mosaic of facts that were laid before the FISA judge to obtain a FISA warrant.
BAIER: There was a lot more than the dossier in the FISA application?
COMEY: My recollection was there was a significant amount of additional material about Page and why there was probable cause to believe he was an agent of a foreign power and the dossier was part of that, but was not all of it or critical part of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: What he said was a lie. This lie was parroted again and again by Democrats. The biggest liar in the country, Adam Schiff. Let's look at him lying to you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIF.: The information that was used in part in the FISA application came from a trusted source, Christopher Steele, someone who was a respected member of British intelligence. And it was part of a full package that was presented to the FISA court and it would have been negligent frankly given what the FBI knew about Carter Page, the history that he had, the fact had been a target of Russian recruitment even prior to this, the fact that they went out and interviewed him in March even before Christopher Steele produced any part of the so-called dossier, that they were acting in good faith.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: No, Mr. Schiff, you knew and we all now know it was the bulk of the application. He's one of the biggest liars in the country, with 500 TV appearances. Well, about that.
Meanwhile, remember, it was the Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein who was conflicted in so many different ways. He actually signed off on the last final FISA renewal against Carter Page who had this to say.
Rod, listen to your own words about the sanctity of getting a FISA warrant when you said back in May, apply these standards to yourself knowing what we now know.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROD ROSENSTEIN, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: The way we operate in the Department of Justice, if we can accuse somebody of wrongdoing, we have to have admissible evidence and credible witnesses. We need to prepare to prove our case in court and we have to fix our signature to the charging document. That's something that not everybody appreciates.
Now, there's a lot of talk about the FISA applications and many people that I see talking about it seemed not to recognize what a FISA application. A FISA application is actually a warrant just like a search warrant in order to get a FISA search warrant you need an affidavit signed by a career federal law enforcement officer who swears that the information in the affidavit is true and correct to the best of his knowledge and belief, and that's the way we operate.
And if that's wrong, sometimes it is, if you find out there's anything incorrect in there, that person is going to face consequences.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Are you going to face consequences? Jeff Sessions, where are you tonight? Your country needs you to do your job tonight. And, by the way, is Christopher Steele, Rod, he's he credible to you?
And to the best of Rod's knowledge, the basis of the 2016 FISA warrant/warrants against the Trump campaign associate, we now know the following: it was unverified, it was uncorroborated as Rot Rosenstein said it must be, it was untrue, it was a document full of Russia lies and they all signed off on it.
And, by the way, in fact, everyone who signed off on this misled FISA court judges and propagated lies in order to knowingly spy on a campaign and rigged a presidential election in their favor and the media took this bait, they were fed by Christopher Steele at the behest of Fusion GPS, and they sent it out to the media. It is the biggest single scandal in American history and your media is deaf, blind and dumb and overpaid and lazy, which brings us to Carter Page.
Now, tonight, besides and despite extensive surveillance from the federal government, why is it Page hasn't been charged with a crime? Has anyone asked that question? Despite Obama's DOJ alleging he might be a Russian agent, what they told the FISA courts, why is Carter age a free man tonight?
In fact, according to Page, and I interviewed him for an hour on radio today, he actually was debriefed by the CIA and the FBI after many of his visits to Russia, cooperating with them, helping his own government he said. Here's what he said on my radio show.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CARTER PAGE, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN AIDE: It's funny. Not only did they lie, it's -- they have two main themes which are totally contradictory. They call me a, quote/unquote, foreign agent, but then at the same time they say I'm a target of recruitment, right? So, which one is it? I mean, there's so many inconsistencies and it's just completely beyond comprehension.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HANNITY: Our own Gregg Jarrett who's reporting has been flawless in all of this will join us in a minute, probably summed up this document best. And according to his legal analysis, here are the main takeaways from the FISA warrant.
First, the warrant application was the dossier, like we've been saying front and center, the bulk of information. That means Nunes was right, the Grassley-Graham memo was right. The Democrats lied.
The FISA court was purposefully misled on a lot of fronts and not explicitly told the nature of this unverified dossier with Russian lies. There would have been no warrant without the dossier. Remember, even Andrew McCabe said that. James Comey lied about the dossiers role in this warrant.
The FISA court never knew Hillary bought and paid for this. They purposely withheld that kind of important piece of information, and the FBI were lied on news accounts and lied to judges, including what's called circular reporting from Yahoo News. They used the dossier as the basis for one of their reports. Steele lied but was still called credible by the FBI? Does that make sense?
Page has never been indicted. The FBI never actually interviewed Page, although he said he was back at March to me. The dossier was unverified, and yet it was used to obtain warrants. How dare Rod Rosenstein and everybody else sign off on that?
They are now violating -- shredding our Constitution, violating our Fourth Amendment rights. And why is it all redacted? Let's give it to the American people. Trey Gowdy even said he's seen no collusion from this document up.
And still tonight, we have even more questions than even earlier this FISA application is heavily redacted. The American people deserve to see it. I am calling for all of this warrant to be unredacted.
The president can do this and according to my sources, if the final FISA warrant is released, Rod Rosenstein is finished as his role -- in his role as deputy AG. But now because of the blatant abuse of power that took place at the highest levels of your government, the Trump administration rightly tonight is taking important steps and calling for certain Obama era officials to be stripped of their security clearances. This should have happened a long time ago, knowing what we now know.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Not only is the president looking to take away Brennan's security clearance, he's also looking into the clearances of Comey, Clapper, Hayden, Rice and McCabe. The president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because they've politicized and in some cases monetize their public service and security clearances, making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia or being influenced by Russia against the president is extremely inappropriate, and the fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Well-said, Sarah Sanders, right on the money. Thank, God. They all abuse their power, the power that we give them. None of them should have security clearances. It's all true they fixed the investigation to help their favorite candidate Hillary Clinton, the worst obstruction of justice case I've ever seen in my life.
And in the case of Hillary, misled the American people literally. She violated the Espionage Act, mishandled classified, top-secret, special access programming information and destroyed such two separate felonies then rigged an investigation, clearly into Donald Trump. Their security clearances and are now obviously a clear and present danger to this country. And meanwhile, the press is spinning in circles.
But let us be clear tonight: all these people involved in the biggest political scandal of our lifetime. Robert Mueller, this is your collusion story. Robert Mueller, maybe you want to get your pit bull Andrew Weissmann on this. Hillary Clinton, the DNC, and the paid for Russian lies to rig an election and lie to the American people, all done at the highest levels of our government.
Literally using a warrant process and lying to judges and the bulk of the information judges are fed so that they can spy on an opposition party candidate associate is full of Russian lies, so maybe you'll have a little more time on your hands and go after if -- I may -- these lies that were bought and paid for by Hillary to Russia, all designed to propagandize the American people. Let me put it another way: lie to the American people.
Mr. Mueller, do your job tonight, if you care about truth, if you care about justice, if you care about the system of justice in this country being abused at this high level, if you care that somebody actually paid for Russian lies to misinform the American people and that information was spread by some of the highest levels of our government. How do you justify Russian lies being used to get a warrant on an American citizen?
It was never verified. It was never corroborated. It was never even looked at. It was just propagated and these judges when are we going to hear from them.
I never met a judge in my life that likes to be lied to, where I grew up, where my mom's a prison guard and my dad had worked in family court probation, yes, sir, no, sir, yes, ma'am, no, ma'am, yes your honor, no your honor.
May it please the court? May it please the court that these judges now be told that they've been lied to to this extent by our own top officials in our government to steal an election?
Here now, Fox News contributor, she deserves a Pulitzer in her work in all of this, Sara Carter, author of this book, "The Deep State: How An Army of Bureaucrats Protected Barack Obama and Is Working to Destroy the Trump Agenda", Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz.
Good to see you, sir, in studio.
JASON CHAFFETZ, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
HANNITY: Sara, you've been ahead of the curve. We've been reporting all this. Now, it's all been confirmed. Now, we know the lies told. Now, we know what they didn't tell the judges about who paid for this. Now, we know that they used unverified information and they put their name to it.
So, where do we go from here?
SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: This is one of the most dangerous moments in modern American history when you think about this, Sean, that the intelligence community was weaponized, weaponized to unseat a duly elected president, with the intention of impeaching him if he got elected, or to -- or to skew the election so that Hillary Clinton could win. The only place to go from here, Sean, is that the president must declassify the 19 pages that are being requested by the House Intelligence Committee. That he's received the letter in June.
HANNITY: And what will happen -- if the president does exactly what you're saying and I agree with you, I know Gregg Jarrett agrees.
Do you agree, Jason?
CHAFFETZ: Yes, totally.
HANNITY: OK, if he does that, what will he find? What will the American people see?
CARTER: The American people will know the truth. The American people will see what happened, how this dossier was used beyond what we're seeing now, which was already extraordinary, how the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was fooled and the extent of which they abused the power.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Isn't it that the FISA court was lied to, purpose deceived?
CARTER: Absolutely lied to, absolutely lied and deceived.
HANNITY: What would happen if I lied to the court? I'd be in handcuffs, perp walk, mug shotted, and see you later, send me a cake with a file. It's --
CARTER: We all would.
HANNITY: If I deleted emails, I deleted subpoenaed documents, it's -- my life is over.
Why? Congressman, how did this happen in the United States or if there's anything I've got wrong, please correct the record.
CHAFFETZ: No, I think your monologue is the absolutely the best synopsis that we've heard to date, you do it night in, night out. It's exactly what's happening here.
HANNITY: But now, it's different tonight.
CHAFFETZ: It is different and a couple things need to happen. Absolutely need to release that document in its totality. Rod Rosenstein should not be able to oversee this. He's involved and engaged in in the corruption that's happening there.
And you've got to ask yourself, why is it that Director Comey and the others are pushing so hard to get the Democrats elected? It's because that will neuter what would Trey Gowdy and Devin Nunes and --
HANNITY: I can't figure Trey out. He's up and down like a yo-yo, just --
CHAFFETZ: But if you want Devin Nunes to be able to continue to move forward on this, guys like John Ratcliffe to continue to go after it, if the Democrats get elected --
HANNITY: It's over.
CHAFFETZ: It's over. They will close this down.
HANNITY: They will close this all down and a chapter American abuse of power will be eliminated.
CHAFFETZ: That's why James Comey --
CARTER: Oh, no, it just won't be eliminated, Sean.
(CROSSTALK)
CHAFFETZ: -- just outwardly advocating to elect Democrats.
HANNITY: Campaigning.
Sara?
CARTER: Sean, it won't -- it won't just be eliminated. The abuse of power will continue and that that is unspeakable. What could happen from here on out should frighten every American unless this is fixed. What needs to happen is the president needs to declassify these documents. The American people need to know the truth and the FBI, the CIA and our intelligence apparatus needs to be overhauled. They need to take a look at this.
This needs to change and this abuse of power needs to stop.
HANNITY: Congressman?
CHAFFETZ: I also get rid of the attorney general. The attorney general is there a name only. I like Jeff Sessions when he was the senator, but as the attorney general, he is non-existent from any of these discussions. And until the president puts in an attorney general who actually do his job, I think the deep state is going to continue to move forward and work as well.
HANNITY: So -- and if the Democrats -- this is important -- if they win this election, this all dies.
CHAFFETZ: It does.
HANNITY: They cover the whole thing up.
CHAFFETZ: They kill it. Think about it: McCabe and these characters, Strzok, these were the people that were going to be running the FBI.
HANNITY: And they all deserve their clearances taken away, right?
CARTER: That's right.
CHAFFETZ: By default, everybody should have every one of those clearances gone.
HANNITY: Scary moment for our country. This is really scary. If we don't get this right, we are that banana republic. We are Venezuela. We are the former Soviet Union.
Tonight, Gregg Jarrett's book is finally out and Newt Gingrich and Tom Fenton and Andrew McCarthy as a special important breaking news edition of "Hannity".
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. You see this book?
Here with more reaction to tonight's opening monologue -- look, I watch Gregg Jarrett write this book, "The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump". It is now out in bookstores.
I watched him write it word by word. It is meticulously footnoted, what, with over 700, a thousand, something like that?
GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: (INAUDIBLE)
HANNITY: It is the definitive story with all the facts, and this weekend, everything in this book as I read an early copy is now completely verified with this.
JARRETT: The book tells the story not only of what happened over the last two years, but what is still going on. And the documents that came out over the weekend prove one of the main theses in the book.
The FISA court was lied to. They were deceived. Evidence was hidden.
HANNITY: How do you lie to judges?
JARRETT: You can't.
HANNITY: How do you delete emails, acid-wash hard drives, bust up the -- how does any of this happen in America?
JARRETT: You know, it's amazing. I look back at Comey's testimony and one of the things that people don't seem to remember is Comey was asked very directly --
HANNITY: By Brett Baier.
JARRETT: -- by Jason Chaffetz during congressional testimony, did Hillary Clinton give classified documents to people who did not have classification status? And he said yes.
She should have been charged right then and there.
HANNITY: Did she -- what she did worse than Kristian Saucier and the sixth person?
JARRETT: Oh, yes. I mean, you know --
HANNITY: So, this is --
JARRETT: I go through all of the people in this book who have been charged for doing exactly what Hillary Clinton did, and yet --
HANNITY: She did worse.
JARRETT: Oh, yes, because the volume -- in fact, Comey wrote the sheer volume indicates that she was grossly negligent, but then he had Strzok and Page expunge that statement.
HANNITY: How is it possible that -- this is the biggest story of corruption and abuse of power that I can think of in our history and we have basically been a lone voice and everything that we've been reporting on, that you have reported on, Sara, I can't name all the names, there's too many people. But the -- but the -- our core group of people has now been proven right.
JARRETT: Yes.
HANNITY: How do you lie to a FISA judge repeatedly? How does Rod Rosenstein get to be the deputy AG and he signed off?
JARRETT: It's a fraud on the court and, in fact, you played the clip of Rosenstein saying that when you sign this, we take it very seriously, we're vouching for the truthfulness, the honesty the authenticity of our documents and yet, we now know --
HANNITY: Did anyone verify it?
JARRETT: -- these documents were never verified, you know? And it would have been interesting if they had actually shown the FISA judges, the dossier itself. Like you and I, they would have looked at this thing. First, they would have laughed and then they would have said, get out of my court with this garbage --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: It holds the fact that it was bought and paid for --
JARRETT: Yes.
HANNNITY: -- by Hillary.
JARRETT: And in fact, on page 159 of my book, I recite the exact footnote. Footnote number eight from the warrant application, which is so cryptic you would have to be telepathic or clairvoyant to be able to figure out that it was funded by Hillary Clinton and came from a foreign national, an ex-spy, who used multiple hearsay Russian sources that some of whom may not even exist.
HANNITY: So, they all signed off on this but in an interrogatory, this is in your book also.
JARRETT: Yes.
HANNITY: You know, the case in Great Britain under the threat of perjury charges, what did Christopher Steele say?
JARRETT: Well, he basically said that this is just, you know, kind of raw intelligence and not entirely reliable. I mean, it took me a while to dig that out because it's a foreign court but you can get the interrogatory answers that he gave.
And once you read those answers, he'll walk away and said -- say not even Christopher Steele believed his own phony dossier.
HANNITY: So you have a leaker, a liar fired by the FBI but yet, he's in the FISA warrant which they say is credible.
JARRETT: Right. In the later applications, they say, well, we did determine that Steele -- hey didn't use his name but he referred to him as source number one -- that Steele may have misled us, but we believe that his information is credible.
HANNITY: On a scale of lying to a court, how do you, and where does that go on the scale? And am I right that this was designed to steal the presidential election?
JARRETT: If 10 is a lie, this is about a 20. I mean, this is the most egregious--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Where would I be right now if I did this?
JARRETT: You would be behind bars.
HANNITY: Without a tooth could you get me out?
JARRETT: No, I couldn't get you out. I mean, this is an abuse of power by arrogant people. They subverted the rule of law, they tried to undo an election.
HANNITY: Wait a minute, but also we know that this whole -- this whole phony -- by the way, Robert Mueller, Russia dossier, Russian dossier, Russian lies. The American people were purposely misled and this was spread as gospel truth.
JARRETT: It was. And so much of what Comey had to say, I mean invite people to go back and look at what Comey say originally in this. He said no reasonable prosecutor would ever bring such a case.
HANNITY: Really?
JARRETT: I haven't yet defined a prosecutor who wouldn't have loved to bring this case.
HANNITY: All right.
JARRETT: There was so much evidence against Clinton.
HANNITY: It's in bookstores everywhere. This is it. This is the book. Congratulations. I think it's going to be number one New York Times bestseller.
(CROSSTALK)
JARRETT: Listen, thanks. Thanks to you.
HANNITY: No. People need to read this book, it's all in here, all of it. Meticulously done, I watched you write it yourself, which is rare. Good job.
JARRETT: Thank you.
HANNITY: All right. Newt Gingrich is next, stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Following the White House's announcement today, that President Trump was looking into revoking the security clearance for former Obama era intelligence officials including John Brennan, he is the worst of them. James Clapper, Susan Rice, Michael Hayden, the destroyed Trump media predictably, and basically if Trump breeds, they will go into meltdown mode. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Sarah Sanders there. Let's just call it what it was, she threw a grenade in there when it comes to this news that she is now saying, the White House is now considering not only revoking the security clearance of the former CIA chief John Brennan, but also that of Comey, Clapper, McCabe and Rice.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: There're really no way to look at this other than President Trump wants to punish his critics.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Look, Jake, there's no question about it. He wants to punish them and silence them as well perhaps.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Truly extraordinary, an unprecedented threat from the White House but it doesn't seem grounded in reality. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a very dangerous day for American democracy. This is the move of an autocrat, not an American president.
KEN DILANIAN, NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER, NBC NEWS: We should minimize this. This is a huge deal. This is Nixonian. This is the president threatening to use his power essentially to punish his political enemies. And there's no other way to look at it.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HANNITY: Now the other way is they abuse their power as it relates to, yes, trying to influence the American electorate with Russian lies that Hillary paid for.
Here's the author of the New York Times bestseller, "Trump's America: The Truth About Our Nation's Great Comeback," Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich.
We are expecting GDP growth, Barclays today revise their prediction and I don't think it's going to get there to 5.3 percent for the quarter, anything above four would be a grand slam home run by any proportion.
Let me -- let me get to the important issues here. I've never seen a group of people lie to courts like this. And fix an investigation like this, that had turned on one presidential candidate like this and abuse the power in such a level, lying to FISA judges to spy on Americans. We don't have a Constitution, sir, if this stands.
NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, no, we do have a Constitution but we just have to fight to preserve it. As Benjamin Franklin said to the- -
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: That's spreading it, isn't it?
GINGRICH: Well, Benjamin Franklin said to a woman right outside the constitutional convention, when she said what have you achieved, and he said, a republic, if you can keep it. We're that kind of a cycle.
And look, if I had any complaint about what Sarah Sanders said today that the president thinks he's going to do in terms of these people, is he's not going far enough or being serious enough.
I think we ought to have some kind of open reporting on every single person who lied to us about. I think we ought to have a really serious look at all the different ways in which the establishment grew more corrupt, more dishonest, more willing to lie to the American people.
And if I were to fault the president it wouldn't be for going too far, it would be for not methodically and systematically exposing to the American people, starting frankly with the FISA warrant. There's no excuse for that warrant being redacted anymore.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Mr. Speaker--
GINGRICH: And he kind of stroke to the--
HANNITY: -- they lied to FISA court judges four times. Four times, the bulk of the application was Hillary's bought and paid for Russian, if Robert Mueller is paying attention, lies.
GINGRICH: Right.
HANNITY: How is everything so topsy-turvy in terms of the country, the narrative, Mueller and the media?
GINGRICH: Well, you essentially have said it yourself. We know who these people are, but the question is, what do we do about it? I mean, I have no you doubt that the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CBS News and all the other manifestations of the establishment are desperately seeking to prop up the corrupt system which fed them new stories, which took care of them, which made them feel like insiders.
And I have no doubt that this is really an all-out fight between the old order desperate in its dying phases and the desire of the American people for honesty.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: But what about--
GINGRICH: But Sean, I think the real challenge -- the challenge here is not them. I want to surprise you, the challenge is not them. We know who they are that challenges us.
And the fact is, starting with the president, we haven't been tough enough, we haven't been direct enough, we haven't been focused enough and I think if we were this whole thing would collapse in a matter of weeks, because it is so sick and the stake would be so great. And I just gave you three or four examples.
HANNITY: How about we start with the redactions. How -- and here's the challenge.
GINGRICH: Perfect.
HANNITY: We could start with the redactions, how does Rod Rosenstein be as conflicted as he is? And he signed the last warrant based on Russian lies. And he appointed Mueller. I mean, I would laugh if it wasn't so serious because the American people--
GINGRICH: No.
HANNITY: -- were systematically lied to, courts were systematically lied to. The -- our protections against unreasonable search and seizure were violated at the highest levels of our government.
GINGRICH: Right.
HANNITY: And I would argue our Constitution is meaningless unless it's fixed.
GINGRICH: You know, Sean -- Sean, here's where you and I are in a different place today.
HANNITY: Help me.
GINGRICH: And maybe it's in part because I had an opportunity to go to take a deep step back and to think about history and to try to get a feel for where we are. Where you and I are in different place is simple. The number one test is neither Rod Rosenstein, we know who he is. It's not anything's desk.
The number test is tomorrow morning, President Trump should sign a note completely eliminating the redactions and release the paper. There is no reason for him to not just go ahead and do it, get it over with. And that begins exactly what you have suggested.
HANNITY: Let me -- let me take you to a step further.
(CROSSTALK)
GINGRICH: And then there are other things. And I--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: He should sign it, release a totally unredacted version and all those documents that Congress has been beating their brains over, how about he has the authority to release all of it? How about we release it all? Let the -- let's be transparent.
GINGRICH: I think that they should -- the only limitation should be active threats to people who are helping the United States and that should be -- and that should have to be proven. But otherwise get it all out in the open.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Sources and methods protected.
GINGRICH: And as I said one of the places -- right. Within that framework, dump it all out there. The only thing that is going to clean up Washington is the fresh air of accountability, transparency and honesty. Nothing else is going to clean this place up.
HANNITY: You've been--
GINGRICH: It is a snake pit, and it would - the more we learn, the sicker we realize it is.
HANNITY: You are a great historian, and you are a professor at heart, nobody knows that about you as much as I do. I guess the question is, in history we've had some very challenging times, can you think of a bigger abuse of power in our history?
GINGRICH: Sure. Look, I think the person whose situation is most like President Trump's was Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is fighting to preserve the Constitution. He's fighting to preserve the union and he's having to do a lot of different things that are very bold and in some cases very radical.
And he is trying to do it in a way that he's deeply, bitterly opposed not just by the slave-owning south but also by a substantial number of Democrats in the north.
And I think that Trump is in a very similar place. I gave you an example a few minutes ago that I think is so astonishing. You go back and look at Benghazi, we know without any question that the President of the United States, Obama, lied.
We know that Hillary Clinton lied. We knew that Rice lied. We know that they knew they were lying, that they, in fact, hid information from Tunisia, or rather, from Libya that said their version was totally false.
And they deliberately and maliciously lied to the American people. That should all be released and we should be able to see who these people really are. And then you should say this also if that's all true and if Clapper and Brennan and others were engaged in lying to the American people, why would they keep their secrecy? Why would they be allowed clearance? And I think that it's very important to get all the stuff out in the open.
HANNITY: All right. Mr. Speaker, very powerful. Thank you. When we come back, Tom Fitton, Andy McCarthy, we'll get their report and perspective. That's straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BOB GOODLATTE, R-VA.: We have lots of questions for John Brennan and he will definitely be sought by the committees for an interview.
This is an extremely disturbing thing to see, both he and James Comey, supposedly impartial government officials carrying out their jobs in very important areas in intelligence gathering in law enforcement express the kind of extreme bias that they've shown now, which I think reflects quite accurately on what they were doing back in 2016.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. Congressman Bob Goodlatte this weekend calling on the former CIA Chief John Brennan to testify to Congress on his role in this Russia witch hunt hoax.
With reaction, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, he deserves a big pat on the back tonight. Former federal prosecutor, Andy McCarthy. Let's go to that particular point and get your reaction, and more importantly, just get your general reaction of what we learned today.
(CROSSTALK)
ANDREW MCCARTHY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, look,--
HANNITY: The Saturday -- the Saturday night dump.
MCCARTHY: You know, look. On the security clearances, I think anybody who abuses their security clearance, whether it's to politicize intelligence or to leak intelligence, if they find out that you did that, you should get your clearance yanked. I don't like seeing the debate about it get politicized.
HANNITY: It's too late, they politicized it.
MCCARTHY: Well--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Does Hillary -- let's get to the beginning. Does Hillary violate the espionage Act?
MCCARTHY: I think she did. Yes.
HANNITY: OK. When she deleted and bleach bit and beat up her devices, is that obstruction there after she was subpoenaed?
MCCARTHY: Yes. The documents were -- the stuff was under congressional--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: And did they not turn the top FBI officials turned on Trump in a way that was unprecedented and used their power against an opposition party candidate to stop him with an insurance policy?
MCCARTHY: I think they weaponize the intelligence and the law enforcement apparatus of the government throughout the--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Against Trump.
MCCARTHY: -- Obama administration, but they certainly--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: And did they lie to FISA court judges, not once, but four times?
MCCARTHY: Yes. I mean, they -- well, first of all, they didn't, with respect to the dossier, it was not corroborated. And when they said it was verified--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Because they're all from that?
MCCARTHY: Well, their own policies demanded. Their own policies say that they're--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: FBI policies and so is the law.
MCCARTHY: -- not supposed to give -- well, yes, the law demands that you provide accurate information to a court, it doesn't require that it'd be verified and corroborated, but their procedures require--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Rod Rosenstein said that if not there are going to be consequences. I played that tonight.
MCCARTHY: Well, let's see if there are.
HANNITY: I'm not holding my breath. Tom, go through the same list of questions in your mind. Start with Hillary end up with lying to the FISA court judges four times with Russian propaganda paid for by an opposition party.
TOM FITTON, PRESIDENT, JUDICIAL WATCH: Hey, you know, it doesn't -- it doesn't take a lot to yank a security clearance. The deep state has been playing the security clearance game with the Trump administration since it has come into office denying, pulling and punishing those who were deemed too close to Trump by pulling security clearance or delaying them.
But when it goes to Comey and McCabe it's a no-brainer. Both were fired for misconduct. (CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: What about Brennan?
FITTON: Brennan, Yates, I would --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Clapper.
FITTON: -- consider Yates in this by the way. Clapper, what I -- Clapper is accused of lying quite credibly. And the basis for pulling a security is credible derogatory information and it's hard to say that there is no credible derogatory information.
You got Clapper who he kind of admits to lying, you have Brennan who is accused in a book of leaking purposely the dossier to Harry Reid with the hopes it gets leaked out to the media.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: That's all true. That's all true.
FITTON: So, yes. I report them on--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: So he was telling a politician about something that was Russian lies bought and paid for. The CIA director is spreading Russian lies as CIA director. Does he deserve a security clearance?
(CROSSTALK)
FITTON: And then Susan Rice -- Susan Rice had a number of explanations, contradictory explanations about her involvement on unmaskings. You know, it's fair--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Well, I was reading all weekend, I was on unmasking and surveillance--
FITTON: OK. It's fair to ask the question--
HANNITY: -- why Brennan is one of these. And if he didn't do it or if anybody -- I find out who did this illegally, I will sue them and hire the best legal team including Andy on the planet to go after them.
All right. Let me go back to you. Wasn't this all about Russian lives paid for, disseminated, propagated and lying to courts? Wasn't this about lying to the American people with Russian lies of all things?
MCCARTHY: I think it was about pushing the envelope as far as you could push it.
HANNITY: You're being too nice.
MCCARTHY: No, I'm saying for the politics of the election and I think they did it because number one the FISA stuff is classified, and number two they were sure that Hillary was going to win and no one was ever going to be any wiser.
HANNITY: But if you -- if I lie to a court where would I be now?
MCCARTHY: You'd be in--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Jail.
MCCARTHY: -- you'd probably in jail.
HANNITY: And if I just swallow -- if I destroyed subpoenaed information what would happen to me?
MCCARTHY: The normal person that does this gets prosecuted.
FITTON: You know, quickly, is there any doubt--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Well, we've got to run. All right.
FITTON: -- is there any doubt that this whole FISA court application--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: I got to role. Hannity will be back, the Democratic Party is being overtaken by the radical left, we have the proof.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Socialist superstars Bernie Sanders and yes, the new rock star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were in Kansas n Friday pushing their socialist liberal left wing agenda, and actually claiming they are the new normal to your Democratic Party. OK. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE, NEW YORK: We are a nation that will not stop until every child is born with the opportunity to go to college or trade school free of cost.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, D-VT.: The ideas we campaigned on which a few years ago were seen to be radical ideas are now mainstream ideas because of your support. I thank all of you for the support you gave me and for being part of a political revolution which is sweeping this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: We start this week the hundred day countdown to the most important midterm in our history. That's tomorrow night. All right. That's all the time we have left. We're always be fair and balanced. We're not the destroy-Trump media. Let not your heart be troubled. There she is, Laura Ingraham. Hi.
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