Sekulow: Mueller report has completely vindicated the president

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Sekulow: Mueller report has completely vindicated the president

President Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow weighs in on the Mueller report and the collapse of the collusion narrative on 'Hannity.'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 18, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Buckle up. Welcome to "Hannity."

We begin tonight with a Fox News alert. The witch hunt is officially over.  The Mueller report is out. And the president of the United States has been totally and completely vindicated. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I'm having a good day too.  It's called no collusion, no obstruction.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

There never was, by the way, and there never will be. And we do have to get to the bottom of these things, I will say. And this should never happen.

And this should never happen -- this should never happen to another president again. This hoax, it should never happen to another president again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And we're going to do our part to make sure it doesn't happen again. We're holding those people accountable. We have a lot to get to tonight.

But for the past 2-1/2 years, the leader of the free world was forced to dedicate so much precious time, energy, resources, to an unjust investigation surrounding what is a hoax.

Here's the bottom line directly from the Mueller report. Quote: The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.

The president's team of lawyers are rightfully triumphant, writing, quote: The results of the investigation are a total victory for the president.  The report underscores what we have argued from the very beginning, there was no collusion, there was no obstruction. It is clear there was no criminal wrongdoing, nothing withheld, nothing concealed, oh, nothing deleted, nothing destroyed, and nothing bleached.

That's right, no Bleach Bit, unlike Hillary Clinton.

The president didn't destroy subpoenaed e-mails or any other evidence in this case. He did not invoke executive privilege. Instead, according to independent counsel, Ken Starr, the president's cooperation in this case was unprecedented, and that's because President Trump had nothing to hide.

Thousands and thousands of documents were turned over, almost 1.4 million, unfettered access given to Trump campaign, officials, administration employees. Mueller's team completed 30 hours of interviews with the White House counsel.

How does that ever happen? No executive privilege was used to hide anything in Mueller's report.

By contrast, the Obama administration, oh, they used executive privilege to withhold 20 e-mails from then Attorney General Eric Holder surrounding his involvement in the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal. Well, that was a real scandal. Whereas Trump, Russia, collusion, was a farce.

Tonight, thankfully, for the sake of this country, truth has prevailed. As the president's attorneys put it, quote: This vindication of the president is an important step forward for the country and a strong reminder that this type of abuse must never be permitted to occur again.

Now, coming up in the monologue, we're going to take you through the real crimes that will be exposed. We're going to call out all of the Democrats, the media mob who have spent 2.5 years lying, defrauding, the American people.

And mark my words, an avalanche of truth and justice is about to bury all of those who abuse their power -- 2 1/2 years, never ending, nonstop, tinfoil conspiracy theorists, and the media mob obsessed at a level of psychosis we've never seen. Every day, Russia, Russia, Russia, collusion, collusion, collusion.

After four separate investigations, including a nine-month FBI investigation, a House intel investigation, a bipartisan investigation in the Senate, and now the all-powerful Mueller probe, we know zero Trump- Russia collusion.

Glenn Greenwald put it very well. Robert Mueller did not merely reject the Trump-Russia conspiracy theories, he obliterated them. This today mark this day as the biggest beat down the media mob has experienced in history, because every time they mentioned Russia, Russia, Russia, every time they said collusion, collusion, collusion, we now know it was a lie -- 2 1/2 years of lie after lie after lie, conspiracy theories posing as news programs.

By the way, how stupid must Rachael Maddow and her band of blithering conspiracy theorists feel today? In a moment, we're going to show you these lies that they have peddled. Part of it may make you laugh, part may make you sad for 2 1/2 years.

We're going to continue my monologue in just a second. But, first, joining us is the president's attorney, Jay Sekulow, who's also the chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice. Yes, he's done legal work for me in the past for the 4,000th time.

You know, Jay, I have your letter.

JAY SEKULOW, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S LAWYER: Yes.

HANNITY: I read your statement. It's everything you've been saying, Rudy's been saying, Dowd, others before -- unprecedented cooperation. No - -

SEKULOW: Right.

HANNITY: No collusion. No Russia collusion. No obstruction.

SEKULOW: Yes ,well, let me tell you what the report says, because it's 400 pages and there's a lot to read. But let me give you the top line findings of Bob Mueller. These are statements that are contained in the report.

The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.

The investigation did not establish that the contact described in Volume I, that's the entire issue of collusion, amounted to an agreement to commit any violation of federal criminal law, including foreign influence or campaign finance laws. In other words, there was no evidence sufficient enough to bring any kind of a case regarding any violations of these statutes.

The investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. person conspired for coordinating with the IRA, those are the ones who are alleged to be involve in the hacking.

The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in the election interference activities.

Further, the evidence was not sufficient in any case -- this is an interesting one too that everyone is glossing over -- that says there was any conspiracy with any representative of the Russian government regarding the 2016 election.

I could go on for pages and pages. The point is, this investigation started because of allegations about conspiracy or collusion as it was called regarding the Trump campaign and the Russian government or Russian agents.

This report, not only vindicates the president completely, but the fact is that the president of the United States has gone through a 2-1/2 year investigation -- by the way, it goes back to -- we know it started in 2016 called Crossfire Hurricane.

It's been going on for almost three years. And the parameter with which it was set was to determine Russian interference with the election and was there any involvement with the president or the campaign, and the answer was: no, there was not.

And that was the basis upon which this entire investigation started.

HANNITY: The Attorney General Barr said the other day and there was a media freak-out over it, that, yes, the Trump campaign was spied upon. It happened in a number of ways. It happened vis-a-vis the FISA warrant full of the Hillary bought and paid for of all things Russian lies as the bulk of information, according to the Grassley-Graham memo. But also Stefan Halper was empowered to meet George Papadopoulos and Sam Clovis and Carter Page.

Are we really to believe the origins of this as they claim was George Papadopoulos and a drink set up? Do you believe that origin? Because that would not warrant what has just happened to this country?

SEKULOW: No. You know, I never thought I would say this. I agree with Peter Strzok, the agent that was -- that had the text mails regarding the president back and forth with Lisa Page. But he said there was no "there" there. Guess what? There was no "there" there.

But here's what's important. Now, we have to find out, what is the origin of this? The attorney general said something last week very important -- that spying on a campaign is a big deal.

And when you have a situation -- which we know happened here -- when you have a situation like this that is taking place, you have to get now to the bottom of this, because I represent this president. But some lawyer in the future is going to represent another president. And for the sake of the presidency, no president should have to go through what this president has gone through on this issue. Unprecedented.

By the way, not only was it unprecedented in scope, but it was unprecedented in the response that we provided to that office of special counsel. We gave -- when I say we, the White House, the president, the campaigns, 1.4 million pages of documents, hundreds of witness interviews, and on and on -- and no executive privilege.

I loved the chyrons on the networks this morning, redacted report coming.  And, of course, it comes, and guess what? Not much redaction. The only thing that's really redacted that was significant is 6E material which has to be, and there were not much of that.

So, the reality is, this was as any transparent as any investigation in any administration in my view in U.S. history.

HANNITY: Jay, you know, on the obstruction side of things, Mueller didn't make the definitive decision, but the attorney general did in counsel with the Office of Legal Counsel, even Rod Rosenstein, which is interesting to me.

But here's something very interesting --

(CROSSTALK)

SEKULOW: One thing here, Sean, he actually did, because he made a determination because -- in this sense, if there was --

HANNITY: It's determinative.

SEKULOW: Right.

If there was a case of obstruction, believe me, he would have stated it.

HANNITY: Exactly.

SEKULOW: Without any apology, he did not.

HANNTITY: Here's the point, though. Now, I know, we now know for a fact that they were talking about taping the president without his knowledge and consent. They were talking about invoking the 25th Amendment. Now, they didn't do it.

Donald Trump didn't hide the fact that this was a witch hunt. He acted, to me, as somebody who was innocent. He was screaming his innocence loudly, and expressing frustration justifiably against Rod Rosenstein, Robert Mueller, his team of merry Democratic donors.

Jeannie Rhee, Clinton's former attorney. Andrew Weissmann, with this atrocious record. He was going after all of them. He said it all publicly.

And that's the list of them saying, OK, now, if that's obstruction, then that means anybody who proclaims their innocence loudly and clearly would be obstructing. That's the biggest worst example.

SEKULOW: It's called the First Amendment -- yes, it's called the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The president like every other citizen has the freedom of speech.

Here was the president who was under attack from the moment he came down the elevator to this morning or this afternoon when the report came out.  It's been under attack. We know that there's been -- this inquiry has been going on for like I said three years.

And the president defended himself. He had the constitutional right to do that. He did it.

And for that, now, for the country's sake, we don't let this happen again, ever again, when the situation like this. That's why you got to find out how to start. I think the attorney general is going to do the right thing.  No question.

HANNITY: Well, I can tell you, there's an avalanche, as I've been reporting coming in days and weeks ahead. We will hold them accountable.  I'm not letting this go, because what they did is wrong and illegal and an abuse of power and it's corrupt.

Jay, great job to you, Rudy, your entire team, and thank you for all you did.

Now, back to my monologue.

As I said for 2 1/2 year, you, we, the American people, you have been the victims of the biggest con job in American history, every second, every hour, every day. The Democrats, the hate Trump media mob, all others, perpetrating a lie, every time they said Russia, Russia, Russia, collusion, collusion, they were smearing, besmirching, slandering, trying to undo an election, a duly elected president of the United States, all day, every day, Russia, Russia, collusion, collusion.

Just to take you down memory lane and remind you of these lies, nonstop conspiracy theories and lies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're about to find out at the new president of our country is going to do what Russia wants.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As if there are no shoes on the Trump human centipede that are not about Russia. Russia, Russia, Russia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This cloud about collusion with Russia will hang over him no matter where he stands.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He may be the first president to face the real prospect of jail time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they're shocked that the noose is tightening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's clear that Mueller is now connecting the dots between a massive obstruction intended to hide the truth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This president needs to be impeached. I believe that. I believe there was collusion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump is done. He's done. There is no question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got to know his future looks like it's behind bars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a treasonous president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He feels the walls closing in on him. The president has done everything he can and trashing the special counsel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Trump is seeing more and more of the walls closing in on him which is why he is becoming increasingly desperate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What if he refuses to open the White House door?  What if the Secret -- or if he fires any Secret Service agent who would allow the federal marshal? What if Donald Trump simply decides, I don't have to follow the law? I refuse to be held under the law, no marshal can get into this White House?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Unbelievable conspiracy theories, lies. They betray their audience. They don't care at all about the truth.

Just look at what they did. Look at what they did to a 16-year-old, Nicholas Sandmann, tried to destroy a 16-year-old kid with nothing but baseless lies. They didn't make one phone call to try and confirm the story. They just make it up and they bludgeon a 16-year-old kid just for wearing a MAGA hat.

That's how much these people in the media, in the Democratic Party, hate Trump.

Now, there was no basic research in the case of Jussie Smollett. The narrative works to bash Trump, use it. Don't forget the "I believers" when it came to Justice Kavanaugh, or when they set out to destroy, go back to Richard Jewell, the Duke lacrosse kids, the students at the center of the fake UVA rape case, the Cambridge police smear, the Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson, guilt by the media accusation. Or the Baltimore police, guilt by accusation.

By the way, on every one of those cases, we were right, they were wrong.  We saw it over and over again on Trump, Russia, collusion, collusion.  False reports that Don Jr. would be found guilty of crimes, Jared Kushner, guilty, Melania, Ivanka, other family members smeared, slandered, besmirched around every turn by sanctimonious, self-righteous, frankly, overpaid lazy agenda-driven liars in the news media, conspiracy theorists.  No shame whatsoever.

And today, where are the apologies? Where are the retractions? Where are the corrections?

Nowhere to be found. Just the opposite. They now double down on hysteria, reckless, reckless reporting. And now, it's obstruction, obstruction.

If Mueller could, he and his partners and team of Democratic donors and Hillary lovers, they would have found crimes. But now with zero introspection, no self-reflection, no apology, it's just on like it never happened. Let's go to the next pack of lies, the next round of breathless reporting, the next manufactured scandal to destroy Trump -- a psychotic rage in every so-called newsroom in America, all while ignoring simultaneously what is the biggest story in their careers and lifetime because of their blind adherence to rigid left wing loving Hillary ideology.

So, it's no shock that just as we predicted yesterday, the media mob and their echo chamber, they are back in action with one last full on hysterical freak-out over the Mueller investigation. This is a sad disturbing grand finale for what is now been over two years of this -- this lying campaign to destroy a president.

And, of course, we the people, you know, the smelly Walmart voters who cling to our God, guns, Bibles and religion, the irredeemable deplorables, oh, don't think they like us any better. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was an investigation at its core about Donald Trump's daily, sometimes hourly assault on the rule of law in this country.  As the chief executive, he sat in his pajamas watching "Fox & Friends" maligning the FBI.

Bill Barr didn't walk into that room with a scale of zero. Rule of law had a deficit because Donald Trump had been kicking it in the teeth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I just talk about this issue of the president's concerns about leaks? You know who else was concerned about leaks?  Richard Nixon.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This report is a gift to the government of Russia.  This is a very proud moment for Vladimir Putin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The amount of information that relates to collusion and obstruction activity is really quite extensive in this report.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's significant -- there's significant material in here that we did not know on the question of collusion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's here in substance, in nuance, in context. And it's there for all people of goodwill in this country if they're not so dug in politically or ideologically to process the information and make some sophisticated judgments.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the other thing this report did, that it really corroborated a lot of the good journalism that was done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mueller, a highly respected investigator and law enforcement official, he could not find sufficient evidence that there was conspiracy by any American or any member of the Trump team. That's great news. But Barr repeating it over and over and over again six or seven times, I mean, that's a little excessive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: As you can see, just more and more fake news and some collusion truthers desperately clinging on to a totally fake claim. Others, they're shifting the narrative to obstruction of justice or the president's taxes.

The president was not charged. He was cleared of obstruction. Not by Mueller, not by the attorney general of the United States who emphasized today that obstruction just did not occur. It did not. Sorry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The report recounts 10 episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting those activities to the elements of an obstruction offense.  After carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other department lawyers, the deputy attorney general and I concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Top law enforcement official in the U.S., the attorney general, his deputy attorney general, the Office of Legal Counsel all agree -- no obstruction, no collusion.

Yes, the president talked about the ways to curtail the special counsel investigation. Yes, I'm sure it was frustrating. Yes, he discussed firing Mueller. The president openly hoping that an American war hero of 33 years, including combat experience, Lieutenant General Flynn wouldn't face charges.

Yes, the president expressed frustration and anger that his presidency was being burdened with an investigation which is a hoax. You know, talking, thinking, tweeting, they are not crimes.

If the president wanted to sink the special counsel investigation, he had Article 2 authority under the Constitution. He could have personally fired Robert Mueller or anyone else for that matter.

The president did not fire Mueller or Rosenstein or Weissmann or Jeannie Rhee, or any other Clinton donors and allies investigating this sham, this campaign. The president took no action to impede the prosecution of Lieutenant General Flynn or Paul Manafort or George Papadopoulos or anyone else.

And as we stated earlier, the president engaged in an unprecedented level of cooperation with the special counsel and above all else, there was no underlying crime. None, 2 1/2 years. Russia, Russia, collusion, collusion, now, all lies.

It should take this country's collective breath away. And according to Mueller's report, in 2017, the president reacted to the appointment of the special counsel, quote, oh, my God, this is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm bleeped.

But, the president -- but President Trump didn't say that because he was guilty of his crime. Read a little further. It was about concerns about how it will impact and affect his presidency and the country.

Quote: Everyone tells me, if you get one of these independent counsels, it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years, and I won't be able to do anything.

That's where his thought process was. And actually, context matters, doesn't it?

The president is not being charged with obstruction because obstruction didn't exist. Now the media mob lashing out one last time, and at the end of the new Attorney General William Barr because he won't do their bidding.

More psychotic rage from your friends in the fake news industry. They can't help themselves. It is a mass psychosis at this point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the age of 68, Bill Barr has decided his legacy, he is fine with his legacy being the A.G. who took one for the team.

We would not be surprised if some headline writer somewhere came up with Baghdad Bill Barr for what we saw today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was excessive and suspicious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Barr today violated all of the norms that had been established post-Watergate and took us back right into Nixonian type operations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As I wrote notes, made notes of what Barr was saying, I reached a point where I just wrote down -- Barr continues to shill for the president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes you can have an attorney general who's just compromised for one reason or the other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Really, Brian Williams? You're the same guy that saw dead bodies in Katrina in areas where there's no water? You're going to lecture anybody? Come up with a few names for you.

Any of these people were actually concerned with obstruction. OK, why did they ignore the biggest slam dunk case of obstruction in modern history?

Look at your screen as we told you last night -- Hillary Clinton, she did commit an underlying crime, a clear violation of the Espionage Act we know for a fact, it's incontrovertible. She stored classified, top secret information marked as such on an unsecured server.

She deleted then 33,000 subpoenaed e-mails. She acid washed her hard drives with Bleach Bit. She removed the SIM cards, had aides destroy her devices, BlackBerrys, iPhones with a hammer.

Oh, she had intent crucial to the crime that was committed and the intent was to destroy the evidence. But now, equal justice is coming. Pay close attention because what we're about to play out here in front of America in the coming days, weeks, and months, is everything that we've been telling you. The Clinton e-mail investigation is now being probed by Senator Lindsey Graham because the fix was in. That investigation was rigged.

Criminal referrals from the deep state operatives that tried to help to elect Hillary Clinton, giving her a pass on a crime she committed -- yes, they're going to have criminal referrals from Devin Nunes.

We're also going to get the Horowitz FISA investigation. Imagine that, the bulk of that information in the FISA application was Hillary Clinton's bought and paid for Russian dossier. The investigation is going on about leaking.

Now, the president last time we interviewed him right here on the program, the FBI's 302s, conversations, Christopher Steele, Bruce Ohr, et cetera, they will be coming out.

Yes, the FISA applications against Carter Page, the bulk of information, Hillary's bought and paid for Russian lies, they're all coming out. The Gang of Eight information, FBI admitting wrongdoing in some of that I'm told.

And for all of you Democrats who claimed to love transparency, well, buckle up. You're about to get what you've been wishing for. And it won't paint a pretty picture in any way of your friends in the deep state.

We're talking about you, Loretta Lynch. Clearly, you interfered in the Clinton e-mail investigation. We now know that investigation was completely rigged to save Hillary from being indicted. You know, the matter, not the investigation? And we're not just talking about the secret meeting on the tarmac with Bill Clinton days before the decision, or the time you instructed Comey to call it a matter not under investigation.

Look at this newly released transcript, closed door testimony, even Strzok and Page, they're admitting the DOJ controlled all of this, rigging the Clinton probe from the beginning. They knew the fix was in.

So what did Loretta Lynch know? When did she know it? Where's her e-mail?  Where's her text messages?

What about national security director Susan Rice? Why did an unmasking request in election year 2016 increase almost 350 percent under her watch?  What did Rice know? When did she know it?

Why would the U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power's request, oh, 100 unmaskings and say oh, I didn't really request that? If she didn't, and who did?

Then we go to our good friend, the man who stands above it all, James Comey. Why did he sign off on that first FISA warrant in October of 2016 to spy on the Trump campaign associate Carter Page, using Hillary's bought and paid for phony Russian dossiers as the bulk of evidence? That means he's signing off that it's true and accurate to the best of his knowledge.

We now know it was never verified. And we also know it's unverifiable because Christopher Steele -- he doesn't even stand by his own dossier.

Remember, he told the Trump -- Donald Trump, president-elect at the time when he went to Trump Tower that the contents of the dossier was salacious and unverified. Yet, three months before, he went before a FISA judge and said the dossier was true and correct. Three months earlier.

So, the question for Jim Comey tonight is, did you lie in October of 2016 or January of 2017?

And by the way, why did Sally Yates and Dana Boente and Rod Rosenstein who signed off on the last FISA warrant? Why did they sign off on something that's unverifiable?

By the way, we can't forget about John Brennan, James Clapper. Were they trafficking the dirty dossier throughout the federal government?

By the way, who leaked it to Isikoff, David Corn, "The Washington Post"?  Did they leak it to impact an election with Russian lies, to bludgeon the president-elect? Who told Harry Reid?

And let's not forget Strzok and Page and Andrew McCabe, and the partisan Trump-hating, high-ranking FBI officials who rigged the whole investigation into Clinton because she was the favored candidate that should win 100 million to zero. And the people that were voting for Trump like me and you, we were just smelly Walmart shoppers. So many questions will be answered now that we know that we're spies inside the Trump campaign.

Here's another question. Was there any outsourcing of intelligence gathering? And in other words, were there any efforts by high-ranking members of our intel community to bypass American laws and maybe use our British, Australian, Italian spy friends to surveil the Trump campaign?

And by the way, who got to Stefan Halper? Who tasked him to covertly meet with Papadopolus and Carter Page and Sam Clovis? And by the way, who recruited him from the federal government, because clearly it happened.  And if any of this started before July 31st, the alleged beginning of the FBI's collusion investigation, we need to know when it started.

And finally, we need to know this big question -- what did he know? What did President Obama know? And when did he know it? All of this happened under his watch.

Here's what's coming -- here's what I predict is coming in the days, weeks, and months ahead. We'll get answers to all of these pressing questions.  The hate Trump media mob Democrats deep state, they will get burned with a barrage, an avalanche, of truth and evidence the likes of which they have no idea is coming. They don't want to know.

Joining us now, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

Sarah, just your general reaction to all of this first. And you're being attacked today also.

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Look, I think that the White House is in a great position. And what we've been saying for the last two and a half years is finally I think totally been vindicated. The President is completely exonerated. No collusion, no obstruction. I find it absolutely outrageous that people like Jake Tapper, you showed a clip a few minutes ago of him saying, I can't believe Barr has said, no collusion so many times when they have been saying that there was collusion every single day, all day for the last two and a half years, it is outrageous the way that the media and Democrats have behaved.

And frankly, the meltdown that we saw unfold on TV today is truly astonishing. But it's a great day in America, not just because it's a great day for the President, but it's a good thing when they can say that not just the President, not just his campaign, but no American was involved in colluding with a foreign government.

And it's a sad day in America when Democrats and members of the liberal media are sad that it didn't happen. To me, that's the most mind-blowing thing of this that they would actually want someone from their own country to have worked with a foreign government to take down the President and interfere with the election. The sad truth is the one that we've known all along. President Trump is President because he had a better message, a better vision and he simply outwards his opponent. He beat Hillary Clinton fair and square.

HANNITY: They were spying on his campaign. The Attorney General mentioned it. They freaked out. But it's true. They also used the dirty dossier to get in the backdoor through Carter Page. But then you had Stefan Halper working on behalf of the deep state and going after Papadopoulos and Carter Page and Sam Clovis.

Let me ask you this, so the media is attacking you today because I guess in the testimony you gave you had said you're FBI - a lot of the FBI people you know were - well, I can tell you. Let me put it this way. Every FBI rank and file guy, the 99.9 percent I know have all thanked me. Because they're hurt their rep. This is the premier law enforcement agency in the world, just like our intelligence community same thing. The premier intelligence community in the world. They were hurt by a few at the top and they're angry about it. And you said that. But explain

SANDERS: Absolutely. Look I acknowledged that I had a slip of the tongue when I used the word countless, but it's not untrue. And certainly, you just echoed exactly the sentiment and the point that I was making is that a number of both current and former FBI agents agreed with the President.

James Comey was a disgraced leaker who tried to politicize and undermine the very agency he was supposed to run. Firing James Comey remains one of the best decisions that the President made. The only problem is he could have done it sooner and maybe it would have been a better thing, but it was absolutely the right decision and every day since that he has proven that he was right all along.  HANNITY: I got it right. He could be fired for any reason or no reason at all in his own words. All right. Sara, thank you. When we come back, buckle up, the great Mark Levin weighs in at, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Joining me now, author of the upcoming book, "Unfreedom of the Press." I can't wait to read this book. I call him The Great One, the host of Life, liberty, Levin right here on the Fox News Channel, nationally syndicated radio host, dear friend of mine, great one. In many ways, I'm glad for the country and for the President. Many ways I am. In other ways, we came dangerously close. This was an attempted coup. A rigged investigation then they attempted to rig the general election and then they tried to undo a duly elected President.

MARK LEVIN, HOST, "LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN": No question about it. I have in front of me and the EPA should be very upset about the amount of paper that's involved here. The Mueller report. 400 pages that could have taken two words. No collusion manufactured from day one. They break it into two parts. First of all, he's wrong about no collusion. Wrong about no collusion.  The Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC, they colluded. Senior level of the FBI that isn't even there anymore. They're all under criminal or AG investigation, they colluded. You had McCabe on 60 Minutes, all but saying that the President of the United States was a spy for Russia, conspiring on the 25th Amendment. All of this, all this manufactured drama and criminal activity and the media in this country, media gate going along with it, even today, you have this report, it's in two parts.  The second part is really a political report. It's an impeachment report. And let me tell you what happened here. What happened here and I have a question too, what happened here is Bill Barr rightly testified during his confirmation and he said, look, I'm going to release as much of this report as I can. And the Democrats take over the house before that. And Mueller and his people say, OK. Perfect.  We don't have enough on obstruction. We have enough on obstruction. We'd bring obstruction. We're a bunch of rabid Democrats dressed up as prosecutors. Look how they've treated Manafort at his home, look how they treated Stone. And suddenly they're going to be forbearing. No, they're not going to be forbearing. I want to read you something. It's been read all day on the airwaves.

Ultimately, why we believed that we had the authority and the legal jurisdiction to issue a grand jury subpoena to obtain the President's testimony. We chose not to do so. You didn't choose not to do so. You would have had your asses kicked from one court to the other. You had no criminal predicate for a subpoena. None. And they basically confess. They said, hey look we decided near the end of our investigation, a couple of years of litigation over this. It's not worth it. We basically had everything we needed.

You basically had everything you needed and yet you had wanted to get the President under oath in front of a grand jury to trick them the way you tricked General Flynn and others. You wanted to take out the President of the United States. Had enough smarts to say no, I'm not playing that game.

Here's my question Sean Hannity. When did Mr. Mueller know there was no collusion? Now all of us knew from right out of the gate. He didn't write this in three weeks. This is 200 pages. No collusion. For Jake Tapper. No collusion, no collusion, no collusion, no collusion. OK. When did you know that? Well, he had to know it. Some people think maybe 18 months ago, maybe 15 months ago, you had an obligation to go to the microphone to tell the American people that your President did not collude that his campaign did not collude that his White House did not collude, and Mueller didn't do it. Why? Because they wanted to get the President on a phony obstruction charge.  Look at this, this second half of the report, top politics it's all about impeachment. It's written for Jerry Nadler; it's written for Nancy Pelosi. It's written for CNN and MSNBC. It reads like some junior editorial writer at The New York Times put this together. There is barely no legal stuff in here. And you can hear them say it now. Well, we've got to move beyond the law. It's a political decision. So, now you confess that it's a political decision. I want to read to you the impeachment clause, because you have a lot of people who don't understand impeachment. They just say, it's a political issue and you don't have to commit a crime.

HANNITY: Got a minute, Mark.

LEVIN: That's true. But the standard is actually higher quickly. The standard is impeachment for a conviction of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. It is a very, very high standard. Let me tell you something. The Democrats in the House try to impeach this President, 63 million people are going to rise up. But let me ask this question, how many men who've been impeached had been removed from office. None. Not a single President has been removed from office.  You think this Senate is going to remove this President based on these bogus allegations of obstruction. This President never, never asserted privilege. Do you know it's the first President I know of in modern times where his administration is under investigation, who's never asserted privilege? I ran contra, Watergate, Clinton, they all asserted privilege. Clinton even made up some privileges. He even had his own White House Counsel talk to the prosecutors for 30 days. Never happens. Never happened.

HANNITY: When is your book out.

LEVIN: May 21. But you can preorder it now.

HANNITY: By the way, I get the first interview. Thank you.

LEVIN: You got it baby.

HANNITY: All right good. This is what you are great at, Great One. Thank you. Mark show, "Life, Liberty, Levin," number one show Sunday night, 10:00 Eastern. Coming up, I told you this would all boomerang back onto the Democrats, the deep state. It is happening. Congressman Nunes, also Sara Carter, Gregg Jarrett, Ken Starr all coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Joining us now more reaction to the Mueller Report and to give his latest on the criminal referrals, exposing FISA abuse, leaking so much more. Ranking Member of the House Intel Committee Congressman Devin Nunes. Congressman, I want your reaction overall and more importantly I have talked about an avalanche of information, interviews. We now know Attorney General Barr has an investigation, the Horowitz report. Hoover's investigation 302s, FISA applications, Gang of Eight. All of this was coming out that exposes real corruption. Tell us where you think it's going and what you think of this report.

REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-CALIF.: Thanks, Sean. And we had a very important revelation today in what I call the Mueller dossier. Because for the most part as we predicted it's not worth anything, you would have gotten more from reading the House Republican report from 13 months ago. In fact, that's 250 pages I'd advise your listeners, your viewers to go in and review that report if you want good reading. And factual reading.

When you look at what happened today. Remember we talked a lot about the scope of memo. What were the directions given to the special counsel? Well, we now know hidden on page 11, very thinly, Steele veiled, but we now know they used these Steele dossiers, the Clinton dirt. The Clinton paid for dirt as part of the memo for the special counsel that directed the special counsel what to do. On Carter Page and Paul Manafort that information came from political opponents, the Clinton campaign fed right into the FBI, directed to the special counsel to go investigate what was in the infamous Steele dossier. That is the only thing of relevance that was in today's 450-page report.

HANNITY: So, you're saying--

NUNES: That are trying to come through.

HANNITY: They used unverifiable Russian lies paid for by Hillary as their roadmap.

NUNES: Yes.

HANNITY: The Mueller team of partisans.

NUNES: Yes.

HANNITY: The ones that--

NUNES: That is right,

HANNITY: We're hanging out the Hillary victory party, work for Hillary.

NUNES: The same dossier that was used to get the FISA warrant on Carter Page that many of the dirty cops on the Mueller team handled which I don't even know how they could even be, they were in the chain of custody of this information out. Rosenstein then directed them to use that dirt that dossier which I think it makes up the bulk of what is in the scope memo that we have still yet to be able to see

HANNITY: What's next. I've mentioned all I see coming, what do you see coming?

NUNES: Well, look we have to have equal justice under the law. I am so happy that Attorney General Barr is - just he's being adult. He's being very factual. He's driving the media absolutely nuts. But we have to have real action taken against these people who did this because we can't afford for this ever to happen again in our history. We can't just step back a second and you do it a lot. You talk about it a lot, but step back and think about this. The most powerful intelligence operations ever built in the history of the planet, tens of billions of dollars a year that are supposed to keep this country safe were turned and used on a political campaign that should never ever happen in this country.

HANNITY: Well done. Thank you, Ranking Member of the House Intel Committee, Devin Nunes. Joining us now, Gregg Jarrett, Sara Carter, Investigative Reporter, former Independent Counsel Ken Starr. The Russia hoax, the illicit scheme to clear Hillary Clinton and frame Donald Trump. Wow, I think it's kind of an accurate title. No wonder why it was number one for a thousand weeks or whatever it was. Gregg?

GREGG JARRETT, AUTHOR, THE RUSSIA HOAX: 22 months, $25 million, more than 500 witnesses frankly all Robert Mueller had to do was read my book. It was all laid out. The facts, the evidence and the law and the FBI knew there was no collusion with Russia. They didn't care. They used a phony document funded by Hillary Clinton's campaign as a pretext to try to damage Trump, to destroy him, to undo the election and remove him from office. That's a crime.

HANNITY: We all believe Sara that this started much earlier, this didn't start July 31st as we've been told, did it?

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No, it did not. In fact, there is a lot of evidence that points to the fact Sean that it started much before the Crossfire Hurricane investigation at the end of July. It started way earlier in 2016 and this is what they're going to be looking at. This is the year of the boomerang. I think the biggest revelation for me in the entire Mueller saga in his report was the fact that there was never any predicate for a crime. I mean there was never a crime that was committed that should have moved this into this full investigation with the FBI.

So, they're going to look at the very beginning of this investigation, not just Horowitz. Remember Horowitz's report is going to be just focused on the FBI and the FBI and how they handled it with the DOJ. But I think for Attorney General, William Barr and for the others investigating, they're going to go and see the wide scope of this how far would this go?

HANNITY: Ken Starr let me get your take on it, because it was after the Starr report that they changed the independent counsel law. By the way, interesting Nadler didn't want your report to come out, but get your observations on this.

KENNETH STARR, FORMER INDEPENDENT COUNSEL: I must say Bill Barr has gone the extra mile in terms of saying, OK, I want transparency. But guess what, when these regulations under which Bob Mueller was appointed were put in effect, the American people were saying, we don't want that system anymore, so that system went away, and the regulations and Bill Barr said it again today called for a confidential report.

We don't like besmirching people and dragging their names through the mud and so forth. That was the old system. Now we have a new system, but nonetheless we--

HANNITY: He didn't have to release anything.

STARR: Exactly right. All he had to do was do exactly what he did on March 24th Sean which was notify and provide an explanation. So, he's gone the extra mile.

HANNITY: All right. Let me ask Gregg and Sara simultaneously. We're just short on time obviously for tonight. I keep talking about an avalanche. And that they are going to be indictments and that all these people miss the biggest abuse of power story in history. Sara, we'll start with you and then we'll ask Greg, what's coming?

CARTER: There will be indictments. It will be an avalanche. And according to the sources that I was speaking with just today, people already turning on each other. So, we're going to see people, senior officials within the FBI, people within the DOJ that are going to try to throw their colleagues under the bus just to save themselves. And I think that they need to be very concerned now, very concerned about what they did and about weaponizing our intelligence community and law enforcement.

HANNITY: Gregg, just FISA abuse alone those that rigged the Hillary investigation alone, those that tried to undo a duly elected President alone. There is serious problems, not for rank and file FBI and intelligence, the 99.9 percent of good people

JARRETT: Officials using their office, abusing them for political purposes, lying to a court, a conspiracy to leak government documents, stealing government documents. If I were James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Brennan, Clapper, I wouldn't be sleeping very well tonight or many nights to come.

HANNITY: Ken Starr real quick, 10 seconds do you agree?

STARR: I agree that there is going to be a full revelation. Bill Barr is going to get to the bottom of this.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you all. Final thoughts when we get back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Unfortunately, that's all the time we have left this evening. We're going to be back here tomorrow. We're going to be joined by the President's Attorney, Rudy Giuliani, Trey Gowdy, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos and we are going to lay out what the future now holds.

We will uncover and already have the biggest abuse of power corruption scandal in American history. And guess what, your media was complicit. All right. We're always fair and balance. We're not the hate-Trump media. Let not your heart be troubled.

Laura, any news today?
 
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