Nunes reacts to IG investigation into potential FISA abuses

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Nunes reacts to IG investigation into potential FISA abuses

The DOJ inspector general will investigate potential FISA abuses by the DOJ and FBI. House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes weighs in on ‘Hannity.’

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 28, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right. Tucker, great show.

Welcome to 'Hannity.'

Everything we have been telling you on this program for months, it is now coming to fruition. I know it's slow. It's frustrating to me too.

But we have breaking tonight, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, he's now going to open an investigation into FISA abuses within the Department of Justice and the FBI. This is big, big news and we'll explain why.

Now, we have been sounding this alarm about the deep state weaponizing the intelligence community night after night. And finally, now, we are one step closer to getting the justice we've been calling for, and you, the American people, deserve.

Now, by the way, this announcement could not come at a better time because tonight, newly uncovered text messages between Trump-hating FBI lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, they are revealing even more evidence -- this is only a smidgen of what is coming in terms of the potential abuse of power within some of the highest levels of our government.

Also, the Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reportedly livid tonight at the FBI's lack of cooperation following requests for documents related to a number of important cases. And the mainstream media was in a frenzy today over a story that President Trump considered pardoning Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort. One itsy-bitsy problem, the story was fake news the whole time.

Also, James Comey just added one more stop to his upcoming book tour. He's doing a town hall with Jerry Springer wannabe, creepy Anderson Cooper.

And also, I speak with the FBI informant in the Uranium One case. He will be in studio with me. That's coming up for the first time.

We have that and more in tonight's big, breaking news opening monologue.

(MUSIC)
HANNITY: It's official. I told you at the beginning of the year, 2018 will be and is now becoming the year of the boomerang.

And our top story tonight, after months of ringing the alarm about the abuse of power within the FISA court system, well, the DOJ inspector general has finally now announced plans to investigate alleged foreign intelligence surveillance abuses. We've been calling for this. This, of course, by the DOJ and the FBI.

We have been exposing how the unverified Clinton bought and paid for dossier filled with Russian and Russian government plies in propaganda and misinformation was used as evidence to extend a FISA warrant on Carter Page. We also showed you how circular reporting from Michael Isikoff and Yahoo News citing the phony dossier was intentionally used by the FBI as an attempt to strengthen their FISA abuse case against Page.

We have unearthed shocking conflicts of interest and extreme anti-Trump bias, sadly at the highest levels of the FBI and the DOJ. But we are finally one step closer to getting to the bottom line truth in what is the biggest abuse of power scandal and this history of the country. And, of course, we deserve to know the truth and we are revealing the real and ever present danger to have the powerful tools of intelligence in the deep state used against the American people.

I know this is slow. I know this is frustrating. But we are now finally making serious progress.

And according to the DOJ inspector general statement, it says in part, quote: 'As part of the examination, the OIG also will review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source'

This is interesting. Additionally, 'the OIG will review the DOJ and FBI's relationship and communications with the alleged source as they relate to the FISA court applications.' In order for this investigation now to be successful, it must answer the following questions. These are only a few of many.

What did the FBI really know about the Steele dossier and when did they know it? This is critical. What was the FBI's relationship with a foreign national by the name of Christopher Steele who used Russian sources? Was the FISA warrant against Carter Page politically motivated? And did political bias influence the FBI or DOJ during the Russia investigation?

My message tonight to the FBI and DOJ is turn over to 1.2 million documents that Congress has now subpoenaed and it is time to appoint a special counsel because you cannot ever investigate yourself.

This brings us to our next breaking story. Congressional investigators from the Freedom Caucus, the only guys doing any work in Washington, they have now unearthed tonight even more texts between anti-Trump lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Remember, there are over 50,000 Strzok-page texts. This is but a small sampling of what they believe could reveal damning new evidence that the FBI, the Obama White House, and the CIA, and the deep state, and the intel community, were all working together in order to open up a politically motivated Trump-Russia collision investigation.

Let's explain why congressional investigators, you know, think this is important. According to one text message from Strzok to Lisa Page, August 2nd, 2016, Strzok makes a reference to the first inter-agency meeting discussing coordination between the FBI and the DOJ on the DNC hacking case.

This is what Strzok writes. Quote: 'Thanks so much for having the discipline to wait another 24 hours to have the first meeting about the case with the DOJ.'

These congressional investigators that we spoke to tonight's, they believe this is evidence that the FBI and DOJ met to discuss the Russia election hacking investigation. And then get this, August 25th, 2016, Harry Reid, he is briefed by then CIA director, you know, the guy that voted for the communist in the '70s, how did he ever become a CIA director?

Anyway, with John Brennan about Russia's attempts to influence the election. And then two days after that meeting, Harry Reid sends a letter to then FBI Director James Comey, urging him to open an investigation into Donald Trump. He wrote at the time: 'The evidence of a direct connection between the Russian government on Donald Trump's presidential campaign continues to mount.'

After the letter became public, Strzok texts Lisa Page a link to a 'New York Times' article referencing the letter, writing, quote: 'Here we go.' Oh, may be that's sort of like their insurance policy.

Next, the FBI used that letter as a legitimate cover for their investigation into Russia collision and as a part of their FISA warrant application against Carter Page, a Trump associate. That gets them all the emails. That gets them right into the heart of the Trump campaign.

In other words, this was a coordinated effort to spy on, bring down, and tarnish the Trump campaign. Sara Carter and House Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes will be here tonight and they will explain all of this to you.

And while we continue to bring information about the deep state forces that are working to take on the president, work to make sure president never got elected, well, the FBI is stonewalling the American people and Congress when it comes to these request for documents related to three important topics, including the department's investigation into Clinton's email server, information about potential FISA abuses, and the justification behind why Andrew McCabe was fired from the FBI. The release of documents has been extraordinarily slow. As a matter of fact, it almost sounds like obstruction to me. It's so slow that the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, well, he was now was forced to issue a subpoena.

'The Washington Examiner's' Byron York is reporting the Attorney General Jeff Sessions is absolutely livid and apoplectic with the FBI Director Christopher Wray and his low compliance with these important requests. Give us these documents! In response, as we reported last night, Director Wray has now promised to double the amount of staff working on releasing the documents and is going to double up their shifts.

But is this too little too late? Should a contempt of court order be issued if the FBI does not comply with Bob Goodlatte's subpoena? All right. That's an important question.

We turn our attention to another top story we're following. The media erupted into a frenzy today, absolutely goes nuts over a story in 'The New York Times' speculating that, quote, 'Trump's lawyer raised the prospect of pardons for General Flynn and Paul Manafort.'

One little itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny little problem with the story -- it's fake news. And we know because one of Trump's lawyers, Ty Cobb, put out a statement. It reads: 'I've only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record, no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House.' Oh, fake news.

Ty Cobb could not have been more clear. That does not stop their corrupt mainstream media from obsessing over the story during today's White House briefing. We have the evidence.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Are pardons on the table for anyone involved in the Russia probe?

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Look, I would refer you back to the statement from Ty Cobb and the report that you are asking about.

REPORTER: Can you say unequivocally that no one here has discussed pardons in this case?

SANDERS: I can say that Ty Cobb is the person that would be most directly involved in this.

REPORTER: I'm wondering if the president believes he has the right to use the power of his office, the power to pardon, to protect them from what he might see as unfair punishment down the road? Does he believe he has that right?

SANDERS: Look, I would refer you back to Ty Cobb's statement.

REPORTER: Has he considered -- is he considering, what he consider pardoning Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, or Rick Gates?

SANDERS: As I said, and on record statement from the president's attorney here at the White House, on these matters, has said there is no discussion or consideration of this.

REPORTER: Did the president direct John Dowd to talk to the attorneys of Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn about potential pardons?

SANDERS: I'm not aware of any conversations of that nature at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: So, while everyone in the press corps today appeared to be on the same page over this, of course, bogus 'New York Times' fake news story, one of the fake news reporters didn't quite get the memo. And, of course, he works for fake news CNN, Jim Acosta. He was preoccupied still with Stormy, Stormy, Stormy, Stormy. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: Thanks so much, guys. Have a great rest of the week.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN REPORTER: When is the president going to speak on Stormy Daniels? Why has he not spoken out about Stormy Daniels, Sarah?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Well, of course, it's not surprising coming from fake news CNN, led by the very soon to be scandal-plagued, king of porn, Jeff Zucker. And by the way, yes, we know.

And today, we also learned that creepy Anderson Cooper, you know, the Jerry Springer wannabe, he is now going to be hosting a town hall next month with Jim Comey. That's right. Jim Comey's big audition to become the next paid liberal talking head at fake news or MSNBC conspiracy theory news, sitting down for a town hall with CNN's version of Springer.

Hey, James Comey, I've already told you, you can divulge your deepest darkest secrets to me and I guess creepy Anderson Cooper, it's your choice.

These are some of the questions, by the way, Cooper was asking, and other words, Jerry Springer Jr. asking Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. Well, check out the creep factor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: So, the sex was consensual? Did he actually try to hand you money? Did he bring up his wife? Would he would talk about his child, his son? Were you in love with him?

Did he ever compare you to any of his kids? Did he ever use production?

You told Donald Trump to turn around and take off his pants?

STORMY DANIELS, ADULT FILM STAR: Yes.

COOPER: And did he?

DANIELS: Yes.

COOPER: And you had sex with him?

DANIELS: Yes.

COOPER: You were 27, he was 60. Were you physically attracted to him?

DANIELS: No.

COOPER: Not at all?

DANIELS: No.

COOPER: Did you want to have sex with him? In an industry where condom use is an issue, did he use a condom?

DANIELS: No.

COOPER: Did you ask him to?

DANIELS: No.

COOPER: After you had sex, what happened?

Physically, you've seen him in ways that other people haven't?

DANIELS: Correct. And if need to be, I could describe that.

COOPER: His private parts?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All I have to say, Jim Comey, good luck. And, by the way, given the upcoming investigation by the DOJ's inspector general that we learned about today on potential FISA abuses, you may, Jim, want to rethink that book and that book tour. James Comey, remember, in this country, you do have the right to remain silent.

With that said, you are still welcome on this program, Mr. Comey, as I've said repeatedly. We'll give you the entire hour. This is the highest rated hour in cable news. I'll also give you three hours on my radio show on 570-plus stations all over America. It's time to give the American people the answers they deserve.

Why do you continue to duck us? I'm beginning to take this personally.
Joining us now with reaction, former chairman of the House Oversight Committee, FOX News contributor, Jason Chaffetz, FOX News contributor and investigative reporter, Sara Carter, Fox News legal analyst, Gregg Jarrett, is here.

Sara, we got to start with your story. These new text messages, collusion, delusion, new documents show Obama officials and the FBI coordinated and the anti-Trump probe. Now, we -- this is only 3,000 of a 50,000 we expect the test messages to come out between the FBI lovers, but more importantly, it's part of a 1.2 million documents that Goodlatte is demanding they'd turn over.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, these are 3,162 documents that they have had to peel apart for months, Sean. They have had the most difficult time, the congressional committees investigating this, because the DOJ and the FBI have not been forthright with the information. I think this information is explosive. Why? Because it shows that even when John Brennan briefed Harry Reid, went to meet with him and the Gang of Eight.

That was in August 2016, that early that month, at the beginning of August, we know that Jonathan Moffa, working with a counterintelligence division of the FBI, working alongside Peter Strzok and was probably Peter Strzok's supervisor, according to my sources, actually went to the White House to have a meeting with Denis McDonough who was the chief of staff for President Obama.

And what's so fascinating about that is that he entered the White House early in the morning that August, goes into the White House with three other people who are not named on the White House log, and then doesn't check out until 11:59 that night. So, we don't even know what time he left.

But he meets with Denis McDonough and it it's apparently about this -- the Russia investigation. And that puts him just one degree of separation from the president, because Denis McDonough is his chief of staff. So, President Obama was very well aware, according to the sources that I've spoken with, at least they believe he was very well aware of what was going on in the beginnings of this investigation.

HANNITY: All right. Let's go to you, Gregg Jarrett. I mean, two points here. The FBI stonewalling on the documents. But more importantly, remember Susan Rice, January 11th meeting, Comey is in it, and then Barack Obama said, follow the law, do with the right way, the CYA.

When you put all of this together, there was far more involvement with the White House, Barack Obama and all of us than anybody knew.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Oh, absolutely. To believe that the president didn't know that there was an investigation of Donald Trump, candidate for president, is to believe in the tooth fairy.

HANNITY: Does not make him a witness potentially?

JARRETT: Oh, absolutely, it makes him a witness.

HANNITY: And he should be subpoenaed, no?

JARRETT: He should be.

Here's the problem with all the subpoenas for the Department of Justice and the FBI. You know, they should have been thrown on contempt already because he they've been stonewalling for the longest period of time. And Jeff sessions finally awakened from his slumber and told Christopher Wray, accelerate the handing over of the documents.

The problem is, we are trusting the FBI and the Department of Justice to hand over documents that are responsive to the subpoena.

HANNITY: Wait a minute, Rod Rosenstein didn't want to turn over the 3,000 that we have that to lead to the Nunes memo that led to the Grassley-Graham memo, that the lead to America knowing about FISA abuses, which Sara broke in March of last year, March 8th 2017.

JARRETT: This is why there should be a special counsel. There ought to be a grand jury and not subpoenas issued, a warrant to go in and seize these documents. Don't let the DOJ and the FBI decide which ones they want to turn over. They're going to hide to the incriminating documents or redact material information.

Get a warrant, seize them, bring in federal marshals. Don't let the FBI be involved in policing themselves.

HANNITY: It's impossible.

Congressman Chaffetz, you have experience in this. I am looking at the process -- and I know the wheels of justice grind ever so slowly here -- but when you put all of this together, Hillary fixes a primary, Comey, Strzok, Page, McCabe, Lynch, and others, seem to puts the fix in and rig the investigation into her email server, which we know she committed felonies, it's irrefutable at this point, and the evidence is incontrovertible.

Then she pays for a phony Russian dossier that a foreign national puts together, the FBI doesn't verify it, it turns out to be false, they presented to a FISA court judge, and they omit the key part of the information, which is a she paid for it and they never verified it, and it's like pulling teeth to get truth out of the Department of Justice and the FBI.

How do we get this information? How do we get the 1.2 million documents? And more importantly, how do we get the special counsel to investigate all of this garbage and all of this corruption?

JASON CHAFFETZ, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: July of 2016, Director Comey declared that this was a close case. There is no excuse to hide these documents. The oversight committee asked for those documents. They refused to give them.

I issued a subpoena, the chairman of the oversight committee in September of 2016, that's how far back this goes. Move forward to August of 2017, Devin Nunes is fed up. He issues a subpoena.

Now, move forward to 2018. Chairman Goodlatte is issuing a subpoena and still those documents aren't there. They had to yank the attorney general and the FBI director --

(CROSSTALK)

CHAFFETZ: I asked for it in July of 2016 and he issued a subpoena for this very information.

HANNITY: How does Hillary get to delete subpoenaed emails and acid wash them? How do people get away with things that are guarantee Gregg Jarrett couldn't keep me out of jail for?

CHAFFETZ: If you look at with the attorney general and the Department of Justice put out, they said they are going to request. A subpoena is not a request, Sean. If you were issued a subpoena and said, hey, I'll take that under consideration and you didn't comply --

HANNITY: But if I deleted it?

(CROSSTALK)

CHAFFETZ: -- everybody watching this program would go to jail.

HANNITY: What if I acid wash my hard drive with BleachBit?

CHAFFETZ: That's why you got to have a special prosecutor who will go in there with tenacity and investigate these people. The only way that Congress can actually enforce a subpoena is through the Department of Justice. There is no avenue to get directly to a court.

HANNITY: Sara, I'm happy that the inspector general is now going to investigate FISA abuses, dossier abuse -- and we have been covering this forever. The inspector general -- does that mean we have to wait another four months for the inspector general report on the email server investigation? Will that be released separately and apart?

CARTER: Are you asking me, Sean?

HANNITY: Yes, Sara.

CARTER: Because I think that is going to come out much -- I think it's going to come out sooner than four months.

HANNITY: I hear it's been delayed another month now.

CARTER: It has been delayed. We have to realize that within the Department of Justice right now, there is multiple ongoing investigations into the FISA abuse, into Andrew McCabe. I also believe into former FBI Director James Comey himself who now has a book coming out that he's going on this tour. So, that's going to be very interesting to see how that plays out.

There's a lot of information here that needs to be investigated. I absolutely agree with the other guests here on the show, with Gregg and Jason, that we need a special counsel to do this investigation, they really need to be able to have somebody who can subpoena, has a subpoena power to get the information that they need from the FBI and from the DOJ. There is no other way around it.

Look, we built a special counsel investigation into a president based on a guy at a bar, George Papadopoulos, and an unverified dossier. And they have been going after this president now for more than a year. There was enough sufficient evidence here to open up a secondary special counsel.

I mean, it's overwhelming evidence that there was something going on here between officials at the FBI and DOJ. There is no doubt in my mind.

HANNITY: Let me go to Gregg Jarrett.

JARRETT: Three of the six people who were in on deceiving the court, concealing evidence, and breaking six felony statutes are not subject to the authority and jurisdiction of the independent counsel. He cannot compel James Comey or Andrew McCabe --

HANNITY: So, who can?

JARRETT: Sally Yates, who are no longer government employees --

HANNITY: Who can?

JARRETT: That special counsel can. And with respect to these documents, if it were you or me, they'd be knocking on our office or home door and they would break in, if we didn't answer, and armed with a warrant, they would seize the documents. You have to have a warrant, you have a to seize them.

HANNITY: Rod Rosenstein -- forget about 1.2 million documents, congressman. He didn't want to hand over 3,000. And it subpoenaed and at the last hours, he's on bended knee, begging Paul Ryan, pretty please, don't force us to do this, which is we wouldn't have learned a lot about this. He appointed the special counsel, Rosenstein, and it appears that he signed off on one of the FISA renewals.

Isn't that a conflict of interest?

CHAFFETZ: It does beg the question. Remember the four page memo that Devin Nunes and Trey Gowdy put out the door and all the flailing by Adam Schiff and then you have Rod Rosenstein begging with the speaker of the House not to release it, that the whole world and the attack on the intelligence community and on the FBI, and we look at that memo now, and we say, that is what you went to bat for?

I mean, this is the same FBI that went after college basketball players, for goodness sake! Why can't they go actually expose the truth?

HANNITY: All right. Thank you all for being with us.

We have two exclusive interviews when we get back. The House Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes will react to the DOJ inspector general's big announcement today.

Also, right here, we will interview the FBI informant in this massive Uranium One scandal. He was inside Putin's network in America a warning everybody and nobody listened. He is right here in studio coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Joining me now with reaction to tonight's breaking news that the DOJ inspector general will finally investigate potential FISA abuses by the DOJ and FBI. He is the chairman of the House Intel Committee, and he's been frankly in the forefront while his colleagues have been lazy, Devin Nunes is with us.

Congressman, I'm reaching a point of frustration here. We are talking about with these new Strzok-Page memos, this was within the 3,000-plus-page dump that we finally got to the last minute that you had to subpoena. There's 1.2 million documents, Congressman, and I applaud Chairman Goodlatte. But as we just heard from Congressman Chaffetz, he asked for these documents in 2016.

Why -- how is it possible that Rod Rosenstein feels that he has the right to withhold this, not only from the American people, but Congress, people like you and Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee? Your job is oversight. We do have checks and balances the last time I checked the Constitution, sir.

REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-CALIF., CHAIRMAN, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: So, the more they did come the worse it gets for them, Sean. So, we have to keep working, we have to keep breaking through this. But as I've said, eventually, we're going to get all of these documents.

So, let me walk back a little bit of the history that we have with Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page. In October, I asked what had happened. Didn't get any information what happened, you know, between Strzok and Page. Didn't know, we asked, is there anything there waiting to see?

Well, finally, we see a leak to 'The Washington Post' of text messages. At that point, finally, in December, I asked DOJ to send me everything that was pertinent and relevant to our investigation. And as you know at that time we had informed the Department of Justice that we were looking at them for FISA abuse and other matters.

So, they produced some of the text messages which is fine. They did that. They said that's all we needed. Well, then a couple of months later a few more text messages show up, a couple of weeks ago there's the conversation between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page talking about the FISA court judge.

Clearly, that would have been something that the House intelligence committee would have been interested in. And now the emails that text messages that you are talking about today on the show, Sean, I have not seen them. However, now that, you know, you have them, we're going to have to go, you know, try to look through all of this to try to piece together what it appears as several reporters are not--

(CROSSTALK)

SEAN HANNITY, HOST, FOX NEWS: What do you -- what do you -- do you agree with what Sara believes and I believe?

NUNES: Well, I was talking to a few members of Congress today. These are people who, you know, don't follow this closely. They're not on the House intelligence committee but they follow it just by the news. And they were shocked. They were shocked as a matter of fact they used a few expletives because they couldn't believe that the White House, the Obama White House was being briefed by the FBI on an investigation into the Trump campaign.

They could not believe it. And I think that's the reaction you're going to get from most members of Congress that care about this issue, at least the Republicans and I think you're going to see the American people. This--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: When you have McDonald in the White House--

NUNES: It continues to stink.

HANNITY: And then you have remember the -- obviously Obama knew. Obviously Susan Rice knew, obviously James Comey was informing them. Obviously, and this is a very sticky point. Because in January of 2017 then President-elect Trump was told by James Comey the dossier is salacious and unverified.

But three months earlier he is using it and the FBI is using it as the bulk of an application for a FISA warrant against the campaign associate of Donald Trump in the lead up to a presidential election, which allows them to then spy on the emails of an opposition party candidate.

This is not a game. This is now, to me, the biggest abuse of power scandal we have had in history. You get these ridiculous people on the left making insane Watergate analogies. But Watergate was a chip breaking, a third grade break in.

This is about the powerful tools of intelligence. This is about the FBI and DOJ exonerating a presidential candidate from crimes that we know that were committed. Then, using Russian information that they didn't verify, not telling a FISA court the whole truth. It's like, what do we need to get the wheels of justice really turning here? Because I know I', fed up, and my audience is fed up.

NUNES: Yes. So there's a lot of irony in that, right. So the left just continued to say that this is Watergate and you know, Trump is going to be impeached. They've continued that. Well, now this boomeranged on them. And you know, you have at least I think half of the American people now know that the other party, the Democrats appear like they weaponized to some degree the intelligence services, you know, by using the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Apparatus in this country to go and target the opposition campaign is totally unacceptable. And that's what happened here.

And so people are beginning to learn the truth. So, I am happy that Bob Goodlatte subpoena these 1.2 million documents. But I said this earlier in the week. We need those documents like yesterday. Yesterday we needed those documents.

And what, I think now the difference where we were from a few months ago because of the obstruction, because of the cover-up the pressure that the American people are now putting on Congress by making everybody aware of this, asking their congressmen why is it the Department of Justice can stonewall Congress for this long?

I believe that Bob Goodlatte's subpoena is going to be enforced. I think we're going to get all of the documents. And if we don't, then we should move quickly to contempt and then move to impeachment. One of the mistakes we made is we never impeached Lois Lerner and we never impeached Koskinen. Had we done that we won't be here today.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: They got away with it.

NUNES: They got away with it.

HANNITY: Do you have faith in the inspector general because now he's going to be investigating the FISA abuses as he announced today. I'm frustrated because we've been all over this story since your memo came out.

But if I was James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates tonight, Rod Rosenstein, Strzok and Page, Andrew McCabe, I would be very worried tonight based on the possibility that all of this is coming out. And if we had an honest inspector general, then I am thinking that some of them might be in legal jeopardy in a big way.

NUNES: Yes. So let me tell you about the inspector general. Here's what I believe, OK. They have a job to do. So this is part of the job that they should be doing. I believe that Mr. Horowitz from everything that I hear that he is an honorable man and he's going to do his job.

But remember, there is a lot of pressures that come with that. Because the inspector general ultimately his boss is the Department of Justice. So this is not a simple move for the inspector general to make to go after the top people in the FBI.

This is why I didn't think -- I'm glad that Mr. Horowitz is going to continue to look into this. But I also have a lot of concerns about that there is no one else looking into this. Because you can't--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Your--

NUNES: -- how are you going to get -- how are you going to have Mr. Comey testify to the inspector general. He's not going to sit for an interview with the inspector general and neither is Mr. McCain, the special--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: So we need a special counsel, as Gregg Jarrett was saying. You made a conclusion. After 14 months you have no evidence of the Trump campaign and collusion, nor any evidence of financial impropriety with the Trump organization and the campaign.

But yet, even after 14 months of a media recklessly and hysterically reporting and your so-called counterpart. An MSNBC want-to-be contributor, Adam Schiff who actually shows up on Russian TV which is a little ironic. After all of that, they still -- how long -- do they want this investigation in perpetuity? Is that what they're looking to slow the country down and the agenda of the president?

NUNES: What I find amazing is that we have a 250 page report. We have 70 findings and recommendations. The Democrats had none, OK. That sitting now we finally sent over so it be declassified so the American people can read all of the great work that our committee has done over the last 14 months.

Yet, find me one mainstream media outlet, just find me one that has actually done any coverage whatsoever of any significance on the 70 findings and recommendations--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: No, they're too busy with Stormy.

NUNES: You won't find it.

HANNITY: They're too busy trying to act like Jerry Springer. Last question. You watched our coverage. Am I -- if anything I've reported that's been wrong or Sara or John or Gregg Jarrett of Jay Sekulow or Tom Fitton or any of the people or Sebastian Gorka?

NUNES: No. Look, Sean, No, I think you guys have been ahead of the curve on this. A lot of times there is information that some of the reporters you mentioned they have it well before Congress has it.

HANNITY: That's unbelievable.

NUNES: And I know and it's very tough, it's very, very tough work that they're having to get through because you have so many people. If you come out with a story even though just like the story tonight about these text messages you guys have uncovered. You're not going to see this covered in the mainstream media.

HANNITY: It's unbelievable.

NUNES: You're not going to see it. I guarantee you it won't happen over the next week.

HANNITY: All right. We need the 1.2 million documents and we need a special counsel. Congressman Nunes, thank you for trying to be transparent and honest to the American people. We appreciate it more than you know, Mr. Chairman, so we really appreciate it.

Joining us now William Douglas Campbell. He is the Uranium One FBI informant. Now to protect the identity of Mr. Campbell we have to put him in shadow. Sir, it's an honor to see you and we welcome to the program. You have worked as an operative, if I can use that term for multiple agencies how many years?

WILLIAM DOUGLAS CAMPBELL, FBI INFORMANT: 30 years.

HANNITY: And you first got involved within a Putin and Russian operation within the United States in 2009, correct?

CAMPBELL: Actually earlier than that. My worked when I handed over to the FBI started in 2005. I was under ultimately formal contract and an associate partner with the Russian government and its senior Russian nuclear leadership who worked directly and indirectly by appointment of Putin.

HANNITY: Yes. So when you say handed over you're talking about 30 years you've served your country would it be fair to say in dangerous situations at times?

CAMPBELL: Yes, sir, you could say that.

HANNITY: Life threatening maybe?

CAMPBELL: You could say that.

HANNITY: So at some point, Mr. Campbell, your life is at risk. You see Russians infiltrate the United States of America. They're living within America. At some point you became aware that Russia wanted to get a foothold in the uranium industry and that they were going to look at this, this conglomeration known -- we now know as Uranium One. And that deal was going to give them that foothold if in fact it was approved by nine government agencies?

CAMPBELL: Yes, sir. There was no question about it.

HANNITY: Yes, the FBI knew that?

CAMPBELL: The bureau knew it. The Uranium One position was a part of a long-term strategy, a four-tier strategy by the Russians.

HANNITY: Did these Russian criminals Putin operatives when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, and Barack Obama is the president. Again, you're there when they first get into office, did they express any specific Clinton strategy how to get her on board or do they express any Obama strategy?

CAMPBELL: This was a criminal investigation of people that I had reported. And yes, the Russians and the United States conspirators I was working with stated the Clintons were implicated. But that was not the focus of what I was doing. And I did not believe until the Uranium One approval actually happened that the indications from these Russians were solid about the Clintons influencing that decision.

HANNITY: Were they telling you that they had confidence that Clinton would sign off on this deal?

CAMPBELL: Absolute confidence.

HANNITY: Did they have confidence that Obama would sign off on this deal?

CAMPBELL: They were quite sure that Obama and the administration whom they had deemed and labeled as being very weak multiple times would respond favorably.

HANNITY: You're a patriotic American and you are risking your life. I got to imagine that hearing that your country and your president and secretary of state are weak, I would be -- I would feel bad for my country, if you will.

CAMPBELL: Mr. Hannity, I reacted to it and challenged my FBI handlers as to why the hell all of the work done monitoring the successful Russian strategy that I've been reporting since 2005 and 2006 had fallen by the way side and CFIUS approval had been allowed to succeed.

HANNITY: What did they say to you? What was the possible explanation? There's no reason I can't expect any reasonable explanation as to why America would hand over America's precious uranium when we don't have enough?

CAMPBELL: The agents that were senior agents that have families I might add that were accountable to at that time Robert Mueller who was--

HANNITY: The FBI director.

CAMPBELL: -- who was overseeing my entire operation looked at me and conveyed to me frustration and said, ask your politics.

HANNITY: It takes my breath away that this is an epic, the most spectacular failure. Do you think did you conclude, what is their possible motivation for people not to do their job at this high level? This is key to America's national security?

CAMPBELL: It was political and they believed that Hillary Clinton would be elected president. They were gun-shy. They were political. And they turned their back on the country in my opinion.

HANNITY: Thank you for telling us your story and the hard work and the danger you put yourself in for your country, sir. It's an honor to meet you.

CAMPBELL: Most welcome.

HANNITY: Thank you, sir.

And when we come back, President Trump is backing the people of Orange County of California as they now fight back against the states sanctuary policies. Ed Henry has a full report along with the White House's Mercedes Schlapp as we continue on this breaking news night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. There are multiple big breaking news stories tonight involving the White House. Joining us live from Washington is Fox News chief national correspondent Ed Henry. Well, it's not as cold as it used to be. I used to feel bad at 20 below, here's Ed Henry. But you still have your big jacket on.

ED HENRY, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, FOX NEWS: Yes, that's right. Well, it's little, it's raining tonight, Sean.

Bottom line is senior officials here are cheering the fact that there is going to be this Justice Department inspector general investigation by Michael Horowitz into exactly what happened with FISA abuse.

President Trump as you know has been pushing for this for some time. Some sort of scrutiny of top Obama officials and former FBI officials like Andrew McCabe and James Comey. Remember, Attorney General Jeff Sessions just a few weeks ago said he wanted the inspector general to look at this.

Some supporters of the president said the inspector general would bury this and that Sessions have made a mistake. But this is a sign Horowitz may be moving full speed ahead. On Devin Nunes first reveal, as mentioned a moment ago with his memo laying out how top officials in the Obama administration got that warrant from the FISA court to spy on ex-Trump advisor Carter Page.

Most importantly, Comey, McCabe and other officials used former British spy Christopher Steele as anti-Trump dossier without telling the judge of the DNC and the Clinton campaign had paid for that dirt.

Democrats have been deeply skeptical about this FISA abuse that it will really lead anywhere. They've also been skeptical that the president will be able to get any momentum on his efforts to crackdown on illegal immigration.

But the president today tweeted out praise for officials in Orange County for standing up to that state's sanctuary policies in California. He also received a briefing as you could see on border wall prototypes as we learned that in the California town of Calexico they've already replaced more than two miles of a tiny barrier that was built years ago. They've now replaced it with a 30-foot high bollard style wall like one of the prototypes the president was looking at just a couple of weeks ago in California.

So the Trump administration is starting to build this wall, not all at once but maybe piece by piece. The president by the way, last story tonight also tweeting about North Korea saying, quote, 'For years and through many administrations everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula was not even a small possibility. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. We look forward.'

That comes as the president sealed a new trade deal with South Korea, and said he now wants to move from the economy to start with security issues on the Korean peninsula, Sean.

HANNITY: I just want to do one follow-up because it's a story obviously we've been breaking news on for months now, and more particularly especially since that the Nunes memo came out.

How can the Democrats be unhappy about or think it's not even going anywhere the whole FISA abuse scandal when they knew, meaning the FBI, and those that were involve in the application, the original FISA application that Hillary bought and paid for it. They never told the FISA judge that fact.

And secondly, it all turned, a lot of it turned out to be lies and none of it was corroborated or even verified by the FBI which is a matter of FISA law and FBI protocol.

HENRY: This is a problem for Democrats. Because remember, after Devin Nunes came out with that Republican memo. There's all kinds of criticisms he's taken information out of context, all kinds of allegations. But when Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee had his bite of the apple, if you will, and put out that Democratic memo it really didn't refute the key findings that you're laying out there about alleged FISA abuse in the Obama administration.

And Michael Horowitz let's not forget, is someone who was first nominated to a senior federal post going back to the George W. Bush days, then was appointed to a post by then-President Barack Obama. So he is someone who is seen nobody is perfectly non-partisan in Washington but Horowitz is seen as somebody who is a fairly honest broker. And so, you're right, that it's going to be hard for Democrats to just dismiss this as nothing.

HANNITY: It released the Strzok-Page memo at least of some of them we know there's a lot more to come. All right, Ed Henry, thank you as always.

HENRY: Good to see you. Joining us now, the White House senior adviser for strategic communications, Mercedes Schlapp. The White House should be happy that in fact this now will be investigated. But we're still waiting on the first Horowitz report, the inspector general report, and now I understand that's been delayed. It's got to be frustrating at the White House that the wheels of justice grind this slowly, Mercedes.

MERCEDES SCHLAPP, WHITE HOUSE ADVISER FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: Well, I mean, clearly what the president wants is transparency, he want to make sure that they can look into the FISA and figure out if there were any political abuses. There has always been concern about that. And I think that that's what the president is going to be pushing for.

HANNITY: I think there were abuses. I think I can be a little more opinionated than you. I think, as I said, she paid for it, Hillary, they never told the FISA court. That would be deception. The FBI has an obligation to verify it. They never verify it. Fusion GPS never did and ten they're leaking phony information, unverified information and they're not telling the FISA court judge that they never check into it.

Where does the president stand tonight on the issue of the military? He's our commander in chief. That is his number one responsibility. We know he had an increase in the defense budget. I can't think of a more important issue to national security than building the wall. Drug leaders, drugs coming across. Human trafficking. The possibility that enemies of this country can cross over at will. Does he have the ability, will he use that defense budget money to build that wall?

SCHLAPP: Well, the president is exploring a variety of options at this point. Clearly, what we're seeing is that with the budget money that's been coming in with the $1.6 billion that was agreed upon is definitely an investment. A down payment into it to ensure that we have border wall and fencing and new construction. That's critical.

As Ed Henry mentioned there are going to be places already where they are going to be repairing this wall from a 12-foot wall to a 30-foot wall which will again, make it increasingly difficult to have illegal immigrants come to our country.

Secondly also is the part of technology and personnel. You are talking about a 10 percent increase in ICE funding. A very critical as you see, Sean in terms of what we need to be doing to ensure that our national security is taken care of and that our immigrant -- and that the wall is being built. And that is something and a promise that the president is keeping.

HANNITY: All right, Mercedes, good to see you.

SCHLAPP: Great to see you.

HANNITY: He is our commander in chief. This is a national security in defense of our country. No brainer to me. Roseanne is back, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right, so after a 20-year hiatus, the hitch show Roseanne is back in a massive, huge way. Now the new reboot which tackles the current political landscape drew a massive audience last night in its premiere. And by the way, congratulations to all, to Roseanne and everybody involved. Here is a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First, let's say grace. Jackie, would you like to take a knee?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But most of all, Lord, thank you for making America great again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, it's OK, darling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How could you have voted for him, Roseanne?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He talked about jobs, Jackie. He said he would shake things up. I mean, this might come as a complete shock to you, but we almost lost our house the way things have gone--

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you looked at the news? Because now things are worst.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not on the real news.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: All right. We're out of time. Congratulations.

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