McCarthy: Mueller is pursuing obstruction case against Trump

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McCarthy: Mueller is pursuing obstruction case against Trump

Andrew McCarthy, former federal prosecutor, and David Schoen, criminal defense attorney, on developments in the Manafort and Cohen cases.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," August 21, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right. Tucker, thank you.

And what an incredible news night. Major breaking news: Robert Mueller's partisan witch hunt and guess what? It has nothing to do with Russian collusion. Nothing.

Paul Manafort earlier today found guilty of the eight of 18 charges all related to bank and tax fraud. No Russia collusion.

Michael Cohen pled guilty. Eight counts of bank fraud, tax fraud, minor campaign finance violations, far worse has been committed by others. No Russia collusion.

And once again, the sentencing of Michael Flynn delayed. Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI investigators that didn't think he was lying. And no Russia collusion.

George Papadopoulos now considering a withdrawal of the guilty plea. He lied to investigators. Nothing to do with Russia collusion.

Coming up, we explain why each of the men were targeted by team Mueller, none of it about the Russia collusion. Just their connection to the president? Is it dangerous to be friends with Donald Trump?

We're going to call out what is the blatant, single, most disgusting two- tiered justice system that we've ever seen in our country's history. We'll show you how the president is reacting to breaking developments as he just wrapped up a massive rally in West Virginia.

And finally, tonight, we have such sad disturbing news. The body of missing Iowa jogger Mollie Tibbetts was found. An illegal immigrant now charged with her murder.

All right. It's time for tonight's breaking news. You won't hear anywhere else opening monologue.

(MUSIC)

HANNITY: All right. Buckle up. Stay with us for the entire hour. We will give you information, I promise, and perspective that you will not get anywhere else, as the media is once again besides themselves with false reporting, speculation and hysteria.

Yes, Paul Manafort was found guilty after a Northern Virginia jury found him guilty of eight out of 18 counts. Jurors forced a mistrial on the other ten charges after becoming deadlocked. Now, more evidence Mueller stacking charges he couldn't prove to scare Manafort as Judge Ellis said in the beginning into singing or composing. And he was never really ready for an actual trial.

By the way, Manafort worked for Trump a little over 100 days. And as we have said so many times, these are decades' old bank charges, tax fraud charges, zero to do with Russia collusion, zero to do with Donald Trump or the Trump campaign.

Now, meanwhile, more breaking news today, this time in New York. Michael Cohen, he pled guilty to eight federal charges including bank, tax fraud, two minor campaign finance violations. Far worse crimes committed by others. They didn't get charged.

Earlier today, Bret Baier raised this very, very important question. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, HOST, "SPECIAL REPORT": The campaign finance violation because of the way he phrased it that he was directed by the candidate to do that and submitted that money to be repaid by the Trump Organization, that is a direct liability. But I can already see battle lines being drawn here legally, because I just got an e-mail saying the fact he pleads guilty to campaign violations does not mean that the payments were criminal violations. This did not go to trial. And you have people like former FEC chairman Bradley Smith saying the payment is not a violation, which is what Rudy Giuliani was saying in his interview earlier.

So, that, you can already begin to see the Trump lawyers potentially and others making the case that this would not be a violation. Obviously, the prosecutor saying that it is. And Michael Cohen is on the hook for it now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And meanwhile, many of the other charges against Michael Cohen surround, let's see, we go from Russia, to the family, taxi medallion company.

Once again, these charges have nothing to do with the Russia collusion. From Russia collusion to taxi cabs. Hello?

Now, President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani released a statement. It reads, quote, there is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government's charges against Mr. Cohen. It is clear that as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen's action reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time.

Now, while Michael Cohen did say today, I would argue knowing him all the years, I have known him probably forced by prosecutors. He has changed his story about whether or not Trump knew about the payment to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. Back in March, he claimed, quote, Trump did not know that he played Clifford the $130,000. A month earlier, The New York Times, Mr. Paper of Record, that said the same thing, he paid the money out of his pocket, quote, without Trump's knowledge.

And today, we learned one more piece of breaking news about another Mueller target, and that's former national security adviser, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. His sentencing has been delayed for a fourth time. 2017, he pled guilty to lying to the FBI even though James Comey later testified that, in fact, investigators did not believe that Flynn had intentionally lied.

Again, this guilty plea, nothing to do with Russia. Russia, to tax returns, to fraud, to bank applications, to taxi medallions, to lying to the FBI -- nothing about Russia. Neither did the guilty plea from the Trump campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos whose wife was on last night. He pled guilty to lying to investigators. His wife, Mrs. Papadopoulos, now weighing in on his legal options and he may withdraw that plea.

Without a doubt, let's be straightforward here. It is wrong. There are lessons to learn from today. Don't ever knowingly lie to the FBI, do not lie on a bank loan application ever, or commit bank fraud. Pay your taxes.

But did we need Robert Mueller for all of this? Think about this. How do you go from an investigation into Russia collusion in the 2016 election and this is what we have?

Taxes from years and years ago? Bank fraud? Medallions? Lying to the FBI?

Where is the Russia stuff? Would any of these people that we are talking about tonight have been investigated or charged if not for their connection to Donald Trump? Is it also a lesson, OK, don't lie to the FBI pay your taxes. Don't lie on a bank application. Don't be friends with Donald Trump?

Is this not now the witch hunt the president has been saying, an attempt to turn the screws as Judge Ellis said about Manafort to would-be witnesses to find dirt on one man? In other words, so that they will sing or compose to either prosecute or impeach the president of the United States.

And if so, how is that not political, selective, persecution and not prosecution? Now, I don't care if you are liberal or conservative, we better look at where the country is today.

We did learn valuable lessons. Pay your taxes, don't lie on a loan application, don't lie to the FBI but this is it?

Robert Mueller, are you proud of this? Did we need you for 500 days for this? How did we go from Russia collusion to this?

Now, today, the president reacted to Mueller's ongoing witch hunt. Let's take a look at his reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I feel badly for both. I must tell you that Paul Manafort is a good man. He was with Ronald Reagan. He was with a lot of people over the years.

And I feel very sad about that. It doesn't involve me but I still feel, you know, it's a very sad thing that happened. It has nothing to do with Russian collusion. This started as Russian collusion. This has absolutely nothing to do. This is a witch hunt and it's a disgrace.

This has nothing to do what they started out, looking for Russians involved in our campaign. There were none. It's the way it ends up.

And it was not the original mission. Believe me. It was -- it was something very much different. So, it had nothing to do with the Russian collusion. We continue the witch hunt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Hang on. I'm looking for Russians. Oh.

Now, tonight, this is not funny, because these are real people's lives, real families. This is way beyond what this mandate was. And every American that cares about our Constitution or republic, the rule of law, equal applications of our laws, you better be concerned tonight.

Now, in West Virginia, the president raised an important question. Where is the collusion? He raised it again.

Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Fake news and the Russian witch hunt. We got a whole big combination. Where is the collusion?

You know, they are still looking for collusion. Where is the collusion? Find some collusion. We want to find the collusion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: I hate to say. Equal justice under the law, equal application of our laws is dead. And I will explain in a minute.

Cohen and Manafort are literally prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for bank and for tax frauds, et cetera. Let's take a look at some prominent liberals tonight, shall we? That committed similar crimes. They didn't face the same consequences.

Remember tax cheat Tim Geithner? Oh, it's a name you haven't heard in a while. Underpaid taxes tens of thousands of dollars over the course of multiple years before becoming Obama's first treasury secretary. Oops. No indictment for him.

Remember Al Sharpton? Remember now, he used to be guest on the show, works at conspiracy TV MSNBC, reportedly once owed millions of dollars in back taxes to the IRS. He's also fined $285,000 by the FEC over an illicit political donation. Of course, Sharpton, he is enjoying his freedom because his job talking about Michael Cohen and everybody else over at NBC.

Hey, let's not forget about, remember, former New York Congressman Charlie Rangel. Remember the picture of him laying on the beach chair? He failed to pay taxes on tens of thousands of dollars in real estate income. Rangel censured in the House of Representatives. He's now enjoying his retirement.

And there's former Democratic Senator Tom Daschle. Remember, Rush used to talk about the Tom Daschle show? He failed to pay 128 grand in taxes.

And, look at this. Oh, even the Obama campaign in 2008, they were hit with a mere fine which at the time was a lot, 375 grand for the campaign reporting violations over $2 million worth. Cohen is now getting prison time.

Somehow team Mueller missed all of those crimes. Wait. Because there is no connections to President Trump.

In today's two-tier justice system, as a Democrat, clearly you can commit financial fraud and get away with it. By the way, that's just the tip of the iceberg. If you are a Democrat and you have subpoenaed information, well, first, you can mishandle and destroy classified information which violates the Espionage Act.

Clearly, you can have the top intelligence, and then you can delete subpoenaed e-mails. Not one, not ten, 33,000 of them. And acid wash your hard drive with the Bleach Bit, and eliminate the evidence and then have an aide smash up your devices with hammers and get away with it.

And you can have exoneration written months before you are investigated. And, by the way, the guy that is doing the interview of you hates your opponent, loves you.

If your name is Donald Trump, or you are associated with Donald Trump your entire life, it's going to be scoured for potential crimes. Your doors will be kicked down late at night, early in the morning raids, the screws are going to be turned as Judge Ellis said and they will ask you to sing or compose or you will go to jail for crimes other people have committed and don't go to jail for.

Ask Paul Manafort tonight. Ask Michael Cohen tonight. Ask General Flynn, boy, he served his country for 30 years. Not even the guy that interviewed him at the FBI thought he lied. Not even Comey thought he lied. Not even Peter Strzok thought he lied.

Ask George Papadopoulos. I bet he regrets volunteering for the Trump campaign.

Just ask the White House counsel Don McGahn. Oh, the White House counsel interrogated for 30 full hours. Trump thinks, you know, the lawyers thought, we will cooperate and we'll turn over 1.4 million documents. We'll cooperate with Mueller. It will go away, because we didn't do anything wrong.

And the most exculpatory evidence is in Comey's notes. I didn't collude. I didn't conspire, but if anyone on the team did, you got -- you got to hold them accountable. Those were in Comey's notes.

Now, Mueller's witch hunt is not and has never been about Russia collusion. How did we get to taxi cabs? And tax fraud. And bank fraud. And lies to the FBI?

This is what we have been telling you for a long time. We have the evidence. It is an attempt at a political takedown of the man that the deep state never wanted to be the president of the United States. I will tell you tonight that the sovereignty of your vote is now in question.

Before we get to our guests we have another important topic to cover. Now, for weeks, foxnews.com has been following the heart-wrenching story out of Iowa.

On July 18th, a 20-year-old college student, a young girl, all of future potential, life ahead of her, Mollie Tibbetts, went missing. Today, sadly, her body was recovered. Ad now, the police have arrested an illegal immigrant they believe is responsible for her murder.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A first-degree murder charge was filed today in connection with the disappearance of Mollie Tibbetts who is last scene jogging in Brooklyn, Iowa, on July 18th, 2018. A complaint and affidavit names Cristhian Bahena Rivera age 24 who resides in rural Poweshiek County and he has been charged with murder in the first degree.

We have confirmed with homeland security investigations that he is an illegal alien and we believe he has been in this area now for four to seven years.

(END VIDE OCLIP)

HANNITY: What happened to this young woman Mollie Tibbetts is a senseless, evil, horrific crime. Now, we believe and charges against an illegal immigrant.

Tonight, we extend our deepest condolences, our prayers to the family and the friends. We will get to that in the course of the show.

Now, we also have the great one, Mark Levin, is going to joining us. We got a lot of reaction to get to. We've only begun to touch the service.

But joining us first for reaction to developments, we have former federal prosecutor himself, he worked at the Southern District of New York for 20 years, of big cases like the blind sheikh case and the first Trade Center bombing, Andrew McCarthy. Civil and criminal defense attorney, David Schoen.

Andy, let's start here with what I think is so obvious. How did we get from Russia collusion to five years of taxes in the case of Paul Manafort? Tax and bank charges against him? And, by the way, I'm advising everyone, pay your taxes and don't lie on loan applications, don't lie to the FBI three lessons to take out tonight.

How did we get from Russia collusion to this?

ANDREW MCCARTHY, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Sean, I agree with what you said about the two-tiered justice system. Because I don't think you can justify how the same or similar cases have been handled on these two different categories of people. I'm not as convinced that what we started with was Russian collusion. I really think what we started with is Russia interference in the election and that is still --

HANNITY: Well, that is what they called it, right?

MCCARTHY: Supposed to be at least -- well, no. They said the collusion was one thread of an investigation into Russia's involvement in the election.

I'm pretty convinced that Mueller is not pursuing a collusion case now --

HANNITY: It's obstruction case.

MCCARTHY: -- against president Trump.

I think it is an obstruction case. As far as Manafort goes, I don't think that Manafort -- I don't think Mueller thinks Manafort has anything with respect to Trump campaign collusion with Russia that Mueller couldn't already get from Gates who is Manafort's partner who has been cooperating for six months.

I think his interest in Manafort has to do with exactly Manafort's connections to Russia. Not necessarily the Trump campaign. Until I see something different, that is what I have concluded.

HANNITY: You know the Southern District of New York. It has the reputation of probably being in terms of the federal prosecution the toughest one in the country. And you worked there 20 years. Over two decades of your life.

Rudy Giuliani worked there, interestingly. Very smart, aggressive, tough attorneys that work there.

MCCARTHY: He hired me.

HANNITY: Rudy hired you? I didn't know. We got some (INAUDIBLE)

But the heart of what they are saying is --

MCCARTHY: Yes.

HANNITY: -- so I have all the examples where Michael Cohen said the president didn't know he did it on his own. And that he didn't do it with any expecting payback. Michael Cohen says today said at the direction of the president. There are numerous times that he said it.

Why do I think this is the special sauce that the prosecution wanted? Because remember, this was fed to them and served up to them by Robert Mueller. And again, we got taxi medallions and tax fraud.

And another big question, as side note, if you can answer both, would any of the people, Flynn, Papadopoulos, Manafort, or Cohen be in trouble in any way if it weren't for the issue of Russia which didn't come up in any case?

MCCARTHY: Yes, I think -- Sean, I think the last question is the easiest one to answer. These guys got on the government's crosshairs because of their connections to first candidate and now President Trump. I don't think there is any question about that.

But I do think that the Cohen case ended up in the Southern District because Mueller didn't see him, Cohen, as somebody who was going to advance the Russia investigation, and the Southern District had different line of interest in Cohen.

HANNITY: But let's focus on the main what he said into the direction of the president, and he previously had not. Why do I think it had to be a big part of what they wanted from Cohen to get the deal he got? Because he otherwise facing 65 years.

MCCARTHY: But, Sean, it's a straight up guilty plea. It's not a cooperation agreement. I don't think they regard him as a witness. I think for precisely the reason you pointed out, you know, he has made statements all over the map. They did elicit that from him today when he gave his allocution at his guilty plea.

But I think if they regarded him as valuable witness or cooperator, you'd see a very different kind of plea agreement.

HANNITY: Yes, well, I do agree with that, too.

David, you have seen a lot of the cases over the years and we talked about at length. Look, we have -- there are Russians issues here. Hillary paid for a phony Russian dossier with funneled money through a law firm to an op research group that hired a foreign national, which I thought was bad for our elections. And he came up with the Russian lies disseminated to the American people to impact -- that were never verified, never corroborated to impact our election.

And then such information was also used as the bulk of information to get FISA warrants on the Trump campaign associate. Russian lies were used and I believe fraud was committed before four FISA court judges. None of these people, nor is Hillary Clinton, who I think has the most open and shut case on obstruction, none of them are indicted today.

Why? What should the American people take from that?

DAVID SCHOEN, CIVIL RIGHTS AND CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The answer why is purely a political one. I think the American people are entitled to hold the United States attorney to his word when he said the message from the Cohen case, is that the rule of law should be applied equally and evenly across the board. We haven't seen that yet.

Mr. McCarthy is exactly right that the mandate started out a question of Russian interference. I think the case today, Manafort perfectly illustrates how wrong they went in the breadth of the mandate given that Judge Ellis examined and found this case fell within that breadth. But so far beyond that, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the president certainly, but the charges today, nothing whatsoever to do with Russia.

And, of course, your original question, how did it get in the Southern District? We know, for example, a member of the Mueller team comes out of the unit that prosecuted Mr. Cohen, Andrew Goldstein, comes from that unit. Let's hold the Southern District to their word and let's get past these cases that have nothing to do with the president and get on with the business that you've reported day after day.

The misconduct before the FISA court is outrageous. The American people cannot withstand that kind of treachery before that kind of secret court in an ex parte proceeding. We have to have the answers and full disclosure.

HANNITY: You know, doesn't it happen every day, Andy McCarthy, that people that commit fraud on their taxes and people that commit campaign finance violations, Obama $2 million worth. Cohen is about 300 grand. They only paid $375,000 fine.

I have used the Hillary case. I used the fraud before the FISA judges. I wouldn't -- Andy, I wouldn't lie to any judge ever. It's dumb.

I wouldn't also if I had a subpoena by Congress for my e-mails I wouldn't delete them. I wouldn't acid wash my heart drives and beat up or have somebody beat up my phones. And I think America has to look tonight and ask itself, is this a witch hunt? As the president is saying based on what we know are real crimes. And some of them actually have to do with Russia.

MCCARTHY: Sean, I don't think anybody objective could look at the way the Clinton e-mail investigation was handled and the way the Trump campaign has been pursued and say that there is a single standard of justice. I don't see how that could be.

At the same time, I don't want to see Mueller pursuing the investigators or what happened in the Hillary case. As I understand it, that's being looked at by the Justice Department, by the inspector general, and by Mr. Huber, the U.S. attorney from Utah, that the attorney general assigned to this. I think we ought to let them do their work.

I'd rather see them do it than see Mueller do it. I think Mueller should stay focused on what he is doing and bring it to an end.

HANNITY: All right. Andy McCarthy, David Schoen, thank you both for being with us.

Now, earlier tonight at his West Virginia rally, President Trump asked where is the Russia collusion. Here is what he said.

Apparently, we don't have that. We had it earlier.

Anyway, joining us now with latest on today's news is FOX News chief national correspondent Ed Henry -- Ed.

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sean, good to see you.

You're right. And before the rally, the president called the Robert Mueller investigation again a witch hunt. What's interesting is the Michael Cohen case could be more damaging for the president because in that case, he is directly implicated by Cohen, a far cry from the Manafort case with major developments today. That has nothing to do with the president, nothing to do with 2016, nothing to do with Russia collusion.

The former Trump campaign chair found guilty on five counts of filing false income tax returns, one count of failing to file report of a foreign bank account, two charges of bank fraud. The jury could not reach a verdict on 10 other counts against Manafort. Prosecutors have until the end of the month to decide on a possible retrial.

There is also the possibility that Manafort would be pardoned by the president who declared again as I noted that the Mueller probe is a witch hunt. He said he was deeply frustrated about that. The president though said nothing in his comments about the Cohen case, leaving it to his attorney Rudy Giuliani to provide this written statement tonight, quote: There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government charges against Mr. Cohen. It is clear as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen's actions reflect pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time.

But remember, Cohen's plea deal alleges he broke the law to influence the 2016 election on behalf of a candidate. That candidate, of course, being Trump.

Cohen will get prison time 43 to 63 months in charges of bank fraud, tax evasion and campaign finance charges involving payments to two women who alleged affairs with the president that he has strongly denied, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.

Now, remember, Rudy Giuliani told you in that exclusive interview back in May that no campaign finance law was broken. This plea deal contradicts that and it's going to raise questions about whether anyone else in the Trump could be implicated, Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Ed Henry with that report, thank you.

Joining us now with reaction, author of the "New York Times" bestseller three weeks in a row, "The Russian Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump", the heart of what I'm discussing tonight, and FOX News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett. FOX News contributor Sara Carter, who's also been covering and breaking a lot of news that apparently doesn't end up in an indictment of anybody, which is the point here.

You know, look, I stand by what I say. Pay your taxes, or you are applying for a loan, don't lie.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

HANNITY: Don't lie to the FBI.

JARRETT: That's right.

HANNITY: All lessons everybody should learn. It has nothing to do with Russia, but America should be asking a question tonight if we have a two- tiered justice system.

JARRETT: Oh, we totally do. I mean, there's one for Donald Trump --

HANNITY: So, we don't have a -- we don't have a -- we don't have a constitutional republic.

JARRETT: No. Hillary Clinton violated the Federal Campaign Election Act in a criminal way. There is no investigation of her for that. And that here you see the feds pressuring Cohen to try to implicate President Trump.

There are two reasons why his payment in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement is not an illegal campaign contribution. The law says that if there is a dual or a secondary purpose, it's not illegal. Here, President Trump had personal and commercial reasons.

Second of all, the Federal Campaign Election Act is a specific intent crime if you are going to criminal criminalize it. And that means you have to prove, quote, knowingly and willfully committed a violation of the campaign law.

Who is that steeped in campaign election laws to know that a non-disclosure agreement in exchange for money is a violation, so you can't even prove the case.

HANNITY: Well, this is an amazing thing, too. And, look, I actually think that they wanted that line. At the behest of --

JARRETT: Oh, they did. They pressured him for the one line.

HANNITY: It was 65 years --

JARRETT: They didn't care about anything else other than the one line.

HANNITY: Agreed.

And you know what? After all the other times that he said just the opposite --

JARRETT: Right.

HANNITY: -- he was pressured to do it, and basically, if you are looking at 65 years or four or three, I'm going to take the deal.

JARRETT: Right.

HANNITY: Most people would take the deal.

Sara, your investigating reporting has shown us that we do have Russian issues here. Bought and paid for dossier, funneled money through a law firm --

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Exactly.

HANNITY: -- to Fusion GPS, which is an op research to a foreign national, which I thought was bad, apparently not if you're Hillary Clinton. On top of her obstruction case, then that money is used as the basis to lie to four FISA court judges, four separate occasions, four applications. It's all false Russian information. And we are talking about taxes.

CARTER: Incredible.

HANNITY: And the only thing that's common is they are friends with Trump in some way.

CARTER: Incredible violations, Sean.

And, remember, they did not disclose that. Hillary Clinton campaign did not disclose on their FEC. They didn't disclose that they were paying a foreign spy basically through a U.S. research firm for a dossier filled with lies from the Russians. That was something that they kept very secret until the "Washington Post" actually broke that story.

And we reported over and over again, document after document where there was actual collusion. Collusion between the DOJ and the FBI -- how many people at the FBI have been removed or demoted? Over 25 people, Sean. And still nothing.

And I'm going to say this. Rod Rosenstein gave carte blanche over this special counsel for Robert Mueller. And Rod Rosenstein himself signed off on the fourth FISA application on Carter Page which means he should have known everything that was contained in those FISA applications, those previous FISA applications.

This is really incredible. And he wrote the letter, remember, wrote the letter for President Trump to fire Comey. So, if this is an obstruction case, isn't he a witness or a co-conspirator? Why is Rod Rosenstein in charge of this? And where is Attorney General Jeff Sessions? When is he going to stand up and do something about this?

We don't even know what's happened with Huber. We don't even know what he's doing. And as far as the inspector general's report, well, that could just come out next year there.

There needs to be a special counsel according to a number of sources that I've spoken with. There needs to be a special counsel in order for this not to be a two-tier justice system.

HANNITY: So well said.

JARRETT: There is a reason Rod Rosenstein has been obstructing Congress and in my judgment, obstructing justice. Because he is knee-deep in all of this. He signed off on the renewal without the required evidence.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: The court before FISA.

JARRETT: That's right. And it show Rod Rosenstein is engaged in what I suspect is a very deliberate cover-up. He's not only covering up the wrongdoing of the FBI and the Department of Justice -- and by the way, taking no action against Bruce Ohr for what he did but he is also covering up his own role.

HANNITY: You have 25 people, top people between the FBI and the DOJ, that have either been fired demoted or resigned.

JARRETT: Right.

HANNITY: OK. The top people. This is not about the rank and file. And I'm just wondering and I think America should wonder tonight. Again, we go from the Russia collusion, and we end up with the tax issues going back years ago. In both cases. And bank applications that have nothing to do with the campaign--

JARRETT: That's right.

HANNITY: -- nothing to do with Trump, nothing to do with Russia years ago. Now we have got into taxi medallion land which is nothing to do with anything. And I think Americans are saying wait a minute, in this campaign of 2016, Hillary did do these things.

JARRETT: Sure.

HANNITY: And forget about -- you can even add to the list that she cheated Bernie Sanders out of the nomination. Nobody seems to care but me for Bernie. Bernie doesn't even care.

So then she does her bit with the e-mail subpoenaed. Then she does her bit to pay for the phony Russian dossier and then they disseminate it to influence the American people and then it's used for the bulk of the information for a FISA.

It seems to me that the perspective is so far off here. That the president's analogy that it's a witch hunt is accurate.

JARRETT: Absolutely. When James Comey cleared Hillary Clinton in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt, he simultaneously launched the investigation of Trump in direct violation, as I explain in book, of the FBI guidelines.

Then the special counsel was also illegitimate. This has always been an investigation in search of a crime. But the federal regulations say there must be a stated crime. There was none.

HANNITY: Sara, we'll give you the last word.

CARTER: Look, Sean, they are trying to force people to compose. They are targeting everyone around President Trump. This is pretty obvious what's happening here. The only thing I can hope for is that actually Hubert (Ph), he is doing his job, the attorney general will listen and the special counsel will be appointed.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you both. I appreciate it. Your book got to the whole heart of it. Right there. And here we are today. Taxi medallion. Sad.

JARRETT: It is.

HANNITY: When we come back, he is called the great one for a reason. Mark Levin weighs in and much more. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Here with the reaction to all of today's breaking news. He is the host of the number one show on Sunday night at 10 Eastern, Life, Liberty, and Levin right on the Fox News channel, host of CRTV's Levin TV. We call him the great one for a reason. Mark Levin.

All right, Mark, I mean, there are some lessons here. I agree that you shouldn't lie to the FBI. Everyone agrees with that. I also agree that you should pay your taxes. I also agree that you better not lie on a bank loan application. Mark, how did we get from Russia and that this is it after nearly, we are almost at 500 days.

MARK LEVIN, FOX NEWS HOST: All right. I want to address Michael Cohen. How did we get to that? I want to help the law professors, the constitutional experts, the criminal defense lawyers, the former prosecutors and of course, the professors. I want to help them understand what the law is.

The general counsel for the Clinton mob family, Lanny Davis, he had his client pleaded two counts of criminality that don't exist. These campaign finance violations that is all over TV, they are saying implicates the president of the United States directly.

First, let's back up. It is a guilty plea. It is a plea bargain between a prosecutor and a criminal. A criminal who doesn't want to spend the rest of his life in prison. That is not precedent. That applies only to that specific case. Nobody cites plea bargains for precedent. That's number one.

Number two, just because a prosecutor says that somebody violated a campaign law doesn't make it so. He is not the judge. He is not the jury. We didn't adjudicate anything. It never went to court. That's number two.

A campaign expenditure under our federal campaign laws is an expenditure solely for campaign activity. A candidate who spends his own money or even corporate money for an event that occurred not as a result of the campaign, it is not a campaign expenditure.

Let me give a few examples to help people understand this, especially the American people. Let's say, I wrote these down. Let's say a candidate had said we owe vendors a whole lot of money. We've had disputes with them. But I want you to go ahead and pay them. I'm a candidate, I don't want all this negative publicity.

So he says to his private lawyer, you pay them, I'll reimburse you, get it done. Is that illegal? It's perfectly legal.

Yet according to the prosecution of the Southern District of New York it's paid at the direction of the candidate to influence the election. Yes, Mr. Prosecutor, how stupid is your point? It's not a crime.

More, let's say that this candidate settles a lawsuit that was initiated before he becomes a candidate. And he says to his personal lawyer, I want you to pay, settle that lawsuit. You can use my corporate funds, my private funds, whatever it is. That is perfectly legal, too.

The prosecutor would say but that influenced the election. So what? There are certain things you do that influence an election that are legal and certain things you do to influence an election that are illegal.

Let's say a candidate gets a non-disclosure agreement from a disgruntled employee and he wants to quiet that disgruntled employee as he goes into the election. He pays the funds out of his pocket or through his corporation. Perfectly legal.

Nothing here was spent out of the campaign, nothing was done with the campaign or to the campaign. This is exactly what the federal law is.

And Mr. Lanny davis had his client plead guilty to two offenses that aren't offenses that the prosecutor insisted were offenses. That's why he is no good. That is Michael Cohen against Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is in the clear. Let's say Donald Trump even directed Michael Cohen to make payments in non-disclosure agreements. So what? He is allowed to do that.

Now, here's my question. Has the Southern District of New York ever paid money in a non-disclosure agreement with any of its employees? How about any U.S. attorney's office in the United States? How about the Department of Justice? How about any business?

HANNITY: Or Congress.

LEVIN: How about any union? How about the DNC? How about member of Congress? It's done all the time. It is all hush money. And all of this hush money, they can't pay hush money. Well, it is hush money. It's legal. It's a contract. It's done all the time.

Now, what does Mr. Mueller have left? It's worked. He is chasing the Manhattan madam. Who the hell is the Manhattan madam? I don't know. And how is he interviewing? He is dragging her in front of the grand jury.

What's next? The Manhattan madame. He's got -- he's got Manafort where he wants him on banking charges, he set up a few guys like Flynn who has gotten in trouble. Now they have Cohen. What do they have? They have nothing. I'll tell you what they have.

Mr. Mueller as a federal prosecutor is preparing his impeachment report which is an unconstitutional activity. Mr. Mueller is supposed to be nonpolitical. He is not supposed to preparing impeachment report.

Mr. Mueller, I told you before, you can't indict a sitting president. I told you that 15 months ago. Now you figured it out. You and Rosenstein figured it out. Now you and Rosenstein are trying to figure out what to do with the subpoena.

You see, Sean, Giuliani was on your show the other day or somebody's show and said why do they take two or three weeks? I'll tell you why they take two or three weeks. Because Mr. Mueller has to consult Mr. Rosenstein, his boss, to figure out what to do with the subpoena.

I'll tell you what happens when they issue that subpoena. The president of the United States takes it all the way to the Supreme Court. And what does he cite? Department of Justice memos. What else does he cite? The Constitution of the United States.

So this is going to be an impeachment battle in the end. The president of the United States if he doesn't get involved in the perjury trap -- think about that. They don't have a crime. He needs this interview to create a crime against the president of the United States. This prosecutor.

Well, that's pretty damn outrageous. So in any event I want the news media to understand. You know what took place in the Southern District of New York? Nothing that matters. Zippo.

HANNITY: You know what, Mark?

LEVIN: There was no violation of the federal campaign laws. Lanny Davis blew it. Lanny Davis -- Lanny Davis he puts out a tweet today. "Today, Cohen stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime."

You are a dummy, Lanny.

"By making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election. If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen then why wouldn't they be a crime for Donald Trump?"

They weren't a crime for Michael Cohen. He screwed himself. And they're not a crime for Donald Trump either. Now move along and go back into your corner with Hillary Clinton.

HANNITY: Well, obviously, he is a huge Clinton sycophant. So there's 2016 campaign, we're what, 77 days out is now becoming as I have said for a long time. It's about impeachment, keeping Obamacare, then wanting their crumbs back, eliminating ICE, open borders and stopping the investigation into what I say is the biggest abuse of power.

Here is what I want to ask you. So we now have Hillary Rodham Clinton obstructing, violating the Espionage Act and no indictment. We now have her paying for what turns out to be a foreign entity, a foreign agent, putting together Russian lies that are disseminated to the American people to influence an election. Lies. Never verified or corroborated.

Then put as the bulk of information and for FISA warrants, Comey, Sally Yates, Rod Rosenstein, they all signed off and they all said, they swore, they put their good name and credibility behind it. I don't see Comey indicted.

LEVIN: Right.

HANNITY: I don't see any -- I don't see any Hillary Clinton indictments. I don't see any crimes that are being pursued here. Barack Obama had what, $2 million in campaign finance violations he just paid upon.

LEVIN: Can I interrupt for a second?

HANNITY: Yes, go ahead. Interrupt on my own show.

LEVIN: The head of the FBI is not the head of the FBI anymore. He is a confessed leaker and he is under investigation by the inspector director. The deputy FBI director was fired and is under criminal investigation.

Mr. Strzok was the head counterintelligence investigator was fired and he is under investigation, I believe, or will be, or should be under investigation as well. That's the top tier of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I have never heard of anything like this before.

You have a mole in the deputy attorney general's office who's working with Strzok has been fired. His wife works for the Fusion GPS. And pushing out the opposition research against the president of the United States.

Getting in front of the FISA court through the FBI, Bruce Ohr. Bruce Ohr who served for the deputy attorney general of the United States and there is tons more. You have FISA court judges that have never been held to account.

HANNITY: Fraud.

LEVIN: You had an application that was filed with the FISA court. They didn't say who paid for the opposition research that was used to violate their rules.

HANNITY: I got to run, Mark.

LEVIN: yes. We need a special counsel now. For that.

HANNITY: You know, some great, smart, constitutional lawyer once wrote a book and in book he said, this is a post-constitutional America. That was you. We're there. Mark, thank you.

LEVIN: Thanks, Sean.

HANNITY: Life, Liberty and Levin Sunday night at 10 Eastern right here on Fox.

When we come back, we'll have a live report from Iowa, the very latest of this horrific murder of this young innocent Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, murdered by an illegal immigrant. Full reaction. Geraldo and Dr. Gorka, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You heard about today with the illegal alien coming in very sadly from Mexico. And you saw what happened to that incredible, beautiful young woman. It should have never happened. Illegally in our country.

We have had a huge impact but the laws are so bad. The immigration laws are such a disgrace. We are getting them changed but we have to get more Republicans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That was the president earlier tonight in his West Virginia rally lamenting what was the ultimate death -- the untimely death of Mollie Tibbetts. We feel so sorry for her family. Tonight our thoughts and prayers as we said earlier go out to them. This is a tragedy that can be prevented.

More on reaction of this horrific story author of the book "Why We Fight," Fox News national security strategist, Dr. Sebastian Gorka. Author of the "Geraldo Show," Fox News correspondent at large, Geraldo Rivera.

Geraldo, this to me, I see Kate Steinle, a beautiful young girl, her entire life stalked by this guy apparently. According to Fox News reports earlier tonight. And brutally murdered.

Again, an illegal immigrant in this country. We have to fix the problem. This should be the end of it for everybody. Build the wall, keep a door. We'll call it the Geraldo door. Seriously, because you and I have disagreed on some aspects of immigration.

Stop drugs, stop human trafficking, control who comes in the country. We love you. Come from anywhere, we just need to vet you so you are part of our family. We don't care where you come from. Just we need to know that you are safe and secure for the people that are here.

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT AT LARGE: You know, Sean, I totally understand the anger that so many people are expressing and feeling over this horrible case and my heart breaks for the Tibbetts family. It really does.

This is absolutely horrific. I feel so sorry for them. As the father of five, it is so, so saddening to me. It's saddening for what this family has suffered and it is sad because it will fuel the malignant false notion that this terrible savage crime is characteristic of this population. The 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country are not all MS-13.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Geraldo, no, it's not. No. That's absolutely true. You are right. But we've got to be able to try and vet those that are here because they love our country--

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: Of course. Sean, there is no argument. I have no -- there is no distance between us on that point. But I fear is that this case will now become the rallying cry to deprive the DREAMers of their protected status.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: The president offered appeal, Geraldo.

RIVERA: To harshly crackdown on the mom and pops who have been here for years and care for our babies and mow our lawns and wash our dishes.

HANNITY: How about we just make sure that -- how about we just check everybody out? Dr. Gorka, let's make sure--

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: I would love. I would love that.

HANNITY: I know you believe that. You agree further. I know you.

RIVERA: I would hire every Wal-Mart in the country in a parking lot and tell come on, we'll give you a yellow pass and we'll figure out who you are and what your status is. I just -- I just want everyone to know. My dad -- I want to quickly say. My dad Cruz Rivera -- and this guy's name is Rivera? Please, you wonder how I feel about this.

My dad when he was alive, Cruz Rivera, we moved from Brooklyn to Long Island from the Democratic heart of Brooklyn to the Republican Long Island. All we wanted to do was fit in. Every time there was a violent crime my dad would pray that it wasn't a Latino because the community was already beleaguered enough.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Geraldo, those people that are going to love people together--

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: And now this happens. May heart is broken.

HANNITY: They're not conservatives. Anybody but. Dr. Gorka.

SEBASTIAN GORKA, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST: Sean.

HANNITY: We do have things we can do. And we're not doing them.

GORKA: Sean, Kate Steinle should never have died. Now Mollie's life has been ripped away from her by an illegal alien. Americans should never forget these women, never forget these young girls and we should never rest until the wall is built.

And every single criminal like this is removed from this country or put in prison. Nobody, nobody has the right to come to America and to be an American. The sanctuary cities, the outrageous catch and release policies of the Obama administration are because of one reason and one reason alone. And it's not humanitarianism. It's because the Democrat Party--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I've got to run.

GORKA: -- wants illegal votes. That's the only reason.

HANNITY: We pray for their families. And I know you mean it, Geraldo. More "Hannity," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Last word tonight, we better do a lot of soul-searching as a country, because if Russian collusion becomes taxi medallions and taxes and, bank fraud, and we ignore obstruction of justice, if we ignore real Russia collusion, we are going to lose the country. It's that important. The election this midterm the most important in our lifetime.

Jason Chaffetz in for Laura tonight. Sir, take it away.

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