President Trump's attorneys react to Mueller's testimony

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President Trump's attorneys react to Mueller's testimony

Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani share their takes on Robert Mueller's hearing in front of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 24, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Good to see you.

Welcome to “Hannity.”

And, yes, we begin with this Fox News alert. The witch hunt is dead, gone. It is buried. The real Russia investigation is only beginning.

Now, today's hearing kept up but will now go down in history as one of the single biggest, most epic embarrassments in history, in American history. What happened today should shock the conscience of every American. The liars in the Democratic Party, their cheerleaders and the media mob, they have been exposed yet again.

You can never trust these people, ever. For two plus long years, two and a half years, there they were, now Robert Mueller, the golden goose. According to them, he was going to swoop in and prove their insane Russian lies, conspiracy theories once and for all. And that Donald Trump is going to be a washed up and impeached and run out of town.

Well, as a matter of fact, I'm watching the media today, and they were just about more depressed nine they were at election night 2016. All week, they were hyping up Mueller's testimony. Just this weekend, you had two of the biggest liars in the United States Congress. There they were, Chairman Nadler, and the cowardly Adam Schiff, predicting Mueller's remarks will prove the president's guilty, and as an unindicted coconspirator, responsible for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Well, it's safe to say that never happened, and per usual, the two biggest liars in Congress were caught lying again. Robert Mueller's testimony -- well, the only way to put it, it was an unmitigated disaster. It was ugly.

Here is just a small sample of what went down. We have a busy show, a small sample.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LOUIE GOHMERT, R-TX: Mr. Mueller, who wrote the comments you read at your May 29th press conference?

ROBERT MUELLER, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL: I'm not going to get into that.

GOHMERT: OK, so that's what I thought. You didn't write it.

REP. JOHN RATCLIFFE, R-TX: Can you give me an example other than Donald Trump where an investigated person was not exonerated because their innocence was not conclusively determined?

MUELLER: I cannot, because this is unique.

RATCLIFFE: OK, you can't -- time is short. I've got 5 minutes. Let's just leave it at you can't find it, because I'll tell you why. It doesn't exist.

REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OH: What's interesting -- you can charge 13 Russians no one's ever heard of, no one's ever seen, no one's ever going to hear of them. No one's ever going to see them. You can charge them.

You can charge all kinds of people who are around the president with false statements, but the guy who launches everything, the guy who puts this whole story in motion, you can't charge him. I think that's amazing.

MUELLER: I'm not certain that I agree with your characterizations.

JORDAN: Well, I'm reading from your report.

REP. MATT GAETZ, R-FLA.: Only one thing is possible. Either Steele made this whole thing up and there were never any Russians telling him of this vast criminal conspiracy that you didn't find, or Russians lied to Steele. Now, if Russians were lying to Steele to undermine our confidence and our duly elected president, that would seem to be precisely your purview, because you stated in your opening that the organizing principle was to follow and thoroughly investigate Russia's interference.

But you weren't interested in whether or not the Russians were interfering to Christopher Steele. And if Steele was lying, then you should have charged him with lying like you charged a variety of other people. But you say nothing about this in your report.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Great point, Jordan. Great point, Gaetz. These guys were amazing today, not a good day at all for Robert Mueller, the liars in the media mob, the conspiracy theorists, those pushing a hoax in Congress and the media.

As a matter of fact, even a worse day for Democrats. They use Mueller as their big pawn in what was a disgusting political game. They came up empty, but dangerously close to literally creating damage that would probably be unfixable.

Byron York writing that Mueller's confuse and daze performance raises questions about handling of the investigation. Obama's former chief strategist, David Axelrod, said this is very, very painful.

The conspiracy theorists over there, Roswell Maddow's MSDNC, they even called the hearing, oh, just boring, and confused, then admitted, even Chucky Todd admitted it was a disaster.

Well-known Trump hater Lawrence Tribe also called the hearing a disaster. And cue the violence because the witch hunt is dead. The media mob is in mourning.

This is probably the most depressed since they've been since election night 2016 when they got those exit polls, 5:15, showed -- oh, my gosh. Donald Trump didn't win a single state. They started their coverage at 6:00. They were happy, gleeful, giddy, excited, they couldn't believe it. And then the night unfolded and reality caught up. Kind of like today.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were times in the hearing when he was sharp as a tank. But we can't avoid the fact that there were times in the hearing that he was not.

FORMER SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL, D-MO: Today, he was a witness. He frankly wasn't a really good witness. They needed to bring the reports to life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. Yes.

MCCASKILL: Well, it didn't come to life. It's still slumbering. In fact, it is in deep sleep.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was the FBI director when I worked for George W. Bush. To be honest, this was not the Robert Mueller I knew.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bob Mueller is not a made-for-TV guy. And we live in a made-for-TV society.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are looking for a made-for-TV kind of character, and Mueller was not that perhaps today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You do not have that viral movie trailer moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, we talk about folks preferring movies to books. Occasionally, the books are better than the movies. In this case, the book was much better than the movie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of Democrats in particular used the D-word and branded this a disaster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On optics, this was disaster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You look who's winning now. It certainly seems like Donald Trump is winning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: They are sad. They are morning, because Mueller's testimony put a stake right through the heart of their lies, their impeachment dreams. Impeachment, well, now, it's political suicide, because it's finished. It's over.

And while the media, of course, the mob is in mourning. President Trump, well, he was rightfully optimistic. But think about this. This president has lived with this almost since the time he came down the escalator with his wife Melanie. And it has gotten worse and worse every second, minute, hour of every day.

But in spite of that, look at the success. Look at the trade deals. Look at the deregulation, a record low unemployment, the best employment situation since 1969. Isn't that great for the American people? Record low unemployment for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian Americans, women in the workplace, youth unemployment.

Now, I know if you watch other networks, you have probably never heard the statistics, in spite of this hanging over his head, the daily, incessant, non stop, pressure, heat that this president took, still got the job done. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: I think everybody understands what's going on. There was no defense to this ridiculous hoax, this witch hunt that's been going on for a long time.

This was a very big day for our country. This was a very big day for the Republican Party. And you could say it was a great day for me, but I don't even like to say that. It's great.

The Democrats had nothing, and now they have less than nothing. And I think they are going to lose the 2020 election very big, including congressional seats because of the path that they chose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, for years on this program, and I want to say a very big thank you to the ensemble team that we have. I can't mention everybody. I won't even begin to.

But you know the people that we have had on. And we have been in the forefront of peeling one layer of the onion after another after another after another. It has been arduous. It has been shoe leather reporting, the way it should be done.

And we were in the minority as others perpetrated the lying, the hoax, the collusion, the conspiracy theories. And you know what? We told you from the beginning that the president was burden with an unjust, bias witch hunt.

We told you that today's hearing was nothing more than a political stunt, a Hail Mary, last ditch effort to keep the narrative alive. We also told you that Mueller's testimony would likely back fire on the Democrats. And as it turns, we were right all along.

Now, part of this, as, well, the Attorney General Barr has stated. And, of course, we have John Durham, we have the inspector general. We have the attorney general of the United States saying full on that he will get to the bottom of all of this -- a rigged investigation, a dirty dossier with Russian lies, a real Russia influence story, which by the way, it seems, and Mueller even acknowledged today that, well, looks like the Russians with that phony dossier were trying to hurt President Trump the entire time, even "The New York Times," recognizing that that Russian dossier was likely Russian disinformation from the get-go. Only took him two and a half years to catch up. That's sad.

This country came painfully close. This great Democratic republic, the greatest country God gave man. We came dangerously close to allowing a few people, reckless, lawless people to spread lies, conspiracies, and a hoax, and successfully, trying to undo the will of the American people.

First trying to prevent their favorite candidate from being indicted, they were successful. They tried to prevent Donald Trump from ever winning. And then, when he won. It is now officially over.

Joining us with a full report from our nation's swamp, Capitol Hill senior producer, I keep saying that his hitchhikers guide to everything ought to be a mandatory reading for kids. Chad Pergram is with us.

Chad, big day today.

CHAD PERGRAM, CORRESPONDENT: A big day, Sean. Democrats say the hearing with Robert Mueller wasn't the end, but the beginning. In fact, one Democrat even suggested that committees. That's due to start on Friday.

Now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promises additional lawsuits and hearings. Tomorrow, the House Oversight Committee, perhaps a contempt of congress citation, for White House aide Kellyanne Conway. But what everyone wants to know is, did today's hearing move the meter on impeachment?

I tried to get clarity from the speaker of the House. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF.: That information --

PERGRAM: So, that will be a telltale sign about whether or not you have information --

(CROSSTALK)

PELOSI: Yes, we have several considerations. It's about what information is there. And this isn't endless. This isn't endless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERGRAM: Pelosi wants Democrats to have the strongest possible hand if they pursue impeachment. I also spoke with Democratic Texas Congressman Al Green. The House blocked Green's impeachment effort last week. Now, Green conceded that there wasn't a, quote, wow moment in the Mueller hearing. But Green said he thought that public sentiment would change if they started an impeachment inquiry. One source said to me, Sean, that that's like saying you have to pass the health care bill first to know what's in it.

Back to you.

HANNITY: All right, Chad. Great reporting as always. Thank you for your report from Washington.

One of the most confusing moments again. This is now the sixth time this has happened. Well, that happened earlier today at the hearing and surrounding the topic of obstruction. Remember, Robert Mueller, he agreed with Bill Barr, told Bill Barr, told Rod Rosenstein and others that legal guidance about charging a sitting president, in other words, whether or not Department of Justice policies prevented him from considering literally charging a president of the United States, a sitting president or constitutional considerations. He said no from the beginning.

And, by the way, from the Office of Legal Counsel, well, it was not taken into account when making his initial decision not to charge the president. Instead, he cited insufficient evidence, no underlying crime. And during a rambling nine-minute presser in May, which probably is more understandable today, he contradicted himself. He said the exact opposite.

And a few hours later, I think the Attorney General Barr graciously threw him a lifeline. It was a joint statement. Special counsel's office, the A.G.'s office, they corrected what Barr said in that 9-1/2 minute press conference.

But then again today, well, Mueller contradicted the opinion again, another flip-flop. That's now -- is he confused? Are you confused? You're not alone.

And then, moments after he made the mistake, he went to the cowardly Schiff's committee and corrected the mistake again. Pretty much a disaster. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TED LIEU, D-CALIF.: I'd like to ask you the reason again that you did not indict Donald Trump is because of OLC opinion stating that you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?

MUELLER: That is correct.

I have one correction to my testimony this morning. I like to go back to one thing that was said this morning by Mr. Lieu who I said, and I quote, you didn't charge the president because of the OLC opinion. That is not the correct way to say it.

As we say in the report, and as I said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: If you're dizzy and having a little time following the bouncing ball, that's understandable. That's the key detail.

But joining us now for reaction, the attorney for the president, Jay Sekulow -- by the way, full disclosure. Sadly, he has a much lower ranking client on his list of clients. That is me. Along with attorney for the president, Rudy Giuliani, who also, I would hire in a heartbeat.

And it's amazing. I want to publicly applaud both of you. The job that you -- no, I'm very serious here. And, Rudy, I mean, you guys complement each other.

Rudy is a little bit of a -- well, Rudy does -

RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: What am I? Who says I'd represent you?

HANNITY: Well, that's true -- why would you? But I do pay on time. Jay will verify that.

JAY SEKULOW, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: He does.

HANNITY: But here's the thing. Mr. Mayor, I remember your press conference as mayor. We go back many, many years. We've been friends for many, many years. You have no problem throwing down with anybody.

Jay, a little bit more behind the scenes, but together, you complement each other.

GIULIANI: A little more diplomatic too.

HANNITY: Probably Jay, I think --

GIULIANI: A great lawyer -- a great, great lawyer.

HANNITY: The both of you are.

GIULIANI: He's the guy in it. John Dowd would tell you this. Jane and Marty Raskin will tell you this, he's the guy that was in this from day one to --

HANNITY: He was.

GIULIANI: -- to today. It's not quite obvious that hand is going to come up again one or two times, but we are going to have to push it down. The body was buried today.

SEKULOW: Yes.

HANNITY: You know, it's funny, you were Donald Trump before Donald Trump when you did conferences as mayor.

GIULIANI: Oh, nobody is Donald -- please, don't give me in trouble. Nobody is Donald Trump.

HANNITY: Well, that's true. But I want to talk about -- there is a very serious aspect to all of this, and that is our constitutional republic came dangerously close to a few powerful people using power and literally attempting to influence an election.

SEKULOW: Yes.

HANNITY: We had a Russian dossier used to influence an election. A media that ignored and politicians that ignored the real Russian influence, and they went after this president with lies and conspiracies. They came dangerously close. This was certainly an attempted coup, Mr. Mayor, in my view.

GIULIANI: You could call it that. I mean, I would have probably resisted, a year, a year and a half ago. You were telling me a year, a year and a half ago, so I got involved in this. I didn't realize how bad it was.

And, you know, Mueller's performance today is really an indication of also, in fact, there is no case. There never was a case. Peter Strzok said it best. Two years ago, there's no "there" there.

So, how come we have an investigation if there is "there" there, unless there were people, for criminal reasons, meaning to oust him from office or prevent him from being president, that were pushing it. And when Mueller said today, it was beyond his purview to investigate the people who were trying to prevent people who were trying to take him out of office. I thought he was appointed to investigate interference with the 2016 election.

He said beyond his purview 16 times. I counted them. The only thing in his purview was framing President Trump. That was it.

SEKULOW: You know, Sean --

GIULIANI: Not Page, not Hillary, who paid $1.1 million to Russians and Ukrainians. They are not foreigners? That's not a crime? A big one, like money involved?

SEKULOW: You know what Bob Mueller's biggest problem was today, Sean, in my view, defending the indefensible. That report and I've said it many times, is nothing you can defend because it's incomprehensible.

First of all, the exoneration language. Prosecutors don't exonerate. The legal standard in the United States is not exoneration. You are found guilty or not guilty.

And this -- we -- if we had the authority -- if we thought we could exonerate him, we would do so. He never had the authority in the first place. I think that's where he got in trouble.

It was interesting to me that these statements about, you know, Bob Mueller says we can't exonerate the president. Bob Mueller couldn't exonerate himself, because the special counsel can't exonerate. So, this is -- this was absurd. And then, the theory of obstruction by tweet.

But I think the most telling thing today was when former special counsel Mueller had to go before the committee after answering Ted Lieu's question incorrectly, as if they didn't know that question was coming, and had to go and correct it and said, we never made a determination regarding culpability of illegal violation here. Never made that determination.

And if you read his letter in his report, he said it presented difficult questions of law and fact. You know what happens, Sean, when you have difficult questions of law and fact? You don't bring the case. And guess what, they did not.

HANNITY: This is key.

SEKULOW: So, is the president exonerated? Absolutely.

HANNITY: This whole legal concept of, well, exoneration is ridiculous. Now, beyond the correction --

SEKULOW: That is a legal standard. There's no liability. That's what it is.

HANNITY: Right. And you're right. If you either indict, if you have the goods or you don't indict and you don't say anything either.

All right. Beyond the correction, how is it possible that he didn't know who Fusion GPS was? How is it --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: How is it possible that, you know, literal -- go ahead. You want to say?

GIULIANI: Absolutely pathetic. I mean, he didn't know what Fusion GPS was because he never investigated the alternative theories of culpability, which a prosecutor is ethically bound to do, if he's an ethical prosecutor.

Now, Bob is an ethical prosecutor. But the guy wasn't in charge. Jay is too to say this. We went to one meeting today with Bob Mueller in a year and a half, he didn't know he couldn't indict the president. It took two days to get him to say that.

SEKULOW: Right.

GIULIANI: He was not in charge. It's painfully obvious.

There was committees. They fought with each other. They all hated the president. They all loved Hillary Clinton.

When he says he didn't know who he was hiring -- he doesn't look at resumes. He doesn't do FBI background checks. He doesn't realize that he hired the council to the crooked Clinton Foundation. I mean, come on!

HANNITY: Stop right there. Mr. Mayor, he did not know that Jeanne Rhee had been the lawyer for Clinton. He did not know that what Fusion GPS was. He didn't want to know what happened on both sides of the Trump Tower meeting that everybody made a big deal of, where the Russian lady actually met with Fusion GPS twice.

He didn't want to know about the dossier. How is that?

SEKULOW: It's -- no, it's incomprehensible, like the report.

So, here's what you had. This is what became clear today. Bob Mueller, the Mueller report was not authored by Bob Mueller. The investigation was not run by Bob Mueller. It was run by these deputies.

And the fact of the matter is, this is what -- Rudy and I know, and our colleagues, the Raskins and others, know this. They did not abide by the so-called OLC opinion. As Rudy just said, until the summer of last year.

So, this nonsense they knew from the beginning they were bound -- and that's why he had to correct it, because it wasn't true. Whether it was intentional or unintentional, that's irrelevant. You can't defend the indefensible.

HANNITY: All right. This -- would this be a fair characterization? So, we now found out last week that all the hiring was done by Andrew Weissmann who has a history of prosecutorial misconduct, withholding exculpatory evidence. We can all read, Mr. Mayor, we can read the great book by Sidney Powell, "Licensed to Lie".

GIULIANI: We kind of memorized it.

HANNITY: We kind of did. Tens of thousands of Americans lost their jobs. He lost 9-0 in the Supreme Court, four innocent people to jail, overturned by the fifth circuit. He became in charge of everything.

But here's my point. He's the biggest, most corrupt prosecutor you can have, with the most abusively biased one sided Democratic team. And he still has no goods. He convinced Mueller not to look at the dossier are.

GIULIANI: Yes, and he knew because he was very close to Strzok. He was involved in this back in 2016 as Solomon has now uncovered. So, he had like a real vested interest in this, way beyond what's healthy for a prosecutor.

Now, Mueller has some sort of a weird attachment to him, which I can't quite figure out, because Mueller, you know, has never been unethical prosecutor, and this guy is a textbook unethical prosecutor, and we are going to add to the chapters. I mean, offering a Ukrainian oligarch freedom?

HANNITY: Two weeks. Two weeks.

(CROSSTALK)

GIULIANI: And the Ukrainian oligarch has more honor than you do, and says, I won't lie for you, and so does Manafort, and so does Corsi, and about five other people. This guy was pretty close. I can't say he did until he's investigated.

HANNITY: Sounds like, Mr. Mayor, I'm going to say it.

GIULIANI: Pretty darn close to suborning perjury. And that is a serious, serious crime. That's got to be fully investigated. And if he did it, he's got to be prosecuted.

HANNITY: This prosecutorial tactic of offering a get-out-of-jail free card, if he tells us what we want to hear. This has got to stop because is there anything of greater value than your freedom and if you --

GIULIANI: You don't tell people -- you can offer a get out of jail card if somebody tells you their very version and it works. But you can't give them --

SEKULOW: But you'd have evidence to support it.

GIULIANI: Like Dershowitz said, you can -- they can sing, but you can't compose for them.

HANNITY: Jay, last word.

GIULIANI: What he was doing is composing for them.

SEKULOW: Here's the part of this. Sean, this is the story. The Democrats lost. The president of the country won, and the case is closed. There is nothing left in this case.

GIULIANI: Mean.

HANNITY: Wait a minute, Jay, I have a follow-up to that. How important is it, though? Because we did have a Russian dossier. It was paid for.

It was used to influence the voters in 2016, and it was used as the basis of a FISA application, and we now know that it was unverifiable. And guys like Jim Comey and others signed it. And, by the way --

SEKULOW: Chapter -- the new volume starts now. The investigation of the investigators starts now. And that's the new story.

GIULIANI: It's much more serious than these phony allegations because are real -- I guarantee you, Sean, there were real crimes.

SEKULOW: Absolutely.

GIULIANI: Like I used to prosecute. Real ones, and they could be really big. I'm not sure how high they go, but they go pretty darn high. It'd better be investigated so that it doesn't happen again.

SEKULOW: No, it's going to be investigated. And we're going to find out.

GIULIANI: I believe it will be.

HANNITY: All right. I want to say to both of you, and this is important to know. This was a very hard job that both of you had. This was -- you had the entire media industrial complex spreading lies and conspiracies. You had to counter that. You had Democrats spreading and conspiracies. You had more misinformation that I think I've ever seen in my life.

And I think this is an important moment for this great republic that we have, and had this gone the other way, this would have destroyed the greatest country God gave man. It is that serious and it is that deep, the corruption, the abuse of power.

Thank you.

SEKULOW: It's been our honor to do this.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you.

Mueller's confusing contradictory testimony about obstruction, that was not the only glaring inconsistency from the hearing. In fact, there were many puzzling moments. Many are now wondering what role, if any, Mueller played in the special counsel investigation.

Here with more reaction to today's hearing is the man you just saw. He is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

Congressman Doug Collins, you know, I really wasn't worried about and Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz and Ratcliffe. I kind of felt confident on you guys. I've worried about some of the other Republicans.

But I will tell you, I was impressed with everybody and I think you all did a great job. You in particular, sir.

REP. DOUG COLLINS, R-GA.: Well, thanks.

We actually worked on this, Sean. We knew it was. It was an important moment for our country. We believe in our country. We believe in freedom, and we believe in what we did today. And that is pointing out the truth and inconsistencies in this report. And that's what people needed to see today.

HANNITY: Tell us your big takeaways from today, Congressman. And I've got to give you -- I have singled you out for special praise is because we were able to see and learn so much about this case that we hadn't previously known, because you single-handedly released the closed door testimony.

We got to see your work, and Jim Jordan's work and Mark Meadows' work, and Devin Nunes' work and Ratcliff's work. And, boy, you guys behind the scenes when nobody was looking and no credit was given, wow, you laid the foundation for all of this happening today and I know because I've read those closed-door testimony hearings. And they were blockbuster.

COLLINS: They were great. I think the takeaway today is pretty simple. Number one is what we started off with. We showed that collusion and conspiracy were the same thing, Mueller debunked it all. That is put to bed.

There is no Democrat that can go out and say that, oh, I see collusion in plain sight. And it's the way Adam Schiff puts it, just lie. We can't do that anymore. Mueller put that to a complete rest today.

The second thing is, when the Democrats did all of their tricks and there little flower points and said here was obstruction, he looked at them and said, I don't subscribe to your theory. That obstruction theory is blown.

And then the third thing which I think is important which set something next level is he refused to talk about things actually in his report like the dossier, like the interviews of other people, while we know that he wouldn't talk about it, we do know that we're looking at the Inspector General Horowitz and we're looking at Mr. Durham. That is why this next level is so important because we know the rest is -- put to rest her. No obstruction. No charges. Definitely no collusion and no conspiracy which started this all, and now, we can get to what we've been talking about all along and which you've been championing as well.

HANNITY: Well, now, as we said, the curtain has gone down. Act one is over. It's dead and buried. But this -- we better get this right, because there really was Russian interference, except it was bought and paid for. And we had people within the highest ranks of our government abused their power in an attempt to rig a presidential election and take down a duly elected president.

Congressman Collins, we will not stop until they are held accountable. Thank you sir.

Now, I can guarantee that probably all of you that watch this program, you are familiar with Fusion GPS. Remember, we've been reporting the basic fact. Hillary Clinton and the DNC, they funneled money through a law firm called Perkins Coie, by the way, in and of itself, they were trying to make it out to be a legal expense. It wasn't, because they went to Fusion GPS, which is an op research firm.

And Fusion GPS then hired a foreign national. I thought foreign national weren't supposed to impact our elections. He's a former MI-6 spy. You know his name, Christopher Steele, who, by the way, himself, when push came to shove, in an interrogatory in Great Britain, he couldn't confirm his own dossier -- the one that was used to get warrant to spy on the Trump campaign, Trump transition and yes, the Trump presidency.

Fusion GPS hired Steele to dig up Russian dirt, create the now infamous dirty dossier, filled with an unverifiable Russian lies. Hillary paid for it. The DNC paid for it. The FBI helped pay for it, and an oligarch helped pay for it.

Amazing work if you can get four people to pay for the same lies. Fusion GPS is at the very center at the DOJ's ongoing real investigation into FISA abuse, which now appears to be premeditated FISA fraud committed against FISA judges. I'd love to hear from them, for the purpose of spying on a presidential campaign, transition team and president.

In other words, also, we'll bring us to the origins of Mueller's witch hunt. According to multiple reports tonight, the contents of that dossier, very well be a key part of Russia's campaign to interfere with our elections. In other words, even "The New York Times" now recognizes that it was Russian dirt from the get-go, designed to impact the election. The whole dossier that Hillary played for was Russian disinformation, likely from the beginning, "The New York Times" said.

During the hearing -- this is amazing. Robert Mueller didn't seem to know what Fusion GPS is. He also didn't know that Ronald Reagan had made an appointment for him. He also didn't know that one of Hillary's attorneys was on the team.

With more she has done phenomenal work herself. Take a bow, Catherine Herridge in our Washington Bureau tonight. And you deserve props there were not many people in every news division in America that did the digging and the hard work you did. I want to tell people how I know you work so hard. Because it always turned out every one of my sources said, oh, I just spoke to Catherine. Oh, I talked to Catherine yesterday. Catherine Herridge has been asking the same questions.

CATHERINE HERRIDGE, CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: You are making me embarrassed now.

HANNITY: Well, I mean you did it on your own. We were all getting the information from me but you are working you are as off and I'm - you should be proud of your hard work, because you were standing alone looking for truth. I applaud you for it.

HERRIDGE: I'm sure you would agree. I have always believed that the facts have a power all their own, and they can speak for themselves. Meantime Sean, today right out of the gate, Robert Mueller seem to got the Republicans ambition saying he would not address the origin of the FBI Russia Probe in 2016. So Congressman Devin Nunes has got key details on the table.

By reading into the congressional record that the FBI probe began with a tip from a foreign politician, not an official - intelligence product from the so called "Five Eyes". The intelligence network that includes the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K.

Another Republican pressed Mueller on a proceed double-standard. Multiple Trump team members, including Former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort were prosecuted. But the mysterious professor Joseph Mifsud who planted the Russia-Clinton email story, apparently lied to the FBI with no consequences.

(ROBERT MUELLER'S TESTIMONY)

HERRIDGE: And you were right to spot light that the Former Special Counsel was not familiar with fusion GPS, the firm behind the Democrat funded dossier. And of course that matters, because it was used to secure surveillance warrants and multiple renewals.

(ROBERT MUELLER'S TESTIMONY)

HERRIDGE: My intelligence contacts report that it's standard for the Russians or any former intelligence service to collect information about both campaigns. So investigating the source of the dossier is like a counterintelligence 101 and a major gap in the Mueller report, Sean.

HANNITY: All right, great reporting, Catherine Herridge. Take a bow tonight. You're ahead of the curve.

HERRIDGE: Thank you.

HANNITY: When so many of your colleagues in news divisions failed. Thank you. Here now more reaction. Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee. I want you just say something. Without the people I'm about to introduce this wouldn't have happened.

Devin Nunes Congressman Jim Jordan, Congressman Matt Gaetz, he is not here, but I'll speak for him Congressman Mark Meadows. Thank you all for being with us. I get your general impressions and where do we go from here because the really was a whole lot to the story that I am shocked Robert Mueller apparently knew nothing about Devin Nunes.

REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-CALIF.: Well, if you go through and look at all the questions that the House Intelligence Committee was asked, of course there was no collusion of course there was no obstruction. Doug Collins Judiciary Committee and Jim Jordan did a great job with that. But what we ask are very specific questions about the origin of the investigation. The Steele dossier all the things that you've been covering for years. I think we were a little taken back that not only would Mr. Mueller not answer. He seemed to not know at times. They were very basic questions.

HANNITY: Devin, I've kind of - Devin I've got to tell you something. He's either not watching the show or he's not remembering it, because you are right.

NUNES: But not only that, he also must not have read anything of the documentation about how this investigation began. I mean, to not know or want to talk about Joseph Mifsud was really baffling to me.

HANNITY: You know, Jim Jordan, you'd be a very good talk show host, because you have an ability to list things that I envy. And I'm pretty good at my list. So I'm a little but I watched you today, and you really hit a very important nerve here. I want you to explain to people the significance of where you went.

REP. JIM JORDON, R-OH: The guy who started it all lies three times for the FBI on February 10th, 2017. They don't go find him with anything and they don't go finding him and get a second interview. But anyone associated with the Trump campaign who gave a false statement gets charged with the crime in 13 Russian names ever heard off get charged with the crime.

The guy who puts it all emotion lies to you and you don't do a darn thing. All these today in my mind underscored something that you've been talking out, Dev has been talking about, Matt always been talking about. All that underscored why the investigation Bill Barr, John Durham and also Michael Horowitz investigation as so darn important because those go to the heart of this when it all started 2016.

HANNITY: Matt Gaetz, I thought you had a great line of questioning yourself today. But what we are really learning is you fight for the Freedom Caucus and a few that decided to inform themselves and kept digging and digging and digging and doing hard work behind the scenes in these close door interviews. You, Mark, Devin, and Jim. We wouldn't be here today. We learned a lot on those close doors sessions and how hard you all were working when nobody was looking.

GAETZ: Thank you, Sean. I'm reminded that just yesterday Adam Schiff said that Robert Mueller would breathe life into the Mueller report today. And instead what we saw was Robert Mueller sucked the life out of the impeachment movement altogether. It is dead and over. I suspect that you'll see even more Americans reject this. Really this terrible distraction for the country.

We also have to deal with Robert Mueller's evolving purview. And I think this really showed the bias and the double standard. When people who supported Trump lied, he threw the book at him. When people like Christopher Steele who hated Trump lied when Glenn Simpson was engaging in Russians, Robert Mueller was hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.

I don't understand why it's in Robert Mueller's purview to write 3500 words - he did not write this report, okay? I don't know how many times he read it. The fusion GPS issue that you've been sighting. Fusion GPS itself is referenced in a story that in a footnote in the report. So it's very clear Robert didn't write it. And I don't think he really understood it today.

HANNITY: This is the question that's most often asked by people that we appreciate. Watched this TV Show that you have made the show number one. I want to ask this question. They asked me all the time, and I'll ask you the same question. Devin Nunes will the people that have been involved in this abuse of power and corruption, will they be held accountable? Hilary get away with a rigged investigation a dirty dossier pre meditated lying fraud on FISA courts an attempt to undo a presidential election with lies and conspiracy theories? We'll start with Devin.

NUNES: So remember, Sean. We've made some criminal referrals. There are some that are very easy criminal referrals just like Matt Gaetz was saying. If you lie to Congress or instructive Congress's investigation, those are simple. Those are the easy ones. To get to the bottom and dig into this, like we've been doing for three years is much more complicated. It's more complicated to prove conspiracy. It's a higher standard.

So that will be up to the U.S. Attorney in Connecticut and ultimately the Attorney General to see what it is if they can get to the bottom of the origin of this investigation and whether or not there was FISA abuses that were done as a conspiracy and whether or not intelligence was manipulated as a conspiracy?

HANNITY: But we know the answer. We know what happened. Jim, will they be held accountable?

JORDON: Yes the people that Bill Barr said was the crisis in leadership at the upper rest on the FBI. Comey, McKay, Baker Strzok and Page. Comey was fired. Andy McKay lied three times under all fired. Jim Baker Chief Counsel was demoted in left was under an investigation by the Justice Department. Lisa Page demoted in left and of course Peter Strzok the lead agent on both of these key cases that the Hilary case and the Trump Russia case.

Peter Strzok deputy had a counterintelligence demoted in fire. Those are the five key people. That's where the investigation should focus as well as these origins. That's what Bill Barr and John Durham are looking into.

HANNITY: Matt Gaetz.

GAETZ: Sea, if there was any bomb shell today it was a consequence of Devin Nunes's questioning that exposed that this investigation did not begin when Robert Mueller says it began. There were earlier even more corrupt origins and folks that I think are sleeping too well tonight. Brennan and Clapper people associated with the Obama Administration--

HANNITY: And Comey.

GAETZ: - who were stirring this up well. Comey and McKay frankly are lower hanging fruit because it's so obvious their leaks - but that conspiracy that Devin outlined goes back to Brennan and Clapper.

HANNITY: I want everybody to know something here. I'm half kidding and I'm half not kidding. These three men, led Mark Meadows who is not here and Lindsey Graham we're going to talk to in a minute. You guys put your heads on a chopping block, and Chuck Schummer once famously said, you take on the Intel Committee they're going to get.

Frankly, anyone of you, maybe even me, we could have had a pre-dawn raid, because that's how corrupt this guy. Thank you for what you did for your country tonight. This is important stuff. Thank you.

Earlier today, Senator Lindsey Graham issued a statement read "After today's hearing - and for the good of the country. I hope this is the end of the Mueller report. Now it's time to find out how this debacle started and went so far". Senator Graham joins us now.

Your question I always go back to you asked Attorney General Barr, you confident Mueller had everything he needed to get the job done at the time? President never invoked executive privilege once, I don't know 1.5 million documents. Everybody was accessible.

My question is, Hilary gets away with a fixed investigation when she committed crimes? Do the people involved in lying to a FISA court consciously do they get away with it? The people that tried to influence a presidential election, get away with it? And people that tried to undo that election get away with it Senator? Or are you going to make sure that doesn't happen?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: I'm more determined today after this hearing to get to the bottom of it. The question, did Hilary get let off because of the people investigating her wanted her to win and Trump to lose, was the reason that she wasn't prosecuted was because of political decision, political motivation.

All the things are very important. One thing I can tell you after today, the Mueller report is a name only. And the idea you say--

HANNITY: Is that a Wiseman report?

GRAHAM: We'll see, but it clearly wasn't the Mueller report. It's just a name. I had more to do with the Mueller report then probably he did. Do you know what bothers me a lot? People around Bob Mueller knew he was in a weakened state. This guy served in Vietnam, got wounded, done a lot of great things for the country. He should not have been called.

HANNITY: Senator, let me agree with you. When the Attorney General agreed to the joint statement, Attorney General, I said at the time, he did a favor to Bob Mueller. The Attorney General was warning that this was going to be a spectacle. It seems like the only person that understood and tried to prevent it was the one that was being accused of trying to rig it was the Attorney General knew that this would be a disaster for Mueller.

And you are right. His background was one of a hero. The people that allowed this that used him, the politicians on that committee, and the people on that group that hired and did all this, and he knew nothing and ran the show without them, they are the ones that did this to his reputation.

GRAHAM: The hatred for Trump knows no boundaries. They used this man and one of the reasons I have told people early on I was not going to call Mueller because the report speaks for itself. But I was told by people close to Bob Mueller that he really shouldn't have to go through this. I've been asked everyday --

HANNITY: Senator, I knew he wasn't capable of this. I am a stupid talk show host. I was told repeatedly that he is not up to the task.

GRAHAM: Here's the point. I've been asked for three months, why don't you want to call Mueller? I bet you nobody will ask me that tomorrow. A letter was sent to me by every Democrat on the Judiciary Committee in the Senate. Why don't you call Mueller? Nobody is going ask me to that tomorrow. Here's what I want to say. Donald Trump is stronger tonight than any time in his presidency. The need to find out what happened was greater than it was before. It's clear that Bob Mueller was not in charge of his investigation. And like every American who cares about the rule we need to find out how this started and why it went so long?

HANNITY: Senator, we need the Senator Graham that changed the course of the Cavanaugh Hearing to take control of this. Your country needs you. This is important. This republic came dangerously close to allowing lies and conspiracy theories. Few powerful people don't see a dually elected President. Your country needs you. That's just the fact.

GRAHAM: Well their time is coming. The President has gone through hell for two and half years and nobody else could have taken that but him.

HANNITY: I know, I agree with you.

GRAHAM: He is stronger today. I don't see why did it. They've tried to ruin his family's life and he's cut his nails. But those who engaged in the FISA court abuse and I think fraud it's their time. The only way you will ever stop this in the future is to make people clarify.

HANNITY: Your committee is going to be crucial Senator. I believe you. Thank you for what you are doing to get to the truth. Joining us now is Author - this book has been on "The New York Times" list for eternity. It's week number nine or ten. Number one best seller "Unfreedom of the Press". "The Great One" Mark Levin.

Now this also the number one show on Fox on Sunday nights "Life, Liberty & Levin". I had to talk this man into doing radio. This is a fact. I made him do it. He didn't want to. He was reluctant and resistant. "Great One" what I love about you is your brain more than anything else. You are a great constitutional scholar. I worried about a republic after I saw today morning I have but at any point and I've been worried for a while.

MARK LEVIN, "UNFREEDOM OF THE PRESS" AUTHOR: Now let me do a little summation here. As far as Robert Mueller goes, I'm on two minds with Robert Mueller, know he was in no condition to testify, but on the other hand, he was in no condition to be a Special Counsel. And he should not have accepted the job and Rod Rosenstein should have never offered him the job.

The victim here is not Mueller. The victim is the President of the United States and all the other people who are around him. I want people to keep something in mind about this 448 page report. It is a prosecutor's brief. It was their best shot. There is no reply report by the President that was permitted. There was no contrary witnesses no contrary documents no contrary evidence. No cross examinations, no challenges of any type.

So this is a really Soviet style process we are going through. And I want to thank the Democrats, because they will reveal themselves as the clowns that they truly are. They've impeached themselves today and forever more.

If the Democrats were truly interested Mr. Schiff which you said over and over again in overwhelming Russian involvement in our campaign, then why the hell didn't you call Barack Obama and Joe Biden to testify? Why the hell didn't you call Clapper and Brennan and Lynch and Comey and Hillary Clinton? They are in charge of our government. They are the ones who allowed the Russians to have overwhelming influence in our campaign, and they kept their mouth shut, because they thought Hilary would win. And they didn't want to tank that election.

Where is Barrack Obama today? His own some ship in the Caribbean I suppose? Where is Hilary Clinton where any of them? Now that's that. Now I want to talk about obstruction of justice. These liberal Democrats who ran this operation are such incompetent boobs. They cited three criminal obstruction statutes that don't apply. Now that people have studied this.

Moreover, what document exactly did the President with held? None. What witness did the President from testifying? Not one. What investigator or prosecutor did the President fire? Not one. What resources to the President withhold? Not one. No conspiracy, no obstruction.

Let's talk a little bit more about obstruction I mentioned this when you show before.

HANNITY: Mark, we got about 45 seconds. Go ahead sir.

LEVIN: Well, it's too late then. Let's talk about Mueller's purview. Everything is outside Mueller's purview. Outside Hilary Clinton, the DNC, Fusion GPS, Christopher Steele, Russia's role and Steele dossier, the FISA applications, McKay's lynch, Strozk leaks, Comey leaks, McKay's coup attempt. Outside of the purview. Rosenstein's conflict of interest. FBI placing spies on the Trump campaign. Obama Administration's unmasking of American citizens. The Obama Administration failed to stop the Russians. All outside the purview. But Manafort taxes--

HANNITY: Oh we never heard the end of it?

LEVIN: All right, I'm done brother.

HANNITY: Mark, there are only a couple of us that put our neck out from the beginning on this. You were one of them. Thank you. "The Great one" Mark Levin, Sunday night Number one show, book number one. Everything is number one. Judge Jeannine is ready to go. Gregg Jarrett and Sara Carter they're next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: I do have a big announcement. We will have an exclusive interview. The President reacts to all of what happened today and so much more talk about 2020 and of course Democratic socialists. For more reaction to Mueller's testimony author of the upcoming book "Radicals Resistance and Revenge" the host of "Justice" Judge Jeannine Pirro that book will be number.

Also, another book that's going to be number one, Greg's Jarrett's book "Witch Hunt" which is coming out a follow up to his best seller. And Fox News Investigative Report Sara Carter. All of you are part of what I call an ensemble team to this show, I guess I get credit because there is my name on the stupid show, but really, honestly, it was a team effort.

All of you worked so hard. This was really an effort. I'm peeling - Sara what do I call it? The layers of the onion.

SARA CARTER, CONTRIBUTOR: The layers of the onion. Yes.

HANNITY: And I said - I told that we can't stop all of you deserve credit. Sara I'll let you start from there. Your thoughts?

CARTER: Oh, well so today's hearing. The Democrats actually did a favor for the American people. Because with absolute certainty now after what we saw today, there needs to be at DOJ and there is a DOJ investigation at the beginning of this Russia investigation.

Look, Sean, what we saw today was actually painful to watch. It was painful to watch Robert Mueller stumble around, not able to answer the question. What we saw, as a nation, was how flawed this report was. The next step, we know there's not going to be an impeachment. They are not going to move towards impeachment. They just can't.

This country must move towards an investigation that routes out those people that started this conspiracy, this disinformation campaign against President Trump. It needs to go all the way to the top. We need to know who weaponized the intelligence and who targeted President Trump once and for all and hopefully John Durham will do that and Attorney General William Barr.

HANNITY: We don't get to the bottom of a Judge and you're opening monologues scare me some days, because you are so accurate, that's why. Because you're right, and you are passionate about it. If we don't get to the bottom of this, this will happen again. A great exception might be, they might be successful. And that means the country is over.

JUDGE JEANNINE PIRRO, "RADICALS, RESISTENCE AND REVENGE" AUTHOR: You are absolutely right, Sean. The problem is, they are trying to remake America. What we saw today was struggling, stumbling Robert Mueller. This guy was nothing more than a shield for the deep state of Trump hating, Hilary loving lawyers who slapped his name on a report and tried to change the presumption of innocence. This has been happening for a while.

HANNITY: Only because I poorly managed my time. I've got to get Gregg in here. And then I'll promise will bring you all back tomorrow and obviously on the weekend. Gregg.

GREGG JARRETT, CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, it was an important because Americans saw as the curtain was peeled back and this fraudulent investigation was exposed. The great and powerful Mueller was not, he was oblivious to basic facts, uninformed about the law. He wasn't in charge of this investigation, he didn't write the report, he didn't sit in on interviews.

Who was in charge? Andrew Weissmann was in charge.

HANNITY: Right. You three have been amazing, thank you. More “Hannity.”

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Only touching the surface. The President, Donald Trump, will join us for an exclusive interview, reacting to all of the events from today, the conspiracy theories, the lies, the propaganda, the misinformation. Media is dead. The mob exists. We'll never be a part of it. We are going to get to the truth. We are going to hold them accountable. Let not your heart be troubled. We'll have the President tomorrow night. Laura Ingraham is next.

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