Dan Bongino calls the Russia investigation the biggest political scandal of our time

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Dan Bongino calls the Russia investigation the biggest political scandal of our time

Fox News contributor Dan Bongino, author of 'Exonerated: The Failed Takedown of President Donald Trump by the Swamp,' joins Mark Levin on 'Life, Liberty & Levin.'

This is a rush transcript from "Life, Liberty & Levin," September 22, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARK LEVIN, HOST: Hello America. I'm Mark Levin. This is "Life, Liberty & Levin." Dan Bongino, how are you my friend?

DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good to see you, Mark.

LEVIN: You are my friend?

BONGINO: Yes, yes.

LEVIN: One of my best friends.

BONGINO: Well, you've always been a source of good advice to me. And I always, always appreciate that.

LEVIN: Well, you're good man and a great patriot. You were with the New York Police Department.

BONGINO: That's right.

LEVIN: Secret Service. You ran for office, you came that close being a member of Congress when you ran. Yes. So here you are now. A patriot.

BONGINO: Thank you.

LEVIN: We see you on Fox a lot. You're fairly ubiquitous. And that's very important, because you bring a different experience background to these events that are taking place, involving at least on the surface, law enforcement and that sort of thing.

You've been looking at this Russia issue, this non-Russia issue now for years. You've been analyzing it. As a former cop, as former Secret Service agent, you have a unique perspective in that regard.

First of all, from a global point of view, this was the greatest setup and political spectacle, not just a modern history, I think, but in all of American history. DO you agree? Because it included instrumentalities of the Federal government and the Obama administration.

BONGINO: There's no question about that. That is not even a remotely hyperbolic statement. And in a moment of self-deprecation, but it's necessary to set this up. I've got to be honest with you.

As a former Federal agent, when I first heard about -- got inklings of this case, from a source of mine, Mark, I gaffed it off. I said, there's no way this happened.

I said, having been a GS-1811 Federal agent, they were just too many --

LEVIN: And that's very high by the way.

BONGINO: Yes, there's too many controls built in. There's no way the FBI at the upper level and the Intel Community would have had the temerity to do this.

And it's only when this source of mine started giving me information that later became vindicated where I looked, Mark and came to the conclusion you just accurately stated, this is unquestionably the biggest scandal -- political scandal in American history. There's not even a close second.

Unbelievable what happened.

LEVIN: Does it amaze you, as bad as the media are, and the media in this country, I mean, I wrote a whole book on it. It really is an unfree press.

Doe it amaze you, though, that when you have Obama officials and other officials, the highest levels of Federal law enforcement, the highest levels of our Federal diplomatic corps, the State Department and the highest levels of our Intelligence agencies, working to destroy the candidacy of a candidate, then working to destroy the transition period, and still working today to destroy the presidency, and the media largely has thrown in with them.

I mean, as an American citizen, you've got to sit back and say, what the hell is going on here?

BONGINO: You know, like any American patriot, I support the Free Press.

But as I always say, they're free to be stupid. And unfortunately, they've taken us up on the offer.

What's fascinating here, Mark is there are actual transmission texts, e- mails, documents out there showing there was intimate involvement of the White House in this scandal, if any entrepreneurial media person would just look at it.

We have this text the White House is running. They are talking about the circumstances surrounding the investigation. Right around the time the investigation is happening, we have this other text between the players, the White House wants the POTUS -- President of the United States in acronym -- wants to know everything we're doing.

We have John Brennan up on Capitol Hill saying, I gave the briefing about the case to the Gang of Eight.

LEVIN: Former C.I.A. Director.

BONGINO: Former C.I.A. Director, I gave the briefing and I'm doing this in conjunction with the White House. I mean, none of this is -- you can google this, you can look on the internet and find this. It's not some special skill Dan Bongino had, and yet nobody, Mark in the media on the left side seems even remotely curious again about the biggest political scandal of our time. It's really unfathomable, what's going on. It's so outlandish.

LEVIN: You had spies inserted into the Trump campaign by the FBI You had lies fed to the FISA Court, a Federal Court. Federal district court judge s run the FISA Courts, by the highest levels of the FBI and the Department of Justice.

You had the unmasking of American citizens, including from people at the White House, as well as from the U.N. and others on a scale we've never seen in modern times.

You've had the leaking, the felonious leaking of information, so-called investigative information, trying to push the ball with the public against candidate Trump, and now President Trump.

You had leaking by the head of the FBI, he denied it. He is a liar. And he also wrote self-serving memos that belong to the government. And he leaked some of those.

The number two at the FBI, McCabe, a leaker and then lied about it, and is now potentially facing criminal charges. The General Counsel the FBI, forced to resign. The top level the FBI wiped out.

Your book, you have a brand new book coming out, "Exonerated: The Failed Takedown of President Donald Trump by the Swamp." You have to ask yourself, I do it, how did they not take this man down, given they used every instrumentality of the Federal government and the press, and Congress?

This one man, this outsider who would not be taken down and they did everything they can, and they're still doing everything they can to take him down. How do you explain that?

BONGINO: Well, that's why I wrote a follow up to my first book, "Spygate."

My first book was written on this case in more of a police file format. So you didn't have to read it like a narrative, you could jump to Chapter 6, oh, let's read about this player, and then to Chapter 2 -- wherever you wanted to start.

And I found the mistake -- I won't say a mistake, I did that deliberately.

But one of the things I left out is, I didn't tell the whole story in a narrative format that you just laid out in a minute and a half. I lay it out very simply, like I call this a spy story for idiots.

LEVIN: And by the way, it reads like a spy story.

BONGINO: Well, thank you. I tell it, the events in a narrative format.

So you can read from start to finish and I break it down very simply into, here was Obama's Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C, of course, I make these names up just for simplicity, but you just spoke about them.

They tried unmasking, basically, wiretapping, in normal parlance. They tried to listen in on the Trump team's phone calls and others. What did they get? Nothing. Zip. Zero.

So then when that didn't work, they moved on to Plan B, using the FISA Courts to formalize the spying process through our courts designed to get our terrorists and enemies of the United States. When that didn't work out? Then what do they do? They go to the media, and they tried to use the media to build public support for a Special Counsel with the assistance of James Comey -- excuse me, and upper level people in the FBI and what do they do? They get their wish, and Bob Mueller doubles down.

And now we've seen Phase 4 of this, I should have added an appendix, Plan D. Now we have Jerry Nadler and the ridiculous impeachment, which is just again, a continuous polluted river where they just will not let it go.

But that's what I did in this book. I tried to tell it as a continuous story. And it was based on a viral speech I did about it because when you tell it as a police file, sometimes the players get disconnected.

LEVIN: I'll tell you what, your book is actually fabulous. It's a fabulous book and I did learn a lot of new things, but I didn't just learn new things. There's a blockbuster revelation in here. May I cut you on it, and you can see the extent to which you want to expand on it, which is one of the reasons I wanted to have you here. And that is this is a blueprint.

What they've done to President Trump is the blueprint that they finally got to execute, thanks to the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton. What is this blueprint?

BONGINO: Yes, I'm glad you asked. When the unmaskings, Plan A for them didn't work. In other words, they're spying on the Trump team waiting for this evidence of collusion for Trump to be talking to Putin. Hey, guys, let's overthrow the U.S. election. Well, nothing happened.

Well, instead of the Obama team walking away and saying, sorry, guys, we screwed up. There's no collusion here. They needed to go back and fabricate a collusion story. Well, who better to go to than a guy that already had collusion story prewritten? I call it the movie script, the plug and play plot in the book. Glenn Simpson, who is one of the proprietors of Fusion GPS.

LEVIN: This is the former "Wall Street Journal" reporter.

BONGINO: Absolutely. Glenn Simpson, Mark, had already written a piece -- remember that date, I'm not getting this wrong, in 2007 in "The Wall Street Journal," about former Soviet efforts to influence the United States.

I talk about this in the book. You read that 2007 "Wall Street Journal" piece, which he wrote with his now wife, Mary Jacoby at the time.

LEVIN: And who is she?

BONGINO: She was a reporter for "The Wall Street Journal" at the time as well. They're now married, right? You read that 2007 piece, the exact same players appear in the dossier. And the format of it, the telling of the story is very similar, which says to me, they said, hey, we don't have any information on the Trump team. We're making this story up. Well, if we're going to make a story up, let's just plug Trump's name into a story we already have from Glenn Simpson, who was more than happy to take the bait.

LEVIN: Now, let's explore this little bit. 2007, which race was that?

John McCain?

BONGINO: Yes.

LEVIN: Against Obama.

BONGINO: Yes.

LEVIN: And they wanted to use this script with the Russia collusion against McCain?

BONGINO: Other people at "The Washington Post" and already tried this.

Rick Davis, who was a campaign, a bigwig in the McCain campaign, they had already tried this against McCain, because Davis was trying to set up some meetings with some Russians.

So the Democrats had already tried to attack McCain, ironically, with this same Russian collusion thing. But what was the choke point? Why didn't they take it further? In other words, Mark, why did the Obama administration jump to spying and the FISA Courts and unmasking while in 2007, that McCain race roughly in that time period, why did it stop with McCain, which was immediately? McCain and the Russians, you know?

Well, because George W. Bush was President, and he wasn't going to allow the Intelligence Community to be weaponized to spy on John McCain. It's very simple at that point.

But yes, that's another revelation in the book, not just that they pulled this movie script out and inserted Trump's name into it to make him the bad guy the antagonist. But that they'd already tried this same thing against McCain. Mark, none of this is new.

And when you read it, and you read the allegations against McCain, if I took McCain's name out, put Trump in there, you'd say, this is -- they've already tried the same thing. None of this is new. And ironically, McCain becomes a player in it later on.

LEVIN: Handing a copy of the dossier through his staff to the FBI

BONGINO: Yes, and the staffer makes a huge, enormous judgment error. You know, he says to this day, one of the staffers, well, you know, we gave it to the FBI to verify it. Well, then why'd you leak it to the media?

Listen, you want to give information to the FBI, that's your prerogative.

There is nothing illegal about that. But if you're claiming you did it, because you wanted it verified, then why did you leak it to the media?

LEVIN: This is a controversial point. But I'm going to ask anyway, was McCain out to get Trump?

BONGINO: Yes, I think so. And it pains me to say that, given the man's history, but honesty matters, Mark. And I think he, you know, he wrote, I believe in his own book, too, that if asked to do it again, he would have.

That he thought he did the right thing. And that's up to him to say that, you know, he is not here to defend himself.

LEVIN: I am not trying to pick on him, I am just trying to get the history right.

BONGINO: Yes. No, I totally understand. But I mean, I'm only using his own words and I just don't think he was a big fan of Trump. But it's ironic, given as I write in a book that he was subjected to these --

LEVIN: Did he know he was subjected to this?

BONGINO: Oh, absolutely, yes, they had to make moves with Rick Davis, and they had to detach themselves from Oleg Deripaska, this key Russian in the Trump women.

LEVIN: But the difference here is, as you point out, the Democrats control the apparatus.

BONGINO: Now, Obama controls the apparatus, and instead of just leaking stories to the media about McCain being attached to the Russians, they leaked a story to the media about Trump with the Russians, and then they doubled down on the court system.

LEVIN: When we come back. I'm going to ask you, how is it possible that Barack Obama wouldn't know most of this or all of this?

Folks, don't forget most weeknights, you can watch me on Levin TV, Levin TV. Here is how you sign up and we'd love to have you. Call 844-LEVIN-TV, 844-LEVIN-TV or go to blazetv.com/mark, blazetv.com/mark and sign up there.

Here is the Bongino book "Exonerated." Strongly recommended. Here's the Levin book, "Unfreedom of the Press." Strongly recommended. You can have one book on one end of the shelf and one book on the other end of the shelf. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEVIN: Dan Bongino, Barack Obama, in my estimation was a terrible President, but still he was hands on. He was going on in his White House.

He had a surrogate, the apparatchiks who reported back to him. He was very interested in his press coverage. Most presidents are. He would get a National Intelligence briefing like most Presidents twice a day. How is it possible that the President of the United States wouldn't know most of what's been taking place when his government -- let's be honest -- his government, his administration is targeting the Republican candidate for President.

The transition of the Republican candidate who won the presidency and has a meeting in January with his senior folks going over the so-called Russia issue and Donald Trump, and then his National Security adviser, Susan Rice, writes a memo, back times it, to cover their tail on what they're doing.

And by the way, the media is not interested in one word of this. The House Judiciary Committee is not interested in one word of this. So how is it possible Obama didn't know most of this?

BONGINO: Well, it's not. It's utterly absurd, ridiculous, outlandish, and outrageous. I mean, I've run out of modifies to describe how stupid the idea that Barack Obama didn't know while he was President that you were investigating the Republican nominee for colluding with the Russians to overthrow the results of a U.S. election.

Putting the ridiculousness of that aside from it, because you know, unlike liberals, we produce evidence. We're not allergic to facts on your show like they are. I laid out before you, there are texts, there are transmissions. The White House wants to know everything we're doing, right around the time they opened the case.

What do you think they were talking about? Playing tiddlywinks, the White House wants to know everything we're doing, talking about their baking recipes? And then you have the other one. POTUS wants to know everything we're doing? Oh, the White House is running this. This is another one.

Then we have meetings at the White House in the October-September period with John Brennan's deputy at the White House. We have e-mails between Andy McCabe, the Deputy Director of the FBI and his lead lawyer, Lisa Page, talking about how they're going to coordinate their story with this Deputy Director of the C.I.A. for this White House meeting on this case.

Again, what do you think they were talking about there, Mark? Again, none of this is cryptic. They're not special e-mails I was given privy to.

This is out there. Now, we put it together in the book.

LEVIN: It's in your new book.

BONGINO: It's in the book, and you'll see all the evidence that the White House was running, but I think that the final point on this, and this is one that Andy McCarthy has made before as well.

Mark, the sole purpose of counterintelligence investigations at this level is to inform the President on Intel matters. They are not criminal investigations or criminal probes. Are you seriously telling me that an investigation designed to inform the President was kept from the President because it was Donald Trump, the Republican nominee?

LEVIN: And why would they keep it from him?

BONGINO: They wouldn't, but can I make one more point that you brought up?

LEVIN: Sure.

BONGINO: The Susan Rice e-mail in January, the famous January, Susan Rice e-mails to herself, where it said, President Obama said to do everything by the book.

You know, there's a terrible movie, GI Jane, but there's a quote in the movie that's really funny. Where the commander of the base says to her, people who don't want to make statements don't make statements about not making statements.

You don't make a statement, Barack Obama said to do everything by the book, if you're not making a statement, in other words, that he wasn't doing everything by the book.

Have you ever sent an e-mail to yourself and said, Mark Levin, tell Mark Levin to do everything by the book? It's so ridiculous.

LEVIN: Let me ask you a question. With this Nadler now running this Soviet style investigation where he has already announced the President has committed crimes. I don't believe the President, he has obstructed justice. He has done --

But we're going to do an investigation. If that's not Stalinistic, I don't know what it is. He is an embarrassment. What he is doing to the House is an embarrassment. But he wants to get to the bottom of all this. Has he called Susan Rice as a witness ever?

BONGINO: No.

LEVIN: Has he called James Comey as a witness ever?

BONGINO: Scot-free.

LEVIN: Has he called McCabe as a witness ever?

BONGINO: No.

LEVIN: Baker?

BONGINO: No.

LEVIN: Strzok, Page?

BONGINO: No.

LEVIN: How about Sally Yates, the former acting Attorney General of the United States who helped set up General Flynn?

BONGINO: That's right.

LEVIN: Did he call him?

BONGINO: No.

LEVIN: How about Joe Biden, who was Vice President of the United States?

We are told the most active Vice President of the United States in American history. Even more than John Adams, I guess -- was he even called to testify?

BONGINO: No.

LEVIN: How about Barack Obama? Has he been called to testify? How about any other documents? Any subpoenas for their documents from Elijah Cummings? Or anybody like that?

BONGINO: Obama is making movies on Netflix.

LEVIN: Obama is making movies on Netflix. So nothing.

BONGINO: No.

LEVIN: So they don't want to get to the bottom of anything?

BONGINO: No. And interestingly enough, Joe Biden, "The Washington Post" themselves have reported on Joe Biden going to Ukraine and his son getting this big job in Ukraine right after he conveniently leaves while Democratic operatives are working with key Ukrainians to target Trump. Nothing to see there, Mark.

I thought we cared about foreign collusion? Well, the real answer is we only care about foreign collusion when it doesn't involve Democrats. And on the Nadler front, are you seriously telling me Jerry Nadler, one of the weakest Members of Congress, a failed politician at every level, Jerry Nadler is going to manage to uncover on Donald Trump with the FBI, the C.I.A., the Southern District of New York, the District of Washington -- what is it? The Eastern District of Virginia?

Basically, the entire upper level of our Intel and law enforcement community couldn't find. No, Mark, Jerry Nadler is going to get to the bottom of this. He is definitely going to be the one to find it.

LEVIN: You know, when we get back, I want to ask you about this guy, Steele.

BONGINO: Yes.

LEVIN: And his collusion with the Russians because you pointed that out in your new book, but before we do that. Here is a very, very interesting point. So here we have this phony impeachment investigation. And I want the American people to understand the way this is supposed to work is the entire House of Representatives votes on whether or not to pursue an impeachment inquiry.

A single committee of the House, which is populated by every left-wing kook imaginable is not supposed to be driving this. This is nothing more and I said it months ago, but I want to reiterate this, on the taxpayer dime, the Democratic Party has hijacked the House of Representatives, using staff and our dollars to conduct opposition research to try and defeat the President of the United States in 2020.

Working with the Attorney General in New York, on tax returns, working with Vance, Jr., the DA in Manhattan working on tax returns. Their conduct is diabolical and they're undermining the Constitution and they are distracting the American people.

We have all these challenges in front of us. I just wanted to that point.

And when we come back, I want to address the Steele issue. This Christopher Steele, this former British spy and who exactly is it truly who was colluding with the Russians. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AISHAH HASNIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Live from "America's News Headquarters," I'm Aishah Hasnie. President Trump admits he discussed former Vice President Joe Biden and his son in a call with Ukraine's leader in July. Both Republicans and Democrats are calling for investigations.

Democrats want to know if President Trump tried to get Ukraine to investigate a political rival in exchange for military aid. While Republicans want to know if Biden had anything to do with the firing of the country's Prosecutor General who was investigating a gas company where Biden's son worked.

Meantime Pittsburgh police say three people are dead, four others hospitalized in an apparent mass drug overdose. According to cops, there, the victims appeared to have taken narcotics at the same time. Authorities say they're now concerned about a tainted potentially deadly batch of drugs in their community. I'm Aishah Hasnie, now back to LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN.

LEVIN: You know, Dan Bongino, this guy, Christopher Steele still kind of a mystery to the American people. The guy is a foreign ex-spy. You talk about getting involved in our politics.

BONGINO: Yes.

LEVIN: This guy was involved in our politics more than Obama and Obama was involved in trying to change the outcome of this campaign more than anybody else as far as I'm concerned, his government was.

He is a seedy character, and yet he is a useful tool for people at the FBI, for the Hillary Clinton campaign, Fusion GPS, all these people and entities, but in your book, you explain this isn't his first act, is it?

BONGINO: No. And the question also, as you just accurately stated is, why was he a useful tool? Why did the FBI need Steele? Now if we go back to the beginning of the show, we discussed the movie script. Remember they have to fabricate charges against Trump, which becomes the dossier. That movie is -- it's made up.

It's a fabricated fairy tale, the dossier about Donald Trump and these sexual episodes, these gross stories, it's all -- Mark, it's all made up.

Where does Steele fit into this puzzle and why do they need Steele?

I believe calling it the Steele dossier is a huge mistake that plays into the hands of the left. And there's a reason they call it the Steele dossier. It's not the Steele dossier. It's the Simpsons-Jacoby-Fusion GPS-Steele dossier.

They need to put someone's name on it, this fake movie script story they have to sell it to the FBI It can't be Glenn Simpson's name. He was a reporter who is being paid by Hillary Clinton. So they must be sitting around a room and saying, okay, well, if Glenn Simpson walks us into the FBI, someone is going to see right through this and say, well, let me get this straight, a former journalist working for Hillary produces this movie script about Donald Trump and this evil colluding with Putin. I don't believe it.

Someone says, light bulb moment, eureka, I've got an idea. We used to work with this credible source because he had been credible in the past, Steele.

We do facts here. He had produced information for the FBI in the FIFA case, the soccer scandal. And it was credible.

Now as you know, being a lawyer yourself, having worked in the Department of Justice, me having been an agent, there's nothing more valuable than a source that's appeared in court before. Whereas his information has been used credibly.

He doesn't have to go through the exact same verification as a new source.

Someone probably said, hey, you know what, this guy, Steele, would be great. He worked for us before. What if we slap the movie script information on a dossier, put Steele's name on it, hey, look, look what I've got. And then we give it to the FBI and they all say, oh, this guy, Steele, is wonderful.

What's interesting about that, too, is there were some reports about Glenn Simpson's wife, Mary Jacoby, who wrote a Facebook post -- again, this is in the book -- that got taken down, where it seems she was upset that Steele was getting credit for the movie script fairy tale dossier --

LEVIN: And not her husband?

BONGINO: And not her husband and she deletes the post later on where she says, hey, I just want everybody to know basically, my husband Glenn is the one who took Trump down -- and deletes it later on because she can't have that. It's got to be the Steele dossier.

LEVIN: Now, Steele, you explain more than a decade ago, was colluding with the Russians. Explain that.

BONGINO: Steele -- when Steele, right before the signing of the first FISA warrant in October of 2016, Christopher Steele makes a critical mistake.

He goes in and he speaks with Kathleen Kavalec of the State Department, the Obama State Department and Kavalec, who I don't think is a hero in this case, but is suspicious of Steele's information. Remember, this is all fake. This dossier is made up.

The Carter Page charges, the nasty stuff --

LEVIN: So he is trying to push it out wherever he can.

BONGINO: Everywhere.

LEVIN: And he goes to State --

BONGINO: If you're a football fan, he is doing the flood zone strategy.

If he sends the information to a hundred different places, someone is going to believe it.

So he goes to the State Department. This is a critical mistake. Because he meets a skeptic. Again, I'm not painting her out to be a hero, but I don't think she wants to be embarrassed about it. She takes notes, big mistake on a meeting with Steele.

Remember, this is before the FBI swears the Steele dossier which is fake is real before. A couple of things pop out. Number one, unbelievably Steele tells Kavalec as she indicates in a note. The note literally says, sources. She is interviewing Steele and referencing his sources.

It says Trubnikov and Surkov. You have to look, because her writing is awful. Trubnikov and Surkov.

LEVIN: Sounds Russian.

BONGINO: You would be correct. Ding-ding-ding. I read this. It took me a couple of days to read it. I started doing my homework.

Trubnikov is a former upper level Russian intelligence official who ironically runs with this network of people that knows Stefan Halper, the spy who spied on the Trump team.

It gets better. The second source she indicates in her notes from Steele's own meeting is a guy named Surkov, who writes a piece. It is covered by "Newsweek." This "Newsweek" article, he writes a piece talking about how we own you, the Russians, we own you in America, we get into your minds, we corrupt your process.

This guy Surkov actually wrote that, and he is heavily involved with Putin, and heavily involved in this Russian industrial project that Hillary Clinton -- Skolkovo -- the Skolkovo Project. Some of the people in this project donated to the Clinton Foundation and Hillary actually pushed this this program to American companies.

LEVIN: So what is Steele doing with these two Russians?

BONGINO: Steele is indicating to Kavalec in some way that -- now are they his direct sources? That's an open question. Are they secondary?

Tertiary? We don't know. In other words, is someone feeding it to someone? Who is feeding it to him? That we're not sure of.

But what we are sure of is he undoubtedly told Kathleen Kavalec in a written note that the guy who put together the fake dossier against Trump was using Putin connected Russians to get the information.

Now, you might be saying, wait, I thought that's what Trump was doing? No, no, that's what Steele was doing. It's on paper.

LEVIN: So the accusers were working wittingly or unwittingly, directly or indirectly with Putin and the Russians?

BONGINO: It's undeniable.

LEVIN: And the victim, the President of the United States is the one who is investigated, and now they want to impeach him. Does it get any sicker than this? We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEVIN: The book is called "Exonerated." It comes out really in a few days. You can get it on amazon.com. It is a fascinating book.

BONGINO: Thank you.

LEVIN: And what I like about it is, it is clear. It's in plain English and you're able to follow the points and you have a chapter, a very significant chapter, given the timing on Joe Biden.

BONGINO: Yes.

LEVIN: And his collusion with the Ukrainian government, which again, the media don't want to touch, but you hammer it. Explain.

BONGINO: Yes, I thought it was fascinating that I wrote this whole story about how Trump allegedly colluded with the Russians, when in fact the Democrats were colluding with the Russians.

And then at the end, I thought, you know who escapes scrutiny in this whole thing? Biden. Now, Joe Biden back in April, I believe, it was 2014, takes a trip to Ukraine. After he leaves Ukraine, because he is the point man in the region. His son gets this lucrative contract to be a consultant with a natural gas company in Ukraine called, Burisma.

LEVIN: That's two strikes. That's natural gas which I thought they wanted to get rid of right.

BONGINO: Right.

LEVIN: And then a special deal for his son because his son really wasn't qualified to do any of it.

BONGINO: No experience whatsoever in the natural gas arena. Now, this is above and beyond all of his conflicts with China and other stuff, the son.

This is specifically Ukraine. Why does Ukraine matter though?

So again, Biden goes there right after that, and then the company winds up being investigated by the Prosecutor General in Ukraine.

What's fascinating is Biden is actually on tape. Biden is like the Teddy Ruxpin of gaffes. I mean, you stick a quarter in this guy, he makes a gaffe every time. It is just unfathomable how he can't keep his mouth shut.

Biden is actually on tape. Anyone could look at it on YouTube -- on tape suggesting that the Prosecutor General investigating the entire operation around the company that hired his son, he says, I want this guy fired and I'm not leaving the country. He is on tape until this guy is fired.

LEVIN: Meaning the prosecutor?

BONGINO: The prosecutor who is investigating the whole operation around --

LEVIN: Does he get him fired?

BONGINO: He gets fired, which is amazing. It's on tape again, no one in the media outside of, you know, conservative outlets --

LEVIN: This hasn't come up in any debate.

BONGINO: No, and it won't because the media covers for Biden. You know, old lunch bucket Joe. Listen --

LEVIN: They had a lunch bucket is his life.

BONGINO: Never. He is a corruptocrat like all these other guys out there, which is really shameful. But what's really fascinating is why does that Ukrainian thing matter? How does it tie into the book, the exonerated case and the Mueller story?

Mark, Ukrainians -- key Ukrainian political officials were feeding information to Democratic operatives about Trump players, notably Paul Manafort. Again, this is all out there. We know that. And you may say, well, what's the big deal?

Well, what's the big deal? You've just told us for two years in the media that foreign collusion during elections was a big deal. We know that Alexandra Chalupa, who left the DNC was working with key Ukrainians and others and the media to flush out and pump out stories about Manafort and others.

Which again, you just told us, foreign collusion was this awful terrible thing, which it is, but why when it's the Ukrainians and Democrats, it is like, oh -- and one more point in this Bruce Ohr who is the upper level Justice Department official.

LEVIN: Bruce Ohr who was on the staff of the Deputy Attorney General, and whose wife worked for Fusion GPS and who was involved in a lot of the seedy activity taking place in the shadows to try and set up Trump?

BONGINO: Yes.

LEVIN: Candidacy and administration.

BONGINO: And Ohr is Steele's handler after he is terminated by the FBI for leaking to the media. Ohr's wife as you accurately stated works for Fusion GPS has already stated -- Bruce Ohr's wife, this justice official on the record that some of the information they were getting, they were getting from Ukrainians.

Mark, you know, listen, are we dealing with principles here? Are we dealing with phony frauds? I thought foreign collusion was bad. If foreign collusion is a bad thing, which I agree then why is the Ukrainian collusion with Nelly Ohr, Bruce's wife and Alexandra Chalupa at the D.N.C., why isn't Jerry Nadler having hearings about that?

LEVIN: So I assume the House Intelligence Committee headed by Adam Schiff is very interested in this.

I assume in the Senate, the Senate Intelligence Committee headed by Richard Burr, a Republican is very interested in this.

BONGINO: Yes.

LEVIN: No interest whatsoever.

BONGINO: No. He is a train wreck. He has been a disaster in this case from day one. We saw the leaker in the Senate get off nearly scot free, the staffer. It's a -- this has been a joke, but sadly the Senate Committee has really dropped the ball.

And even worse, we have the texts of Mark Warner, the Democrat from Virginia, the text -- him texting a lawyer working for Oleg Deripaska. Who is Oleg Deripaska?

Tie it back to the beginning of the show. He appears in the 2007 movie script article in "The Wall Street Journal," and is a key ally of Vladimir Putin.

So let me get this straight. A key Democratic senator on the Senate Intel Committee investigating foreign collusion is texting a lawyer working for a Russian connected the Putin about foreign collusion? Yes, you can read the text yourself. They are all in there.

LEVIN: Let me tell you something. When this is looked back upon in 50 years, you and a handful of others are going to be credited with having revealed this because this is the most diabolical inside outdrive I've ever seen.

That is where the true victims is treated as the perpetrator, and the perpetrators are treated as the patriots. We don't want involvement by the Russians. Oh, yes, you do. I don't know. We don't want collusion with the Russians. No, actually, you do.

Because the end justifies the means and anything to win, and so when Mr. Warner gave his speech on one of the hearings on TV and said, this is America, we don't support intrusion in our elections of foreign powers. To your point, he forgot to mention Ukraine.

But even worse than Ukraine and Russia, was Obama. He and his administration interfering in the election. That is what cannot be accepted.

Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget, you can watch Levin TV most weeknights, Levin TV, just join up by calling 844-LEVIN-TV, 844-LEVIN-TV or go to blazetv.com/mark, blazetv.com/mark to sign up.

And don't forget this great book which is just -- it's hot off the presses and it's coming out Tuesday, "Exonerated," by our man, Dan Bongino.

And if you think about it, you might want to also pick up, "Unfreedom of the press." We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEVIN: Dan Bongino, you know, one of the things you put in your book that I was unaware of completely, and by the way, I don't think anyone is aware of is two months or so into the Mueller investigation after he was appointed. He knew enough to shut it down.

BONGINO: Absolutely.

LEVIN: So how is that? What is that?

BONGINO: Well, we've established through this show now a couple of things.

Obama knows. Obama knows what's going on. They are weaponizing the government to spy on Trump, and then they weaponize the government to get an appointment of a Special Counsel because they can't prosecute Trump and they have to bury this case. So what happens?

Well, Mueller is appointed in May of 2017. About two months later, and the timeline is a little bit up in the air. We don't know when exactly he sees that, but he gets the infamous texts from the FBI cabal, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and others.

Mueller gets that file from the Inspector General, essentially the Internal Affairs officer for the government, who says, hey, Bob, you need to look at this. Those are the infamous smelly Walmart people text, where they start talking about this entire setup, the London connections, and basically --

LEVIN: Insurance policy, all of it.

BONGINO: Yes, bingo. It is basically a blueprint of the setup and framing of Donald J. Trump. Now, what would any ethical reasonable person, especially a lawyer like Mueller, who knows the system do?

Mark, they would shut it down, if not seek prosecution against the people who did this if crimes were committed? That's not what happens. What happens is unbelievable, and I haven't seen anyone else reporting this connection.

Remember, July of 2017, some key events happened. That's the quickie raid on Paul Manafort's house in the early morning, right around July of 2017.

So let me get this straight, Bob Mueller is reading about these texts and how this is set, how these cases a train wreck, how the investigators are corrupted?

And instead of turning around and dumping the case and going up in front of the American people and saying, we screwed up. They do an early morning raid on Paul Manafort.

LEVIN: Now, why did they do that?

BONGINO: Because they need to cover their tracks on it.

LEVIN: To show that they're really chasing substantive things.

BONGINO: Manafort is a key player in both the movie script and the dossier and I believe what they're doing is they're trying to put meat on the bones of the dossier. So they can say later and this is an important takeaway in the book, okay, we screwed up. The dossier is made up, the whole sexual thing and all this other stuff on Trump was fake.

But look, Manafort was a really bad guy. We raided his house in the morning. But who else gets hit? Right around July of 2017, Papadopoulos gets arrested at Dulles Airport. Why? Why Dulles?

LEVIN: And he is not even a bit player. He is a no player.

BONGINO: He is a low -- the lowest level possible foreign policy adviser.

He gets arrested on what we believe to be a P.C. arrest, which Mark, in the Federal government that is very rare outside of C.B.P. and you know --

LEVIN: What is a P.C. arrest?

BONGINO: It's a probable cause arrest, the equivalent of what a police officer would do. In other words, a non-warrant arrest. I see you fighting with a guy in the street, I arrest you. There's no warrant. That is exceedingly rare.

LEVIN: So they get around the court basically.

BONGINO: Yes, you are a lawyer. What do you do? You present a complaint to an Assistant United States Attorney, gives you an arrest warrant. The cases work in reverse in the Federal system?

Why would you rush to Dulles Airport to get George Papadopoulos at Dulles when he was going to Chicago by the way, and could have gotten his lawyer?

On a PC arrest, very unusual with 1811 Federal agents. Why? Because you just got the text and found out what a farce this was. And again, you have to get these guys to shut them up. And that's what they did.

LEVIN: How many Americans were prosecuted for conspiring with the Russians?

BONGINO: None.

LEVIN: For colluding with the Russians?

BONGINO: Zero.

LEVIN: For conveying information to the Russians?

BONGINO: Zero. None.

LEVIN: And Carter Page, the original target is wandering the Earth a free man, didn't even think about charging him in the end and he was the excuse for the FISA warrant and the three extensions, wasn't he?

BONGINO: He was the main player in the dossier and think about this, to this day, Carter Page is a free man who has never been charged with a single crime, despite having his name, absolutely dragged through the mud.

Remember, you need two things for a FISA warrant, probable cause that you're working on behalf of a foreign actor, but it was done in violation of the U.S. law. They did not have that. So you know what they did? They made it up and what was the violation of U.S. law? The bribery charges against Carter Page and he was being bribed by this Russian energy company.

That was the crime. Totally completely fabricated.

LEVIN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEVIN: Let me ask you this, Dan Bongino. A lot has been made of the U.S. Attorney in Connecticut, Durham.

BONGINO: Yes.

LEVIN: And a lot of people are saying, hopefully he will get to the bottom of this. What do you think about this?

BONGINO: Well, there are crimes we know about it that were committed. The only question is does Durham know who committed those crimes?

We have one, the leak of the Mike Flynn transcript. His call to the Russian Ambassador, classified at the highest levels of the U.S. government to "The Washington Post." The leak of that call is an unquestionable Federal crime.

Does Durham know who did that? I have my suspicions. I'm not going to put it out here now, but I have my suspicions of who that was.

We have additional crimes as well. Andrew McCabe, the Deputy Director of the FBI, you know, we know at this point that he lied to Federal agents, you know, he can talk about his motive all he wants. But that happened.

The only open question is, has Durham nailed down who exactly did this?

And I think it's important we understand because I get -- even on my show, I kind of get this back and forth with a lot of the listeners, they get upset when only administrative things happen to people, like when all these people had to resign at the top of the FBI

But as you know, being a lawyer, there's a difference between a crime and an administrative screw up. I do think there's going to be handcuffs on some people, sadly, some are just going to get away with firing, termination and ruined reputations. I wish I could say different.

LEVIN: I hope he gets to the bottom of the spying that took place in the campaign and who ordered it, who is responsible for it? I hope he gets to the bottom, really of the FISA violations. Who authorized that? We know who signed all the documents, but the players internally who are behind that.

And I hope he gets to the bottom what was taking place in the Oval Office and around the Oval Office because so far, nobody has been interested in that. Nobody has investigated that. Not a Committee of Congress, not a criminal investigator, and really not the so-called mainstream media. And Obama gets a pass.

And Harry Truman used to say, the buck stops here. Well, that works with Netflix. And it doesn't seem to be working with him as President of the United States. You know what? This has been so edifying and so enjoyable.

Dan Bongino, God bless you.

BONGINO: It was an honor. Thank you so much.

LEVIN: You take care of yourself.

BONGINO: Thank you.

LEVIN: Don't forget that book, "Exonerated," folks, and I'll see you next time on "Life, Liberty & Levin."

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