Sekulow on Buzzfeed report: Speculation with no factual backup is dangerous for our Republic

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

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right. This is a Fox News alert on this Friday night.

Big bombshell news. The "BuzzFeed" so-called bombshell you have been hearing about all day, it is a dud. It is a fraud. It is a lie. It is all fake news.

So, the professional Trump haters and the fake news media, they have yet done it again.

And earlier today, "BuzzFeed" news reported a salacious story about Michael Cohen and President Trump, alleging that Cohen briefed Trump about a building project in Moscow numerous times and that the president directed Michael Cohen to lie about the existence of that project when it already had been well-known. Now, the story allegedly sourced two anonymous federal law enforcement officials.

As it turns out, this report was total fake news. Everyone at "BuzzFeed" should be ashamed of themselves. But moments ago, the Office of Special Counsel, they actually issued a statement. They wrote, quote: "BuzzFeed's" description of specific statements to the special counsel's office and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate.

Not accurate. But are we really surprised? Oh, and it even gets better. The editor-in-chief of "BuzzFeed" is actually standing by the reporting, which the FBI, the special counsel completely refutes. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN SMITH, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, BUZZFEED NEWS: The special counsel issued this very big statement. We are eager to know what he's talking about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you stand by the reporting that you guys published which is, you know, a scoop that no one else has or has not confirmed?

SMITH: Yes. As we wrote, we have two federal law enforcement officials, no game playing with those titles, who have told that President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build the Trump Tower in Moscow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: A bold stance from one of the leaders in fake news and it gets even worse. Now, remember, this is the same "BuzzFeed" news, supposedly, that published the phony Hillary Clinton bought and paid for Steele Russian dossier and they never ever tried to corroborate any of the details.

And guess what? The latest devastating report contained no direct corroboration. I've been watching this all day. And one of the "BuzzFeed" reporters that broke the story even admitted he never actually saw the evidence that were referenced by his anonymous sources. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have two law enforcement sources that tell you that they have seen evidence. Have you seen any of that other corroborating evidence?

BUZZFEED REPORTER: No, not seen it personally but the folks that we have talked to. The two officials we spoke to are fully 100 percent read in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right. So, there's two reporters for "BuzzFeed". The other reporter, responsible for this story is a guy by the name of Jason Leopold. He actually contradicts his co-author. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, your colleague, who you wrote the story with says that neither of you, when you talk about those documents that you guys haven't actually seen them. You haven't seen the documents, the texts, et cetera. How confident are you that these actually exist that this is true?

JASON LEOPOLD, BUZZFEED REPORTER: I don't think that we have said we haven't seen them and we have been -- I will just say that we have seen documents. We have been briefed on documents. We are very confident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: You think that the two authors could get their story straight before appearing on national TV? This was known earlier in the day.

Now, getting stories right is not a strength of Jason Leopold. Now, in 2006, this so-called reporter, well, the Columbia Journalism Review all but pretty much called him a liar.

The review wrote that he would get stories completely wrong. We knew that today. And, quote: even make up stuff with stories that had no sources at all.

Well, it looks like he has done it again. All in a blatant effort to destroy President Trump. It's sad.

But, what is even really worse, even fake news CNN and conspiracy TV, MSNBC, well, they go with the story but they are constantly -- they put in the caveat over and over again. This is what we heard all day long, unverified. But if it's true, with a level of hysteria and excitement, and then, of course, how many times have they mentioned impeachment?

Look at exactly what I mean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A story which has not been confirmed by NBC News.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We should note CNN has not independently confirmed "BuzzFeed's" reporting nor, for that matter has anyone else.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An explosive new report that, if true --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it's true.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you believe the reporting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If this is confirmed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If all of this is true.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't have sourcing that confirms this story but we're not getting steered off of it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't know for sure. You said you couldn't corroborate this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If true.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is potentially very big development.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it's true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: If, if, if, if true.

Now, despite all these red flags, many others in the mainstream media breathlessly, hysterically pushing this fake, phony, fraudulent story, and, of course, predicting Trump's imminent impeachment as they always do for two years. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still no reaction this morning from President Trump report ties him directly to the very same offense for which the House of Representatives moved to impeach Richard Nixon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If true, he would be guilty of suborning perjury, potentially obstruction of justice, it seems like impeachable offense, exactly kind of thing that drove Richard Nixon from office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This report is a huge deal. And, you know, this is -- these are very credible reporters. We are deep in the realm now of credibly impeachable offenses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are an awful lot of similarities. A couple of articles of impeachment against Nixon and the elements of this story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Impeachment would actually allow him to at least do what he loves which is to be and pretend he is the victim and the Democrats are this and that. But at the end of the day, I think the impeachment process, if there are, you know, this these facts are corroborated in today's report, I actually just don't see how Congress can do anything else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right. You would think by now the so-called journalists in the echo chamber, the extension of the Democratic Party, would have learned their lesson. They have been burn sod many times before in the last two years.

Remember, the short life hysteria about NPR's fake Don Jr. story? Remember the hype surrounding Michael Cohen secret prom trip? It never happened. "The Guardian's" false reporting about Paul Manafort or when three CNN fake news staffers -- they were forced to resign after reporting fake news about our friend Anthony Scaramucci.

Look at the list we have compiled, fake story after fake story. Now, "The Washington Examiner" put this together, 47 printed pages for one year alone against Donald Trump of fake news that they breathlessly report. Unbridled.

Remember what I said at the beginning of the year hatred of the president, so many forced corrections. But then they just keep doing it again and again. How many anonymous sources hearsay, rumors?

Do you think any of this is good for the country? Are they looking out for your security, the economy, the better job for your children, a better future for our grand kids? You know what? Right now one more notch in the old fake news belt. It is beyond disgusting.

But you just saw it all, all day, people screaming impeach, impeach, impeach. This is all the hate that we get as I have been saying every second, every minute, every hour of every day from the Democrats, the hate Trump press and, of course, the deep state. Now, all of a sudden, today, the hate Trump media was concerned about obstruction of justice. That's what they wanted you to believe today.

But they are the same people who gave Hillary Clinton a pass. It's been almost two straight years of never ending, conspiracy theories. Fake news hatred. Not just for the president though, but also for the people that voted for this president.

I have said it since 2007 and 2008. Journalism in America is dead, and it is buried, and driven by an unprecedented pathological hatred for the president. The bias in this country has become more important than what is fact and what is reporting, rumor is more important than sources, as reckless speculation rules the day.

We told you at the beginning of the year on this program. We will always fight back. We want the country to be safer, more secure. We want every American family prosperous and we are going to look out for you, the American people, because you deserve better than what the rest of the media is offering, which is why we actually cover, for example, the crisis at our southern border.

Now, when the fake news industry is too busy with their fake stories and conspiracy theories about the president, well, today, nearly 400 migrants were apprehended by border patrol at once after all crossing illegally. The situation is urgent. It is serious.

Yet, someone still needs to remind the speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, that we're in the middle of a government shutdown. Her detachment and heir indifference, her lack of self-awareness is beyond shocking. Today, Speaker Pelosi and other top Democrats once again tried to skip out of town, a week long international excursion which would have guaranteed the furloughed employees some 800,000 of them don't get paid again.

Now, this time they were going to take a commercial plane just for show after the president foiled her first attempt to leave the country on your dime in a U.S. military aircraft. But now, after her new plan released sparking security concerns, Pelosi's overseas voyage has once again been postponed indefinitely. Now, maybe she will accept what is the president's daily invitation to negotiate -- safety, security, and our country, and the government shutdown.

Spokesperson for the speaker actually blamed the president, of course, for the leak. An allegation the White House has called a flat out lie.

So, here we are today, 28 days into a government shutdown and the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the most powerful Democrat in the country, is trying desperately, once again, to leave town, refusing to negotiate yet again. Remember, she took her lengthy tropical vacation at the beginning of the shutdown. Dozens of other Democrats, oh, they had a luxurious vacation paid for by lobbyists in a chartered aircraft to Puerto Rico. While Pelosi and Schumer sent aides to negotiate with the vice president of the United States? Instead of helping the furloughed employees and creating more security that they did support four years ago?

So, tonight we have got to ask some really important obvious questions. Does Speaker Pelosi really want an answer solution? Is she really working at all?

Is she now compromised by the radical left wing of her party and scared to death to even talk to the president? Does she care about the 90 percent of heroin in this country coming across our southern border, or the gangs or the cartels or the human trafficking? She won't even talk to the angel moms and dads that went outside her office this week that have lost their children because of illegal immigration?

Now, the president, he didn't go on vacation. He has been here the whole time inviting Democrats every day. He is trying to fulfill not only a campaign promise but he is trying to keep the country safe, trying to prevent the drugs from coming into the country.

Remember, maybe the 1 percent or 2 percent of those people that enter the country illegally, they are criminals and murders have happened and worse. And, you know, how many sexual assaults? How many violent assaults?

Now, the president tweeted today: I will be making a major announcement concerning the humanitarian crisis on our southern border, and the shutdown tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m. live from the White House. Oh, he is working on Saturday.

In the meantime, President Trump is ready, will, able to negotiate and has been since day one of the shutdown. Democrats have offered nothing except a dollar. No negotiations, no compromise. No time with the president. They just sit back and do nothing.

Hundreds of thousands of government employees are not receiving their pay. The speaker is having a meltdown about not getting to take a government funded trip on your dime. And even worse, thousands of lives have been lost, thousands more devastated by the flow of illegal drugs, human trafficking, the opioid crisis. The gang activity across the southern border and Nancy Pelosi complaining about having to postpone a government- funded trip. That's where her mind is tonight.

But fear not, let not your heart be troubled. Speaker Pelosi, while Americans suffer, while we're not safer -- well, your close friends in the mainstream media, they are cheering you every step of the way. You know, just like last week, manufactured crisis. Democrats say it. The media says it. They are like tied at the hip. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump is coming face to face with the reality opposition party controlling the House. This morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threw him a hard fast ball.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Speaker Pelosi playing hard ball.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You could say she is playing hard ball.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: House Speaker Pelosi flexing her constitutional muscle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is flexing her muscles.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a bold power play, the speaker of the house tonight is sending a pointed message to President Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a power play and Nancy Pelosi is revealing that she's got a PhD in needling President Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She knows where to go exactly to hit where it hurts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, this is political genius. I give Nancy Pelosi credit for her political sense.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's kinds of bad ass from Nancy Pelosi. She was showing that she is in charge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nancy Pelosi, I mean, what a bad ass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: You know what? Maybe it's time for the speaker of the house to actually start listening to the American people, start solving problems, stop appealing to your radical base. In other words, really simply, you need to do your job.

The president, his door is wide open. Go negotiate a deal. Maybe you will get some of the things you say you want -- secure the borders, reopen the government.

And for goodness' sake, get out of your ivory tower. If not, the president, he will do it without you.

Now, let's not lose sight of the fact that what we're fighting for, don't be fooled by all the Trump haters, the crisis at the southern border is not manufactured. In fact, as can you see, a brand new migrant caravan marching toward our southern border as we speak. Earlier today, thousands of migrants poured into southern Mexico after authorities there, they just left the gates at the border wide open.

Mexican border guards didn't show up until sunrise -- or actually after sunrise. So, now, while Mexico may be embracing open borders, the president, he is continuing to stand strong, stay on the job, waiting to negotiate, waiting to keep his promise to secure the border of this country. This is about life and death.

He tweeted today, quote: Another big caravan is heading our way. Very hard to stop without a wall. And the fact is we have an actual crisis on our southern border. Just look at this video from border patrol and the Huma sector in Arizona where nearly 400 migrants apprehended at once today after crossing illegally.

That is not manufactured. That is the reality. We need these physical barriers, which are effective, all across the world.

Remember yesterday, also in Arizona, a group of migrants were caught trying to tunnel under a wall. But, because there was a wall, they couldn't just walk across and flee law enforcement. And once they tunneled through, they were promptly caught. Oh, the wall works.

Now, don't expect to hear any of this from the hate Trump media as you can see from tonight's "BuzzFeed" huge massive embarrassment the fake news epidemic has never been worse. By the way, it all surrounds one thing -- their hatred of all things Donald Trump. And by the way, Trump supporters. And that's why they are all completely ignored what was major news that we had this week about the deep state, about FISA abuse.

And, meanwhile, we have been one of the only programs reporting these latest developments, latest, needless to say, it was a bad week for some of those embedded inside of our government that don't like the president. We learned under James Comey's watch, his general counsel, we learned this week, James Baker, is now under a criminal investigation.

And according to John Solomon's reporting and don't forget Andrew McCabe, his deputy, is also under a criminal investigation. And John Solomon pointing out that James Comey and others were all briefed about the phony dossier back in August. They were told by Bruce Ohr, according to his sworn testimony that we only got this week then he told all of them in the FBI, all of them in the State Department, oh, Hillary paid for it. And Christopher Steele hates the president. Oh, and, by the way, they put this thing together and I wouldn't trust it.

But in spite of that warning, he went ahead anyway. And as the Grassley- Graham memo pointed out, the bulk of information was used in the FISA warrant. That would be a conspiracy to commit a fraud against the court.

We also know that Andrew Weissmann and another Mueller investigator, they were also briefed on these warnings think knew it was biased and unverified. Hillary paid for lies to influence the 2016 election. But still, Mueller used it as a basis of his investigation but never investigated Hillary who bought it.

Now, we have been warning you for months, this is the biggest abuse of power corruption scandal in modern American history. And, by the way, the news media can be biased in other ways. Like what they don't report.

Joining us now, the author of "The Case against the Democratic House Impeaching Donald Trump", Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, FOX News contributor Sara Carter.

Professor, you know, what I really like about you is even in your new book, even though you have been ostracized from the Martha's Vineyard crowd. I'm sorry about that. I know it's actually been hurtful to you. You just continue to point out criminalizing political differences, waiting for truth in fact.

And you see this happen now. I got 47 printed pages for 2017 alone. Fake news stories that the media has peddle you had hysterically to the American public. To me, it's a danger to the country.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL EMERITUS PROFESSOR: Look, I agree. The American Civil Liberties Union is dead in the water. Civil libertarians don't seem to be concerns about these issues. I have a responsibility as a 50-year civil libertarian to speak out about these issues whether it involves North Korea or president Trump.

Look, on the "BuzzFeed" thing, before the announcement was made by the special counsel's office, I posted a piece on the "New York Daily News" raising all kinds of skepticism, asking hard questions about the "BuzzFeed" report. It did not seem credible to me, particularly the arguments that it's like Richard Nixon.

It's not like Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon, on tape, told his subordinates directly to lie about criminal activities, breaks in, et cetera. And here, of course, there is no credible allegation that there are emails or there are eyewitnesses. And I pointed that out in my article and now my view has been confirmed.

Look, I have to tell you my views on this investigation have been confirmed over and over and over again. I have been right and many of the get Trump any cost people have been wrong over time. So, I think it's about time that we start substituting -- stop substituting wishful thinking.

You know, it's wishful thinking to get Trump at any cost people wish to find evidence to impeach him. And they substitute wishful thinking for careful factual analysis and careful factual analysis, and victims of the American public. We have a right to be informed of the facts.

I think credit is due to Mueller and his team for putting out a statement, rebutting this and saying even though it might help his investigation people to believe it, it's not true. So I give two and a half cheers now for Robert Mueller and his team for pointing --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: But you know what? He could have done it many other times but he has not.

DERSHOWITZ: Two and a half cheers.

HANNITY: His team has, you know, you don't hire Hillary Clinton's attorney as part of your team or Strzok and Page and then erase their phones or Andrew Weissmann with his traffic record either.

Sara, let me he go to you. The mantra all day was, it's not verified but if true. Now, this was coming mostly from the media, mostly from the Democratic Party.

The word "impeachment" mentioned all day. The American people fed a heavy dose of lies all day long. But, this keeps happening again and again.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, Sean, this is nothing new. It's unfortunate because it's a disinformation campaign.

Let's talk about these "BuzzFeed" reporters. They can't even agree whether they saw the documents or not. One says they never saw documents. The other one comes out and says, yes, well, we didn't really say that we saw the documents. So, from the get-go, we know there was problem with this story.

I agree with Alan Dershowitz, the same thing when I read this story. They never actually attributed anything to the documents. It seemed like their sourcing was very flimsy. Everything about that story seemed false.

But this disinformation does an extraordinary damage to our national security and to the administration. Think about what's been going on. I mean, the trip, Michael Cohen supposedly took to Prague that we found out was a lie.

Stories over and over again filled with disinformation. But yet, the stories that John Solomon and I and several other reported on Bruce Ohr were based on fact. We had multiple sourcing --

HANNITY: Blockbuster so far. This week's reporting.

CARTER: Absolutely.

HANNITY: On top of everything you have done for a year and a half.

CARTER: Yes. And so, multiple sourcing, actual documents that were verified and multiple sourcing, before any of those stories were published. Yet, it was not heard anyone else in the media at all, hardly at all. You didn't hear about it on any of the other networks.

There is something very wrong here. This is detrimental to our democracy and to our country and the American people are being ill-served. Something really needs to change.

HANNITY: It's what they don't report, you're right, all the stories that you have broken and, again, we have verified everything. If we get one thing wrong, we will be obliterated by the opposition party, the media.

DERSHOWITZ: On the Ohr thing.

HANNITY: Yes.

DERSHOWITZ: On the Ohr thing, as a civil libertarian, I'm so distress as a civil libertarian that Ohr would have told everybody, everybody who had to know this was a report that shouldn't be trusted, that it was a report done by a biased source. And then to submit for request for a warrant to the FISA court without disclosing that information, it's so unethical and so improper.

You know, it's an ex parte proceeding. That means you have a special obligation to be truthful. Look, only 1/3 of 1 percent of FISA applications are turned down. And that's why it's so important for the prosecution to be credible with the FISA court.

And this information about Ohr is devastating because it demonstrates that they did it deliberately. They knew the information and they purposefully withheld it and that requires a very careful investigation by bar association and by the general -- by counsel.

HANNITY: Wouldn't this be with that knowledge ahead of time and the bulk of information and the FISA warrants everybody that's signed down for that, wouldn't that be a conspiracy to commit fraud on a court by omitting important information like it was paid for by Hillary and then go in as this gospel truth having never verified and corroborated at all?

DERSHOWITZ: Well, I think it might constitute a contempt of the court. Whether or not we can find a criminal statute requires looking at the statute. I don't want to criminalize political differences. But I think it's a contempt of the court when you deliberately and willfully withhold information from the court and, therefore, mislead the court into granting a warrant they might otherwise --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Even if I had you as my attorney, I think I would be in jail.

Sara, let me give you the last word.

(CROSSTALK)

DERSHOWITZ: I would get you out, Sean.

CARTER: But when you weaponize the courts to go after a political opponent, there is something drastically wrong and that is something that should not be allowed, is not acceptable in our system of justice. And it's the reason why so many people come to this country.

And if we break away from our basic foundation, then we might as well give up what we stand for and our principles that this country was founded on, Sean, and that's unacceptable.

HANNITY: This is hurting the country. The news media will never ever, I think, possible, get away from the branding now of fake news. I think this seals it.

Professor, thank you. Sara Carter thank you.

Joining us now, a host now of "Life Liberty & Levin", every Sunday night, the number one show right here on Fox News, I call him the "Great One, Mark Levin".

Mark, I will let you go, but the one thing I will stay to start is how fascinating today, Democrats and the media actually cared about, quote, obstruction of justice when they have ignored, let's see, the deleting subpoena emails, acid washing hard drives and busting up devices and removing SIM cards. That never expressed them. But only if it's Trump do they get worked up about something.

MARK LEVIN, LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN HOST (via telephone): Never will impress them. I want to make a point here, Sean, about Mueller's office. They sat there all day long while this false reporting was going on, while the president was being smeared, while the reporters so-called and their friendly Democrats with Capitol Hill saying this is an impeachable offense.

They won't be held to account. They won't apologize. They will continue on tomorrow until the next great fake story.

I want to say this about Mr. Mueller's office. They didn't do anybody any favor. I will tell you why they issued their statement around 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time tonight, because I was on the radio, among other things, demanding that the attorney general of the United States, Mr. Whitaker, the deputy attorney general of the United States, Mr. Rosenstein, immediately launch a leak investigation because if these reporters, these two clowns were right -- of course they weren't, but if they were, the only place these documents, texts and emails could have come from is Mr. Mueller's office.

And they issued their statement 7:30, give or take tonight, tonight Eastern Time not because the story was accurate. It was inaccurate. But because if you conduct a leak investigation the sit down Mr. Weissmann and you make him undertake a lie detector test and ask him if he has ever talked to the press about anything, about any subject or any of those individuals in that office, including Mr. Mueller, I suspect a number of people would be mad.

And so, the fact is, Mr. Mueller's office did not want a leak investigation. There was every basis to have a leak investigation if, in fact, the Justice Department believed this story was accurate. So they didn't release this rare statement just because they are good people. They released it to cover their asses because they don't want a leak investigation again. Not related to this case in if I can which is absurd but think don't want to be asked about it.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Let me ask you this. I think this is really important here. You know, under -- we learned this week that the general counsel under James Comey, Mr. Integrity's FBI is now under a criminal investigation; we already learned --

LEVIN: For leaking.

HANNITY: -- his deputy director is under criminal investigation.

LEVIN: For leaking.

HANNITY: We now know everybody in the Justice Department these figures which we call the deep state, that they all were warned as we were discussing with Professor Dershowitz about Hillary paying for the dossier and Steele hating the president and knot being verified or corroborated. If it became the basis of the FISA warrants, all those people that signed on to it, including, by the way, Mueller's office knew all of this.

Now, I have one thing, remember, Bruce Ohr, the messages we had, after Christopher Steele is fired for lying and leaking, he is trying to feed Mueller information through Bruce Ohr. And I'm wondering --

LEVIN: But you know --

HANNITY: Go ahead.

LEVIN: Professor Dershowitz is right, the way you handle this is through some kind of an evidentiary hearing, a contempt hearing. And so the question is, Sean, where are these FISA judges? Why aren't they holding hearings? Why aren't they getting to the bottom of this? They all know this information is -- they all know that a contempt was committed against the court, which means the justice system.

There is simply no question about this now. And so, it's a serious question about the functioning of the federal judiciary in this respect and this FISA court judges.

But I want to get back to it today. The media have disgraced themselves. They tomorrow will say we said if the story is true, you don't go with the story if you don't know if it's true. You don't go with a story if you don't know if you can verify it.

And this has been going on since before President Trump was President and it's unique to him and it's a disgrace. They were talking about impeaching him, indicting his kids. I think the American people believe in fairness and justice. They believe in a free press, but the free press apparently doesn't believe in a free press.

And over at CNN and MSNBC and these other outlets, they really need to clean house. And until these executives get off their high horses, try to take out the President of United States, these anchors, these hosts, these reporters, they're a joke. They drag down the entire media and they drag down the country and they did it again today.

HANNITY: Let me point out something. For 2017 alone, the Washington Examiner, I have - and I have put it on my website hannity.com, 47 printed pages of fake news stories in one year - of one year period of time 2017. 47 printed pages.

And what they do is, they don't even - they just go from one historical report to the next. They're never held accountable. It's hurting the country, Mark.

LEVIN (via telephone): It's hurting the country and it's all intended to drive towards impeachment. And it's even more they're dragging down our republic by dragging down our President. This is our President. You want to try and take him out wait for the next election. You don't try and do all these nasty things, all these lies and all the rest.

You don't call our President, Hitler and Stalin and a racist and a thousand other things. And you don't run with every phony story that comes across your desk. This is yellow journalism. It's as low as I've ever seen, and it's going to continue to get lower unless Time Warner, unless Comcast, unless all these other major corporations get control of their newsrooms and clean them up.

HANNITY: You know--

LEVIN (via telephone): And by the way, can't you find a better photo of me than that one you're putting on TV?

HANNITY: I didn't take the photo. Is that what you want to talk about?

LEVIN (via telephone): No.

HANNITY: Life, Liberty & Levin, Sunday Night - great. Unbelievable, we'll see you soon Mark Levin. All right, the White House responds. When we come back the President's attorney Jay Sekulow reacts to all of the day's events and breaking news, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. This is Fox New Alert, President Trump's Attorney, Rudy Giuliani weighing in on BuzzFeed's fake report on Twitter, writing quote "I commend Bob Mueller's office for correcting the BuzzFeed false story that president trump encouraged Cohen to lie. I ask the press to take heed that their hysterical desire to destroy this President has gone too far. They pushed this without critical analysis all day. #FAKENEWS".

We go now to the President's Attorney Jay Sekulow, also the Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice.

JAY SEKULOW, ATTORNEY OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: Hey, Sean.

HANNITY: This is how it went all day, Jay. Well it's - we haven't verified it ourselves, but if true, and this is both the Democrats and the media. But if true, and then they go to impeachment, and this is now going on for two straight years, false report after false report, conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory.

SEKULOW: I think one of the networks - one of the other networks, I think, I counted in the course of almost - little less than an hour. 17 or 19 times they said, if this was true, if this happened, if these facts should be verified, which we haven't been able to verify, this would be a crime.

But that's like saying, if someone robbed a bank, it would be a crime. If someone did rob a bank it would be a crime. But, I think, it's important here for a moment to reflect on that this was actually a good day for justice and a very, very good day for the President of United States.

But it's also important to say and to focus for a moment here on what the Special Counsel's Office actually said. And Sean - because my job as the President's lawyer, as a part of the legal team is to analyze these things and to respond to what was going on - this frenzy that was going on in the last 24 hours.

And so let me start with what the - what he actually said. This is from Bob Mueller's office. By the way, it's the first time they have spoken publicly about a false news story. This is what they said, "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office", that's one. And, "Characterization of documents", that's two. And "Testimony obtained by this office regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate", so it's three things.

It's the description of the specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, the characterization of the documents that were the basis upon which the media speculation started and the testimony obtained by the office regarding Michael Cohen's cooperation with the Special Counsel's Office, all of that as reported in the report today are not correct.

And this isn't coming from me, it's not coming from the American Center for Law & Justice, it's not coming from my law firm, who is it coming from? It's coming from the Special Counsel's Office - Bob Mueller's office. So I think, Rudy Giuliani is right in saying that this was the right thing to do and I'm glad they did it.

Now where does that leave us? So Sean, here's what I think this is. This is a warning sign to everybody that the speculation with no factual backup is dangerous for our republic. And look, I've been dealing with this, as you know, for more than 24 hour - about 24 hours. Actually it started last night about 10 o'clock, so about an hour from now.

And the end result of this was the right thing. But it took us 24 hours to get the right thing. But I think it's important for everyone that's watching to realize that the speculation and the media anxiousness to report out of the gate has got to stop. But there's also another message in all, and you said this in your monologue.

Look what is transpired - people say is there any action being taken on the people that are doing wrong deeds, illegal conduct? Well let's look at it. James Baker the General Counsel of the FBI is under investigation for what? Leaking to the media. Andrew McCabe--

HANNITY: --just say something. But Jay, we just learned that this week, Comey's FBI, you have his deputy Andrew McCabe is under a criminal investigation. Now the General Counsel--

SEKULOW: For leaking - for leaking - this is important - for leaking. They're not supposed to be doing that, Sean.

HANNITY: Yes, exactly.

SEKULOW: And they're leaking documents, and they're leaking testimony and they're leaking statements. And this is this is absolute - that's why they're fired and under investigation.

HANNITY: You know, the media bias can be both ways.

SEKULOW: Hence we got to focus on that, yes.

HANNITY: False reporting, which we have documented, and I believe the President has forever branded, rightly so, fake news as such. And for them to ever get their credibility back, I don't think it's even possible.

Look at this, we've learned about the General Counsel Baker. We know about Andrew McCabe. We know about Strzok and Page. They were even appointed to Mueller's team along with Genie Ray (ph) who used to be Clinton's attorney and the Pit Bull, Andrew Weissmann.

But here's my question, Bruce Ohr, we learned, under oath, in testimony released this week, that in fact he warned everybody about the phony dossier. He warned that Clinton paid for it.

SEKULOW: Yes.

HANNITY: He warned the Christopher Steele had a hatred of the President. And he warned that it wasn't verified or corroborating. But it still became the bulk of information - for FISA warrant.

SEKULOW: Yes, well, Sean I've always - I've - yes, I've asked the question of what happens to the evidence that was gathered during the course of the proceedings, the investigation that were outside legal parameters, not appropriate, not legal, because call it a fruit of the poisonous tree.

But let me tell you something else about the Bruce Ohr testimony. Bruce Ohr did say that he told the higher-ups at the FBI - my gosh, he was the #4, that that in fact that the dossier was biased. That it was paid for by political operatives. But his wife worked for the political operative company that put the dossier together.

And there's - also simultaneous with his mea culpa from Bruce Ohr is what - a text messages that have been released between Bruce Ohr and who - Christopher Steele, the so-called, British spy. And that is a plea for Bruce Ohr and Chris Steele for Steele come back to work to the FBI right after James Comey is fired.

Now ask yourself this question. Why was Christopher Steele fired by the FBI in the first place? And you know what the answer to that one is? He leaked to the media. So this is - look, the legitimacy of the inquiry from the outset has been - is incredible. But it's the consistency obtaining information out.

So - again, while I'm glad that the Office - or the Special Counsel's Office today issued this very clear three-part statement - and that's how you have to analyze it, and some of these networks trying to parse it. It's almost funny watching it.

But here's what, I think, is important. What's the consistent theme through this - illegal, inappropriate leaks. And who started leaking as well? James Comey, he said he gave his notes of a conversation he had with the President of the United States to a friend of his to leak to the press, so he would get the appointment of a Special Counsel, which lo and behold happens.

So let me tell you something. That's what I want everybody focusing on tonight. This is consistent pattern of leaking, and that's going on at the highest - it's not the individual FBI agents - in mass they do a great job. But the Strzok and Page thing - someone explain this one to me.

There are e-mails that are missing or text messages from the time that they were at this Special Counsel's Office and the resource officer at the Special Counsel's Office says, "Well, we didn't really check the material", and one phone was left and the other phone was recirculated and no one checked the text messaging?

So, look - again, I am glad that Bob Mueller's Office issued this statement. It was called for, it was due, it was the appropriate thing to do. But there are a lot of questions that are still not answered by the activities that taking place here.

Now, again, I'd say good day for the President - great day for the President, great day for the country, not such a great day for the media. And I caution friends of mine in the media today to watch this, be very careful here, be careful.

HANNITY: You told me early today--

SEKULOW: Unsourced, unverified - I told you that.

HANNITY: We discussed it.

SEKULOW: Yes.

HANNITY: We saw the two BuzzFeed, one reporter says, "Yes, we saw the evidence". The other said, "We didn't". And of course they released the dossier without any corroboration. You know, here's the dangerous part and the serious part of all of this, it's hurting the country. This is an obsession.

SEKULOW: Yes.

HANNITY: Congress - if verified, impeachment, impeachment, impeachment. This has been the burden on this President now for two years. And it was interesting to watch today the media also feeling - they're thinking obstruction of justice is a really serious issue while ignoring the deletion of subpoenaed e-mails, bleach pit, hammers, SIM cards removed.

And we saw last week, Democrats say manufactured crisis, media says manufacturer crisis again and again. It's almost as if they want this to happen so bad, they cannot get over this obsession, which really is hate and really hurts the country.

SEKULOW: Well, look, this this impacts the President - the Office of the Presidency and the entire country. Let me say something. If you looked at the other networks, which I know you don't do. But in my job, I got to look at all of it, right? So when I saw that--

HANNITY: I'm sorry that you have to do that. That's punishment.

SEKULOW: Yes. By the way, you know what they said, though? Special Counsel's Office challenges BuzzFeed's statements regarding the President directing someone to lie. That's all I needed to say for the day. There you go.

HANNITY: All right. Jay Sekulow, Attorney for President.

SEKULOW: Good to--

HANNITY: Chief Counsel for American Center for Law & Justice, thank you. When we come back, Joe diGenova is going to weigh in, Dr. Sebastian Gorka weighs in on the media's embarrassing latest botched fake news report. It is now a chronic problem. We'll continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Just moments ago the Office of Special Counsel issued a statement refuting the claims made in BuzzFeed's so-called Bombshell report on the President. It has been breaking news all day, all over the media. They ran with it, if true, if true, this is going to happen impeachment, impeachment.

This is happening almost every day or week now for two years. The first time, though, Mueller's Office has publicly pushed back on a phony fake news published article. But it's just the latest in a long series of botched fake stories published by the hate Trump media, it's hurting the country.

Joining us with more, National Security Strategist Dr. Sebastian Gorka and on the phone, Former U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova. Joe, I will start with you tonight. With your legal background, you have been very forceful in pointing out there is evidence and another narrative about the Deep State. You used the term corrupt cops, crooked cops. They've ignored all of that. They've run with every false story, your reaction to this, just the latest example.

JOE DIGENOVA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY (via telephone): Well, I was very proud that the President borrowed my phrase, "Dirty Cop", the other day, and he honored me. But what you saw happen today with Bob Mueller issuing his statement is very simple.

It's called the Barr effect - the "Bill Barr Effect", because Bill Barr will be the Attorney General in a matter of days. Mueller was forced to issue this statement for this very simple reason. As soon as Bill Barr is sworn in, he will have a meeting with Mr. Mueller.

He will get a full briefing on the status of all the investigation. And the first question Bill Barr was going to ask was that story true that BuzzFeed published? And Mr. Mueller would say, "No it wasn't Mr. Attorney General", and Bill Barr would have said, "Why didn't you refute it?" And Mueller would have said, "Well Mr. Attorney General, we don't do that." And Mr. Barr would have said, "Well, Mr. Mueller, you're fired".

HANNITY: You really believe - I know there are people that I know. I don't know Bill Barr - I don't know William Barr. I know what he wrote about the investigation earlier. But I also know that apparently his family and the Mueller family our friendly together, which is fine. But there are people like yourself that are showing such confidence in him, why?

DIGENOVA (via telephone): Because I've known Bill Barr for 30 years. He actually asked that I be appointed the Independent Counsel in the Clinton passport search during the Daddy Bush administration. And I was appointed an Independent Counsel.

Bill Barr is a man of great legal and ethical stature. I could assure you that the scenario that I just painted for you is exactly what would have happened and it is exactly why Mueller issued his statement tonight. He knows that Bill Barr would be furious if he knew that Mueller knew a false story was out there and it was left unrefuted. You are now seeing what it means when a real Attorney General shows up in town. This is the new Sheriff.

HANNITY: Wow, what a powerful statement. Sebastian Gorka?

SEBASTIAN GORKA, SALEM RADIO'S "AMERICA FIRST" HOST: I can only backup Joe diGenova. Bill Barr is a quiet professional. And I just spoke to somebody who worked with him at the DOJ. He is exactly the right man for the job.

But with regards to this story today, Sean, it's incredibly important that we look at what the media did with it. That's the story - not that BuzzFeed ran this garbage story, because we know BuzzFeed is the gutter press.

The story is, how the media lapped it up and used it for a day to call for the impeachment of the President, that's the story. Like Pavlovian dogs, they were given the bell and they reacted with their calls for impeachment.

The end of the story is the following. Today at 7:30 the President of the United States was utterly vindicated. This is fake news. This is the state of the media. They are not independent. We don't have a free media, Sean. We have private-sector propaganda and today the President was vindicated.

HANNITY: I think there's going to be a lot more of that vindication, Dr. Gorka, Fox News Contributor, by the way thank you for being with us. We always love having you. Joe diGenova, thank you.

All right when we come back, we actually want to deputize all of you in this audience and we want to get your thoughts on all of this. We're going to tell you how in our final thoughts, coming up straight ahead on tonight's "Big Breaking News".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Before we go big announcement, we want to deputize you, in the sense that, we want to invite all of you watching at home - we want you to go on Twitter @SeanHannity, on our Facebook Page, on Instagram. Use the hashtag #HateTrumpMedia.

But what we want, we want to hear from you the most corrupt - who do you think is the most corrupted in the media outlet and tell us why. And all next week, we're going to feature your answers right here on this program.

All right. We are always fair and balanced. We're not the destroy-Trump media. Let not your heart be troubled.

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