Sekulow: Outside counsel needed to review FISA abuses

close

Video

Sekulow: Outside counsel needed to review FISA abuses

Lawyer for President Trump reacts on 'Hannity' to information released in declassified FISA memo.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," February 2, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Welcome to Hannity. Breaking right now the highly classified FISA abuse memo has now been released and it is absolutely shocking. It is stunning. No this now is the biggest abuse of power, corruption case in American history.

Now, tonight, we have irrefutable proof of a coordinated conspiracy to abuse power by weaponizing and politicizing the powerful tools of intelligence by top-ranking Obama officials against the Trump campaign, against the constitution, and against your Fourth Amendment rights. They have been deeply shredded by deep state, unelected bureaucrats all in an attempt to influence an election and then undermine a duly-elected president, that being President Trump.

This is something that should never happen in the United States of America but it has. We will go line by line through the memo's findings. It shocks the conscious. It proves that the entire basis for the Russia investigation was based on lies that were bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton and her campaign. The Mueller investigation does need to be shut down and the people responsible, who we will name tonight, many need to go to jail.

Also tonight, the memo is exposing just how wrong your media has been for over a year with no evidence about Trump and Russia and collusion. They have been lying to you, the America people, while on this program we have been uncovering the truth. It is more proof of how abusively biased and corrupt the press is in America. They have been missing in action one of the biggest stories in history. That is tonight's Friday night breaking news opening monologue.

All right, there is a ton of information to cover tonight. Now we're going to go point by point through the memo. We're going to give you important background information so we can fully explain just how massive this scandal is. Everything that you're going to hear -- well, a lot of it should sound familiar because we have been uncovering this piece by piece every single night now for months. We have been way ahead of the curve. But, there is new vital information that is even more damning, more damaging than anything we have told you so far.

And as we have been explaining, this is Watergate times a thousand. You're about to find out why and here are the key findings from the memo that we're going to cover in detail. Here is what you need to know.

The FBI, deep state officials, they used a Hillary Clinton campaign bought- -and-paid-for dossier that was filled with Russian lies, Russian propaganda, totally unverified, to lie to a foreign intelligence surveillance court to obtain a warrant so they could spy on Trump Campaign Advisor Carter Page. Now, during that FISA warrant process, the FBI, or at least the upper echelon, not the rank and file, repeatedly never told the FISA judges that the phony salacious dossier was financed by Hillary Clinton and the DNC.

In other words, they purposely omitted crucial information from the FISA court judge so they could continue this process. James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Dana Boente, Rod Rosenstein, they are all complicit in this because they, at different points, they all approved surveillance on page.

Now, this part is shocking. The FBI then used a Yahoo news report that was written by Michael Isikoff from September 23rd, 2016, about a Carter Page trip to Russia as evidence to corroborate information in the phony Russian paid for dossier. Here's the thing, and this is critically important. The source for the information and the Yahoo news report was none other than Christopher Steele, the same author of the dossier that they were using.

So, the FBI used Steele's leak to Yahoo to corroborate the dossier created by the same person, Steele. This is what we call circular reporting because the FBI was pretending that they had two sources when, in fact, it was the same source, and they were presenting that to the judge.

Now, the memo was also exposing how Christopher Steele, the former British spy, that according to reports, was known to pay Russian sources, had previously worked closely with the FBI, was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for leaking to the press about his relationship with the bureau. We also know, independently, from the memo that in September 2016, Steele and Fusion GPS briefed in person, in person, so-called journalists from the New York Times and The Washington Post and Yahoo News and The New Yorker and CNN about the Hillary Clinton phony Russian dossier. And Glenn Simpson testified that both the Clinton campaign and the DNC were well aware about this press outreach.

They all knew it was a lie. So, in other words, Hillary Clinton wanted the media to run with this total, false, fabricated dossier hoping to lie to the America people and convince you that's a reason to vote for her and not Donald Trump.

Now, let's get back to the memo. Now Steele maintained a close relationship with the now demoted Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr. Now remember, Ohr was the guy who had an office four doors down from Rod Rosenstein and was removed from his position for not disclosing that he met with Fusion GPS both before and after the elections.

Now, Bruce's wife, her name is Nellie Ohr. She worked for Fusion GPS. She was hired to dig up dirt on Donald Trump for the dossier. And also revealed during September 2016, Steele said he was "desperate." This is Steele, "that Donald Trump not get elected", and was passionate about him not being president. I thought we didn't like outsiders influencing our elections.

Now, according to the memo, none of this was disclosed to the FISA court, which is a massive problem. I can't wait to hear from the FISA judge. And this also points out in the memo that during the initial application for the FISA warrant, the head of the FBI Counter Intelligence Division says the corroboration of the Steele dossier was, "in its infancy." In other words, that means the FBI never corroborated any of this, but they still presented it to a FISA court to get a warrant to spy on an opposition candidate when one candidate paid for those lies.

And this is the part that is massive. The memo explains how Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe testified before the House Intelligence Committee that the FISA warrant to spy would not have been approved without the dossier. So when you put all this information together, here is what it all means. The FBI mislead and personally deceived a Federal court while using an unverified, completely phony opposition research, bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton, to spy on an opposition campaign during a presidential election, all to help one candidate out, all to mislead the America people.

Now, that type of abuse of power, that type of corruption, that shredding of the Constitution, it is unprecedented in America history. Now, the FISA laws, which are all about your Government spying on America people, they have been abused and literally to surveil on an opposition campaign to undermine later a duly-elected president.

We have never, ever in history seen anything like this. And it was spearheaded not by rank and file members of the FBI intelligence community and Department of Justice, no. High ranking officials. James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Rod Rosenstein, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, likely Loretta Lynch. And we can also tell you tonight, many others we will be learning about in coming days. Many will be implicated in this, but here's the bottom line.

Crimes have been committed. There is no way that they did not know that the FBI was lying to a FISA court in order to spy on an opposition campaign during an election year. They have aided and abetted what is a massive Constitutional violation. Comey, McCabe, Rosenstein and others, all need to be investigated and, in many cases, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law because these crimes have been committed.

Remember, Comey testified under oath, the dossier was salacious and unverified. Remember he told that to Donald Trump when he was the president-elect. If that's the case, then why the hell did he use it two months earlier to get a FISA warrant? Now, of course, Comey is running scared. He is out of his mind right now, now that he is exposed with this memo.

He actually tweeted out today, "That's it? Dishonest, misleading memo, wreck the House Intel Committee, destroy trust with the intelligence community, damage relationship with the FISA court and an excusably exposed classified investigation of an America citizen. For what? DOJ and FBI must keep doing their jobs."

Here's the problem. The only thing that was dishonest and misleading in this was Jim Comey. As I said last night, Jim, you might want to keep your mouth shut because anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. And do you have the right to an attorney.

And speaking of Rosenstein, now, remember, this is a guy that appointed the special counsel because, remember, the attorney general recused himself. He appointed Robert Mueller. He should now resign immediately because his actions now prove he isn't capable of honestly serving the America people as the deputy attorney general. And here's another massive revelation that I want you to think about.

The entire foundation of what we now have gone through, this mess for a year, no evidence, Trump, Russia collusion, the special counsel, it's been built on lies and built on a phony fake news dossier that was funded by Hillary Clinton. Now, that the FBI then used that to target then the Trump campaign then an incoming president. Now, if this never happened, it would be no Robert Mueller.

And these revelations are so profound, this corruption so deep, it is so obvious that the special counsel needs to be shut down immediately and that's not even taking into account Mueller's massive conflicts of interest himself and how his team is filled with big Democratic donors and people like Andrew Weissmann that withhold exculpatory information in cases and gets overturned 9-0 in the Supreme Court, sends people to jail, overturned Fifth Circuit of Appeals.

Mueller's investigation is and has been a witch-hunt from the very beginning. It's built on house of cards, and tonight it is crashing down. Look, if we as a country, if we care about the Constitution, if we believe in civil liberties, if we believe in those protections, then the special counsel must be disbanded immediately. And by the way, nobody else will say this, all charges against Paul Manafort and General Michael Flynn need to be dropped. It's that simple. President Trump by the way, is reacting to all of this breaking news and here is what he said about the memo. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's terrible. You want to know the truth? I think it's a disgrace what's going on in this country. I think it's a disgrace. The memo was sent to Congress who has declassified. Congress will do whatever they are going to do. But I think it's a disgrace what's happening in our country. And when you look at that and you see that and so many other things what's going on, a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that. So I sent it over to Congress and they will do what they are going to do. Whatever they do is fine. It was declassified. And let's see what happens. A lot of people should be ashamed.

(END VIDEO)

HANNITY: More than ashamed. A lot of people broke the law. It's more than ashamed. This is so deep in its corruption; it should shatter the conscience of law-abiding American citizens. Fox News is also reporting tonight that the memo is being sent to the Department of Justice and the inspector general which could, in fact, lead eventually to criminal charges. We have also been reporting that this memo, believe it or not, is only about 15% of what's coming. This scandal is only in phase one. Now Congressman Devin Nunes, he told Bret Baier tonight that more memos are coming. Stay tuned, tick tock. And also tonight, now that this memo has been released, look, we have been telling you about this for a very long time, it was March of last year when we first reported that there was a FISA warrant on Trump Tower.

Everything that we have been talking about and uncovering for a year on this program is now being shown to be true and exposed. In the meantime, all this while, the liberal mainstream media, they have wasted an entire year holding this country hostage on a false narrative based on a conspiracy theory that President Trump colluded with the Russians.

They have and have had no evidence whatsoever because it doesn't exist. The media has been corrupt and lying to you, the America people. At the end of the day they are nothing but propagandist, an extension of the Democratic Party and tin foil hat conspiracy theorists that are so pathologically locked in their hate of President Trump they don't know any better at this point.

All the information we have been reporting now on this has been out there. But you have overpaid journalists just too lazy, to rigidly ideological to do their jobs. They have been sitting on the sidelines while the biggest scandal in their lifetimes has been unfolding right before their very faces. Now, we have been talking about this issue -- FISA abuse, spying on the Trump campaign, since March 6th of last year, and the media has ignored it every step of the way. Here is what I said that day back on my radio show in March of last year.

(BEGIN AUDIO)

HANNITY: This is the swamp, Obama holdovers, life-long bureaucrats, that are sabotaging. This is the shadow government I have been talking about. This is what deep state means. They are sabotaging the President Trump presidency. A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration is no White House official ever interfered with an independent investigation led by the Department of Justice. That's not a denial that it happened, meaning the FISA court requests. And it says that, as a matter of practice neither the president nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen, any suggestion -- they didn't order it. That doesn't mean it didn't happen. And that doesn't mean Obama didn't know that it happened.

We have known the whole time we were right. We have taken a lot of heat for telling the truth. But the evidence, the facts, the truth, that's what we should pursue. It's all there. It's been there. The media doesn't care about any of this. They want President Trump to fail. Otherwise, they would be reporting on this story instead of ignoring it.

And now by the way, they are doing everything they can do to try to discredit it, and it's not going to work. Now, here's the thing. Facts are facts. Truth is truth. The media cannot twist and distort truth, and you, the America people and those of you that have supported this show, we thank you tonight because you in part have made this possible. You called your congressman and congresswomen. You asked them to release the memo and they did. And sadly, it does shock the conscience.

Joining us now Fox News contributor and Investigative reporter, Sara Carter; Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett; and Fox News national security strategist, former deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka. It was March 8th of last year, you and John Solomon on this show broke this story of a FISA warrant and surveillance of Trump Tower. And how few in the media cared to follow what is the biggest abuse and corruption scandal in their lifetime. Sara?

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: It's incredible, Sean. Because there was so much evidence out there. Little bits of evidence that if they just latched on to it, they would have been able to see through and see the truth. They chose not to. What's even more incredible is that the Obama Administration and people associated with Hillary Clinton and now we know Fusion GPS, Christopher Steele, Bruce Ohr and the DOJ, Sally Yates, Andrew McCabe at the FBI, Former Director James Comey, they were spreading the disinformation campaign.

You know what's interesting, they tried to say that it was the Russians. But the whole time, based on an unverified and salacious dossier, and those are the words coming out of Comey's own mouth, they used that to spread lies about the Trump campaign to the media and anybody they could try to share it with. And this is what is so incredible. The media bought it. And they chose to ignore the other side. They chose to ask for verification. And the entire precedence of the special counsel was based on that dossier according to McCabe.

HANNITY: You know, I even have testimony, I don't have the time to display it . We have so much information to get out tonight, Gregg Jarrett remember when he, Comey, met with Donald Trump, he said it's unverified and it's salacious.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

HANNITY: But two months earlier he was arguing just the opposite. And the worst part is, they knew where this dossier came from and they never told the FISA court. Criminally speaking, is he in jeopardy tonight?

JARRETT: Oh, absolutely. I mean this is just proof of government corruption and it's sad. The FBI and the Department of Justice, they concealed evidence and they deceived a Federal judge. They knew this was a fabricated document, knew it was paid for by Democrats and Hillary Clinton. They knew that the guy who authored it said he was desperate to stop Trump and, yet, they used it. They signed a document in front of a judge that said we vouch for the reliability and authenticity of this document and in other words they were lying to the judge. That's a crime: 18 U.S. C 242. It's abuse of power. And it's tragic that the people that we expect to uphold and enforce the law are breaking it. This is the proof.

HANNITY: So, Sebastian, this is what they do. They knew the dossier was false. They knew that Hillary Clinton paid for the dossier, they never told the judge. They knew the guy that was responsible, Steele, hated Donald Trump and didn't want him to win. They knew they couldn't spy on a Trump associate without the dossier. They were shut down the first attempt they tried to get it and then they got it on the second shot, and admit without it they never would have got it?

SEBASTIAN GORKA, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT: Sean, let's just remember what happened 11 months ago. The president tweeted out that his campaign had been spied upon. He was ridiculed by the left and the mainstream media. We now know not only is it true that he was spied upon by the Obama Administration, but the warrant was a required illegally. I had a chief of police text me today and he said if any of his offices had acquired a warrant while excluding exculpatory information, that officer would be charged with perjury or abuse of power. Not only that, this is fascinating.

Let's unwind all of it. Congressman Gates just reminded me on the 16th of May, Rod Rosenstein escorted Robert Mueller to be interviewed by the president to be the Director of the FBI again. He failed the interview. The president wanted somebody new. He didn't want a Bush era person. The next day, May 17, after he fails that interview, Rod Rosenstein appoints him as the special counsel to investigate the president.

HANNITY: Unbelievable.

GORKA: How can he investigate the president in a subjective fashion. And lastly, lastly, what about all the congressmen and women who lied about this memo? For four days they have been telling us it would reveal sources and methods.

HANNITY: That's par for the course. None of which was true.

GORKA: No sources and methods.

HANNITY: All right. Let me go to Sara. Sara, it was about a year ago you broke this story. My sources tell me this is just the tip of the spear, the tip of the iceberg, and there is so much more to come. I was given a percentage, about 15% of what is coming. What are your sources telling you? You were dead on accurate on March 8th of last year.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR AND INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: My sources are telling me it's 10% of what is coming. So maybe there is even more, Sean, out there than what we expect. And this is even more important, the investigation is now going to be reversed. I know that members of Congress are going to call for a special counsel to investigate the investigators. There is going to be a number of people involved in this. Also, the information as you reported that's going to be the IG, they are going to look at criminality here. Was there anything criminal going on, and from what appearances look like, there was. So they lied to the FISA courts allegedly. That's what they are going to be looking at. I tell you, Sean, this is just out beginning. This is not the end, and the investigation is in reverse.

HANNITY: Last thoughts, where is this going?

JARRETT: I don't know. But I can tell you a Congressional source tells me that Rod Rosenstein in a meeting three weeks ago, threatened the Chairman Nunes and members of Congress that he was going to subpoena their texts and messages because he was tired of dealing with the Intel Committee. That's a threats and intimidation and retaliation.

HANNITY: All of you have been doing the work of the media for an entire year and sharing it with our audience. I can't thank you all enough. I wish it didn't happen though. We have a lot of cleaning up to do here. When we come back, a "Hannity" exclusive. The president's attorney Jay Sekulow reacts to this FISA memo. That's next. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Joining us now with reaction to the explosive memo detailing FISA abuse, also President Trump's attorney and also the chief counsel for the America Center for Law And Justice, Jay Sekulow. Jay, I'm calling this the biggest abuse of power corruption case in our lifetime. This was all designed to impact a presidential election and an incoming president, and to undermine an incoming president, and to undermine an election. I want to get your general thoughts first.

JAY SEKULOW, TRUMP ATTORNEY THE CHIEF COUNSEL FOR THE AMERICA CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE: Well, you have to look at the time line here, Sean, to show how dangerous the precedent that's been established by the FBI. James Comey and the FBI attempted to get a FISA warrant in the summer of 2016. They were not successful. They then moved in October by adding to their request the Steele dossier. Then they get a FISA warrant.

So that FISA warrant is issued. In January, before the president was sworn in, James Comey, as FBI Director, meets with the president, tells him about that salacious and unverified dossier, but said he's not - the president was not under investigation and that not to worry about that. Yet, seven weeks before then, he obtained a FISA warrant based on that dossier. Then it was renewed a day before the inauguration and then renewed subsequently again.

So, when you look at just the chain of events, and that's what I want people to focus on, the time line here is very, very not only dangerous what did they tell the FISA court? They didn't say this was political opposition research. They didn't say it was unverified. Chris Steele leaked the information to a media source. The FBI says they cut off formal relations with him.

Did they tell that to the FISA judge? So I think the real issue here is both to the nature of what they did but also what they did to the court and I think all that has to be reviewed, obviously. And I think special counsel is necessary to review this entire matter. Because we're not even including the Bruce Ohr situation or any of that you add all of that together, I think it needs to be outside counsel.

HANNITY: Well what happens if you know that this is a Democratic bought and paid for dossier, and you know the information is false, and you don't disclose this to the judge on four separate occasions? Now, if I was the judge in this case, I think I would be pretty angry about all of that.

SEKULOW: Yeah. So, you know, first of all, 50 USC requires all applications for warrant, they are under oath. Of course, you can't commit perjury. More than that, I think what's at stake here is, the fact that they utilized this information, knowing it was not truthful, knowing it was unverified, not notifying the court of the entire process of what went on here.

But they didn't do it once, they didn't do it twice, they did it three times. And then, James Comey again, going to the president-elect of the United States and saying, "Hey, there is this dossier out there. I'm not trying to do a J. Edgar Hoover," those were, by the way, James Comey's words, "I'm not trying to do a Hoover you here. It's unverified. It's salacious. You are not under investigation." But, yet, he utilized that again to obtain the warrant. It doesn't work both ways.

HANNITY: You are saying he used, what he called in front of then-President-elect Trump unverified and salacious dossier. Two months earlier he used to get the warrant to spy on the Trump campaign and then the Trump transition team. So the level of duplicity, which is it? Because if you thought it was unverified--

SEKULOW: You don't get both.

HANNITY: -- and salacious and you presented it to a court and signed off on it, and that was the determining factor. As you point out it was denied first in July, then James Comey has a big legal problem, doesn't he?

SEKULOW: I think he does. And Christopher Steele, by the way, came to the FBI in the time for me that looks like it was around July.

HANNITY: Yes.

SEKULOW: So, Christopher Steele, the so-called, you know, British spy that was getting this information, by the way, who was working on it with him? Bruce Ohr, the number four, his wife who working, happens to be for Fusion GPS on this project.

So, again, I say this, if there was a need for a special counsel, this is one of those moments. Because, you know, unfortunately again this is not the rank and file FBI members. You have been very clear in that. I have been clear on that.

But -- and this isn't deep state as people call it. This is the -- this is the top. This is leadership. So, again, yes, James Comey doesn't get it both ways. He can't make the statements he made and then go back on them to get a warrant.

I mean, he got a warrant based on this information and I don't care if somebody is a Republican, Democrat, independent, libertarian green party, that's not the way it works in the constitutional republic.

HANNITY: Let me go to the very end of the memo when they talk about Andrew McCabe and his testimony in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISA court but for the dossier information.

The Democrats have tried to jump on that and say oh, he didn't exactly say that, well, I checked with numerous sources on the committee that have confirmed, he was asked this question multiple times and actually his answer is far worse than what the memo actually states in this particular case.

That, in fact, they wouldn't have sought this in any way without the dossier. So in this is the situation, Jay. You have got Hillary Clinton, bought and paid for and of all things dossier full of Russian propaganda. Wow, pretty ironic when you think about it.

SEKULOW: And then McCabe is very significant.

HANNITY: OK. But it's to lie to the American people continue to influence the election which ratchets up the typical lying that's done in political campaigns. But then it's used to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on an opposition part in an incoming president. Now we have seen--.

SEKULOW: This is done -- this is done by FBI director who, remember, Democrats were calling for his removal when he intervened, and by the way, I was very critical of his intervention into the political process.

I thought it was absurd when he did that three stunt maneuver he did in the summer and then to the fall in the election as against the FBI where he conflated his job as FBI director.

And became the super attorney general which is not his function administratively or procedurally, yet, he did that. And I was very critical of that. But this is what he did. So, again, those people are defending James Comey who should go back and remind themselves what they said, you know, a year ago -- a year and a half ago.

HANNITY: It's interesting, wouldn't we have had a special counsel but for all of this, Jay Sekulow?

SEKULOW: Well, there's the question because -- and so, the question is, did this dossier lead to this -- create this investigation? And that question is a real question that I think has got a significant legal consequence.

And that is the underlying question. Did this in this case FISA warrant start this investigation? And, again, I can't opine on that. I'm not going to. But I will tell you this, it raises serious questions.

HANNITY: Well, I believe it did. And it gives justification. If I was General Flynn tonight, and my lawyers, I would be in a room tonight coming up with strategies, same with Paul Manafort.

I believe it should be disbanded but I won't drag you into that. Good to see you. When we come back, we get Congressional reaction. We check in with Freedom Caucus members Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan and some more tonight on this big Friday breaking news night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think it's terrible. You want to know the truth? I think it's a disgrace. What's going on in this country, I think it's a disgrace.

The memo was sent to Congress. It was declassified. Congress will do whatever they're going to do. But I think it's a disgrace what's happening in our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: The president earlier today reacting to the stunning FISA memo which was, in fact, declassified. Joining us now with reaction North Carolina congressman, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Mark Meadows and Ohio Congressman, also a Freedom Caucus member, Jim Jordan.

Congressman Meadows, let's start with you. I was wondering at times if people were overselling this. And many in ways I think you undersold it in this respect. I think this is the biggest abuse of power, corruption, scandal we have ever had where you have one presidential candidate using phony Russian propaganda, bought and paid for.

And then you have the highest ranking people in the DOJ, in the FBI using the powerful tools of intelligence to try and spy on -- and successfully spy on and hopefully derail an opposition party candidate, and then undermining an incoming president. We have never seen this before, Congressman.

REP. MARK MEADOWS, R-NORTH CAROLINA: Well, we haven't, Sean. And you have been covering this for many, many months. In fact, when everybody was criticizing you, about what you believed to be going on, today we now know that, indeed, it was going on.

And, Sean, I can tell you probably the thing that concerns me the most is that this is the tip of the iceberg. We are already looking and reviewing other documents and other sources of information that would indicate other parts of collusion.

And, you know, I can tell you there was no Russian collusion between this president and the Russians. But now what we're seeing is collusion actually did take place. But it was from the Hillary Clinton campaign and really try to affect the election through this dossier that they paid for and was used to spy on American U.S. citizens.

HANNITY: Congressman Jordan, I watched you in committees and there were times I'm like, finally somebody is saying it. I felt like I was hanging out here on a thread by myself some nights with some of my good partners and friends on the show. But it is worse than we thought. And I'm told that we might have a Grassley memo as early as next week that takes it yet to another level.

CONG. JIM JORDAN, R-OHIO: Remember what we learned today, Sean, not once, not twice, not three times but four times the top people at the FBI took this salacious and unverified document.

This dossier to the secret court to get a secret warrant to spy on a fellow American and, guess what -- they never told the court that the Democrat National Committee and the Clinton campaign paid for it.

Four opportunities to tell the truth to the court and they didn't do it to spy on a fellow citizen. And they did that in the context of a presidential campaign. As, Mark, just said, this should never happen in this great country.

HANNITY: It never should. So Congressman Meadows, what does this mean? I would argue without all of this, what we are describing and talking about tonight, there is no Special Counsel Mueller. And I'm saying he needs to go yesterday. Because he never should have been appointed based on what we know tonight.

MEADOWS: Well, what we do know is much of the information that actually called for a special prosecutor was tainted. And when we see that, you know, you have to look at the fruit of a tainted investigation. And it's very troubling.

I believe that Special Counsel Mueller will come and show that this president didn't collude with the Russians. But I think the underlying problem is, there was a whole lot, Jim, was just talking about it.

You know, four times they went to a FISA court to spy on American citizens. But three of those times, they did so after knowing that the very person who wrote the dossier was not telling the truth.

HANNITY: But they knew it was Hillary's in the beginning. And they never told the court the truth.

MEADOWS: They did, without a doubt.

HANNITY: Omission -- that omission is a lie. All right, Congressman Jordan, what should happen next? What's the next step in terms of if we want to right this tremendous injustice and constitutional violation?

JORDAN: The thing, Mark and I, and several other members called for six months ago, a second special counsel. We know Mueller can't expand his probe.

He is inherently compromised on this. We know Jeff Sessions has recused himself -- the only remedy. And it's just wasn't the case. I'm not a big fan of special counsel.

But I see no other remedy than a second special counsel and I would add one thing, make sure they are not from the swamp. Make sure it's some retired federal judge from Iowa or Oklahoma, or somewhere.

Pick someone to come in and look at this entire situation so the American people can once again have confidence in the top people running these important agencies in our government.

HANNITY: Biggest abuse of power, corruption case in our history. Thank you both for what you have done--

MEADOWS: Thank you, Sean.

HANNITY: -- to help expose this. The American people deserve the truth. And I have to thank all of our listens for calling your congressmen and women. You helped make this day possible. But it's only the beginning. We will need your voices in the future. When we come back, Ed Henry on the Democrats' reaction in all of this and Joe Concha, Ari Fleischer, so much more on this Friday breaking news night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Joining us now with details. Democrats are reacting to the release of this FISA memo, Fox News chief national correspondent Ed Henry, tonight. Ed, big breaking news day.

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sean, no doubt about it and breaking tonight, Democrats are renewing their calls for Congressman Devin Nunes to be removed from the committee, which leaves top Republicans to say this is a signal that the House Intel chairman actually succeed in delivering on explosive information despite some media outlets reporting recent days it was going to be a dud.

The memo reveals that in September 2016, former British spy Christopher Steele told the Obama Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, he was quote desperate to block Donald Trump's election to the White House.

And the memo alleges, quote, during the same time period, Ohr's wife fusion GPS on to insist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provide the FBI with all of wife's opposition research paid for by the DNC and Clinton via Fusion GPS that Ohr's relationship with Steele and Fusion was inexplicably concealed from a FISA court.

Now the current Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez fired back today calling it a sham memo aimed at discrediting Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe. Perez did inquire in, quote, we can't let them undermine our justice system to serve their partisan political interest. No one is above the law.

Bur on that question of law, there is a lot more information we need to be digging for in the days ahead. Democratic Senator Mark Warner today suggested the dossier was only a small part of the information submitted to the FISA judge for the warrants, tweeting, unlike almost every House member who voted in favor of this memo's release, I have actually read the underlying documents on which the Nunes memo was based.

They simply do not support its conclusions. But, in fact, the memo asserts, quote, deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe testified before the Intel panel in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISA court without the Steele dossier information.

That suggests that the dossier was central to the FISA warrant. And we should note that after the current FBI Director Chris Wray saw this Republican memo from Nunes, Andrew McCabe was gone less than 24 hours later. So that may tell us something, Sean.

HANNITY: I think Devin Nunes needs to look at the Democratic attacks as a badge of honor. It's sad though for the country. Ed Henry, great reporting as always. We appreciate it. And Democrats are not the only ones trying to dismiss this explosive memo. Their allies in the destroy Trump media predictably spent all day doing what they do, lie. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the only thing that you can conclude is that you have a White House that is just hell bent on having some kind of hand in this investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a fabricated, manufactured hack, partisan side show, circus act.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president's actions here only raise the suspicion of those that aren't sort of, you know, in his sort of -- in his Kool-Aid orbit. You know, outside of the Kool-Aid orbit everybody else is wondering why is he so trying to thwart this investigation so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This memo with regards to the Mueller probe, is a dud. And let me just repeat that having read it and covered the story for a while, as to the Mueller probe, this memo is a dud.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Joining us now, the Hill's Joe Concha and former White House press secretary, Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer. Here is what we know from the memo and I have actually talked to one person in particular that read the underlying documents, Ari. We know that the FBI and the DOJ, they knew the dossier.

They knew that it was fabricated. They knew it was false information. Even if they said they were the infancy stages of verifying it and remember, months later, it was James Comey that said oh, it's not verified and it's salacious as he informed the president-elect.

They also knew it was bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton. They never told the FISA judge. They also knew that the guy that wrote it, Christopher Steele hated the president and had an agenda.

They also knew they couldn't spy on a Trump associate, McCabe said, without the dossier. So they used it anyway. And they used it to impact a presidential election. Using the opponent's bought and paid for lies. You can't write a spy novel worse than this.

ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No. It's very dispiriting, Sean. I mean, the idea that you can have a campaign, pay for opposition research that then gets basically funneled over to the FBI, so can you investigate your opponent? That's not how American elections are supposed to work.

And what is so distressing to me as somebody who is watching this, is how the press seems to not want to play any credence to this unless it supports that Donald Trump committed collusion with Russia. It's as if this story can only travel in one direction.

And, Sean, you know, I say that as somebody who has supported the investigation into Donald Trump on collusion believing we have to gets to the bottom and let Mueller do that.

But I will not turn a blind eye in the other direction the way the press has where they only think a story can travel in one part and that part is to hurt Donald Trump. People in America need to know the truth. And that's why I think it was the right thing to put this memo out.

HANNITY: Without all of this happening, and the basis for all of this is - lends itself to what happened with Robert Mueller being appointed, Joe Concha. Look, you study the media. You follow the media.

I think this is the biggest corruption abuse of power case story in our lifetime -- far bigger than Watergate by a long shot. The media barely touched it, and they still cling to the Russia-Trump collusion story and there has never been a shred of evidence in a year confirming it at all.

JOE CONCHA, THE HILL: And to, Ari's, point, if you look at some of the headlines today, this is largely being dismissed. New York Times editorial board, the Republican plot against the FBI, The Washington Post editorial, the Nunes memo is a giant damaging distraction, also a joke and a scam.

And let's change names out again just as an educational process for the people at home. Let's say there was a dossier that was compiled by the Trump -- I'm sorry, that was paid for by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee and that dossier contained information that was obtained by the Russians by a hostile foreign agent who was no fan of Hillary Clinton, OK.

And then that information was fed to a federal judge, without mentioning the political aspects of it to achieve a FISA warrant, that is a legitimate disturbing story. And if the tables were turned here, I guarantee you people would be very interested in that collusion.

And that seems to be, unless it can be told to me any differently that is proven collusion. And, Sean, in the end, you know, there is a movie out now called, The Post, right? And it's Tom Hanks and Ben Bradley, and Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham, and transparency is cheered and speaking truth to power is cheered because that was the Nixon administration, that was 1971.

Now here we are in 2018 and Kimberley Strassel says it best. Let me get this quote in from the Wall Street Journal. She said, I have been in journalism all my life and I've never ever seen the press corps fight so hard against transparency. What was wrong with putting this memo out?

HANNITY: That's a good point.

CONCHA: Sources and methods were not disturbed in any way were not -- were not revealed. I don't get it.

HANNITY: Well, we have been lied to for the entire week. Ari, now that we know -- that we know, there was some collusion and Hillary paid for what turned out to be Russian propaganda. It was designed to lie to the American people. And then it was designed and used to spy on an opposition candidate in an election year. And then spy on incoming president. You want to special counsel for that?

FLEISCHER: Well, I think you are on to something here, Sean. And I'm hoping the IG, when the Department of Justice investigative general or IG comes out with their report about what's going on inside justice and they have access to all the emails, they will shine some light on this.

HANNITY: All right, thank you both for being with us. When we come back, my final thoughts on this FISA memo and where we go from here. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: As we have been saying on the show this Nunes memo is 10 percent to 15 percent sadly of what we're told will come out of this scandal. There is a lot more coming.

In many ways, the fact that the media has been so wrong and so corrupt, it is a story that will haunt them, I would argue, for decades to come. We'll have more coming. Stay with the Fox News channel. Stay with us.

This story is only beginning and you deserve to know the truth and thanks to all of you who helped get this memo released. I hope you have a great weekend. I think the patriots are going to win but what do I know? We will see you back here Monday. Laura Ingraham is live next. We'll see you then. Have a good weekend.

END

Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.