Rep. Ratcliffe breaks down Bruce Ohr's testimony

close

Video

Rep. Ratcliffe breaks down Bruce Ohr's testimony

Bruce Ohr testifies to lawmakers on Capitol Hill behind closed doors. On 'Hannity,' Republican congressman from Texas and John Solomon discuss the double standard in the Russia collusion case.

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

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity."

You will not believe what we're about to tell you tonight. It'll take the full hour.

Twice demoted DOJ Bruce Ohr was grilled by Republican lawmakers for seven hours behind closed doors earlier today. The information he revealed is tonight blowing this case wide open in terms of a fraud that was committed multiple times against the FISA court, all to get Donald Trump and his campaign and undermine his presidency. Everyone who signed off on these FISA requests signed off on fraudulent documents and they knew what they were fraudulent.

Now you won't hear this information anywhere else. Of course, your media is obsessed with hating Trump but in minutes, we're going to tell you everything you need to know about Bruce Ohr's testimony today including damning new revelations surrounding the rampant abuse of power in our FISA court system. What we're about to reveal should rock the country to its core.

And also tonight, we have a breaking new report from John Solomon about a clear case of actual real, with proof, Russian collusion connecting the dots between Bruce Ohr, the DOJ and a Putin-linked Russian oligarch. It happened.

Robert Mueller, where are you? Jeff Sessions, pay attention.

Now, we'll cover all the latest sad examples of actual fake news from CNN. One of their key sources, Cohen attorney Lanny Davis, was feeding them a bill of lies. He says it wasn't true. He's completely backtracked about his claims related to Trump Russia collusion, but CNN stands by their tainted reporting. Amazing.

And coming up I have a message for fake news CNN and their media reporters. They watched this show because it's more interesting. Maybe they need to watch their own network.

And a strong new economic indicator more evidence that the economy is just blowing it through the roof. All of that, plus, we are tracking primary races in multiple states.

Now, just moments ago, it was announced that FOX News is projecting that Trump ally Ron DeSantis will win the Republican primary for Florida governor and FOX News is projecting the Governor Rick Scott, who's done a great job in Florida, he will win the GOP Senate primary and he will be going up against Bill Nelson. We'll bring you the results as we have them.

All right. But, first, sit tight, buckle up, time for our jam-packed opening monologue edition.

(MUSIC)

HANNITY: All right. Tonight, we are blowing this case about Bruce Ohr, FISA abuse wide open. I've been on the phone with sources all day and all night, people who were in the room during Ohr's testimony.

We did learn today that Bruce Ohr said that he understood the Steele dossier would never have been accepted in a court of law. He understood it. We have 65 pages of notes and text, and then meetings between him and Christopher Steele. He said the FBI knew about the seedy relationship with steel.

So much to cover. Stay with us. We'll break it wide open.

But there's no doubt that a conspiracy to commit fraud against FISA court judges did in fact take place. Now, let's dive into the testimony from Bruce Ohr today. Now, remember, he is the twice demoted DOJ official who once helped ex-foreign spy paid for by Hillary, Christopher Steele, spread all these anti-Trump Russian lies throughout the highest levels of our government and today, during a closed-door hearing, Bruce Ohr was grilled on the Hill by members of the House Oversight and the Judiciary Committees for seven hours.

Now, the crucial issue at play here is rampant FISA abuse surrounding Christopher Steele's dirty dossier with Russian lies that Hillary Clinton illegally funneled through a law firm into Fusion GPS hiring then Christopher Steele. Now, our sources say that that topic was front and center at the hearing today. Get this -- Sara Carter is now reporting, she'll join us later, that we now know that the FBI was aware of Steele's blatant and extreme anti-Trump bias before they used as dossier is the bulk of their FISA court applications.

Remember Bruce Ohr even wrote Steele was, quote, desperate that Donald Trump not get elected. He was passionate that Donald Trump not being president of the United States sounds just like Carter just like Page and Strzok. And Sara Carter also reporting that today's hearing proved that the FBI was using Bruce or as a back channel for Steele's anti-Trump intel even after the FBI cut all formal ties with Christopher Steele over trust issues, and he's saying that the FBI knew everything.

And despite this, Congressman John Ratcliffe who was a part of today's hearing is telling us that Ohr was not mentioned in any of the FBI FISA applications against the Trump campaign associate. Now, Congressman Radcliffe, Sara Carter, Gregg Jarrett and John Solomon will all be with us tonight.

This is yet another sign of the FBI's blatant effort to hide the true nature of Clinton's bought and paid for Steele's dirty Russian dossier it was campaign op research. It was compromised. It was never verified or corroborated. It turned out to be lies, Russian lies, funded by the Clinton campaign and the DNC.

They funneled the money through a law firm, hiring Fusion GPS, that then hired Christopher Steele, an ex-foreign spy that had really seedy Russian connections we now know who was working with and for Fusion GPS, and by the way was also on the FBI payroll.

This is really the cherry on the top. He was working with Bruce Ohr's wife, Nellie Ohr. The Ohrs were literally profiting off their relationship with Christopher Steele. Ohr said today that he disclosed that to the FBI. Really? And the FBI was OK with that?

Now, at the end, this is where we are. We now know for a fact that in four separate FISA court applications, FISA court judges will repeatedly lie to, knowingly lie to. The American people, you were all lied to, all in an effort by high-ranking government bureaucrats to steal, sway, rob an election and at all costs stop Donald Trump from winning and then to destroy his presidency.

Now, communications between Ohr and Christopher Steele, 60-some-odd pages of it. It shows that Steele was extremely concerned about being exposed for this and for good reason because this level of corruption and abuse should make every single American citizens sick, a blatant example of what I've been telling you a two-tiered justice system.

Hillary Clinton gets a free pass. Trump is literally targeted by our government with her salacious, phony, campaign op research put together by a foreign national using Russian sources for lies.

We have a brand new article tonight from Gregg Jarrett. He'll be with us too. He details how the one-time FBI director James Comey took control of the Clinton investigation, took it right out of the hands of the field offices and twisted the facts, soften the language, exonerated Clinton, rigged her investigation from the very beginning.

There really never was an investigation. Clinton was never going to be found guilty, because she was the favorite candidate. And meanwhile, the FBI, the Department of Justice, they work hand-in-hand with ex-foreign spy Christopher Steele to use his phony lies to open an investigation into allegedly Trump-Russia collusion. They gain these FISA warrants illegally against a Trump campaign associate. They potentially leaked that information, we know they leaked it, to the general public, to sway opinion with lies.

This is the stuff that happened in the former Soviet Union. All of this despite everybody knowing including Ohr admitting today that Steele's shady past that has worked for the Clinton campaign that is blatant bias against Trump, that is leaks to the press, that he was let go by the FBI that was also paying him, it's no wonder President Trump keeps talking about a witch hunt, and he's livid with his attorney general.

Mr. Sessions, where are you tonight? Why are you standing by and literally doing nothing to fix what is clearly a horrific inequality in our justice system? Now, today, Senator Lindsey Graham, he summed it up best. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: Word of caution to the public -- a lot of people who try to convict President Trump, don't be so fast. I've seen no evidence of collusion after two years. Mueller is looking at it. We'll see what he says.

Plenty of corruption at the Department of Justice and the FBI, it should be stunning. Not one Democrat seems to care. Reverse the roles.

STEVE DOODCY, FOX NEWS HOST: What corruption? What do you mean?

GRAHAM: OK, just imagine if the Republican Party had hired a foreign agent to go to Russia to get dirt on Hillary Clinton and they used it to get a warrant and never told the court about it, I'd be front-page story everywhere. That's pretty corrupt when the two FBI agent and the U.S. attorney per -- I mean, the DOJ lawyer, it's our job to stop Trump, can you imagine what would happen if it's our job to stop Clinton?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, we have a lot of breaking news tonight right here in this program, in other words, we do have news to break as it relates to Russian collusion. It's been found -- I know Robert Mueller cares about taxicab medallions and old income tax reports and loan applications, maybe Mr. Muller should take note of what we're reporting tonight because we have a new report from John Solomon, follow the bouncing ball, Bruce Ohr, the DOJ closely working with a Putin-linked Russian oligarch for years.

And most recently, the FBI tried to squeeze the oligarch for information surrounding Trump Russia collusion including a theory that Paul Manafort was leading Trump campaigns collusion efforts. By the way, he'd been into a lawsuit with Paul Manafort and even he said that's ridiculous, it's absurd. And according to Solomon, the oligarch actually used the word preposterous.

Now, think about this -- this is the same Russian oligarch that the U.S. won't even allow into the country. He met with Bruce Ohr. He met with other top officials.

You've got to be kidding me. How much more insane does this get? You cannot make this up.

We reached out to Ohr, the DOJ, the Russian oligarch involved. Of course, we didn't get a response. We're going to have a lot more on all of these issues all of the key players are joining us tonight.

But meanwhile, the biggest cheerleader of Trump Russia collusion has been caught red-handed yet again, reporting fake news to you the American people. In July, fake news CNN, they broke a huge bombshell story detailing shocking evidence about Trump's involvement in the now infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting. We've got the tape to remind you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN REPORTER: Well, Chris, tonight, sources with knowledge tell myself and Carl that Michael Cohen claims that then-candidate Donald Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in which Russians were expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton. Crucially, these sources tell us that Cohen is willing to make that assertion to the special counsel Robert Mueller.

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN ANALYST: It's very, very significant because the president has denied any foreknowledge of this event, in this meeting, goes to the question of intent to collude.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: You've been saying for a year that we need to follow the money, follow the lies, and figure out this cover-up. So, how did you do it in this case? Talk to us about how you got this reporting.

BERNSTEIN: Well, I talked to sources. Cohen was saying that Donald Trump, the candidate for president of the United States at the time, had authorized the go-ahead for that meeting to take place with his son.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: More humpty-dumpty CNN fake news. And according to "BuzzFeed", one of the unnamed sources in the report was called attorney Lanny Davis. He's now completely backtracking on his claims to fake news CNN. He says that his client in fact does not have information of Trump's knowledge of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting.

He's saying that CNN's anonymous sources including himself, we were wrong. And after all, Michael Cohen testified under oath. This is all coming out that he had no knowledge of Trump's involvement in that meeting or anything else.

And we also have a new wrinkle in the story. When CNN published their, quote, bombshell report, they wrote that Lanny Davis declined to comment in an article where he was the primary source. That's fake news at its worst.

Now, tonight CNN is actually laughably standing by that horribly flawed story. Spokesperson even said to us they are confident in their phony reporting. It seems like a perfect story for some members -- media reporters at CNN but I guess they're probably too busy watching this show every night because they can't even watch their fake news network and their own terrible reporting that comes from them every day.

Now, the debacle surrounding Lanny Davis is just the latest in a long line of faulty reporting from fake news CNN. 2017, three CNN employees resigned after a fake story about our friend Anthony Scaramucci. A few months later, CNN was slammed and publicly embarrassed over a fake report about Donald Trump Jr.

And let's never forget, CNN's fake reporting over President Trump. Remember when he was with the Japanese prime minister and they were feeding the fish.

Now, since the very moment, Donald Trump announced his run for office, CNN has been blinded by their hatred. And now, while the network ramps up this crazy rhetoric and faulty reporting to destroy the president, the country is actually improving by leaps and bounds.

Stock market breaking new records. We're seeing historic low levels of unemployment in 14 states, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, women in the workforce, youth unemployment the 52-year low.

And now, we have more great news that they'll never report. Consumer confidence today closing at an 18-year high, so much more good news to report on the economic front. We'll get to all of that.

Joining us now more information on Bruce Ohr's testimony. He is Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe. And from "The Hill", John Solomon.

We'll start with you, Congressman. Let us talk about what we learned today.

Is it true? Did Bruce Ohr ever testify before Robert Mueller? Did that come up today?

REP. JOHN RATCLIFFE, R-TEXAS: It did come up, Sean. I have to be careful, I know your viewers want information, but there's a confidentiality agreement. But you have good sources, I listened to your monologue and you're on track with respect to Bruce Ohr --

HANNITY: Well, I heard he never testified to Robert Mueller and you're smiling. So, I'm guessing that's a good guess.

Now, what would -- John, wouldn't that mean a lot if he didn't testify before Mueller considering, what, we have 60-some-odd pages and notes all the meetings and the fact that he said into under testimony today that in fact, this Steele dossier could never be used in a court of law but he's used as the basis for a FISA warrant to get FISA a court approval on spying on Americans?

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN SOLOMON, THE HILL: I'm sorry, go ahead.

RATCLIFFE: I didn't know what John you were talking to.

HANNITY: Well, we'll ask John Solomon first. John Solomon?

SOLOMON: Sorry, sir.

Yes, listen, many of the members I talked to said they thought that was one of the most important revelations today, that Bruce Ohr said he's never heard nor has his wife ever heard from special counsel Mueller. If Mueller wanted to get to the bottom of this, the questions that Congress has raised that are now in the public, whether the FISA warrant was legitimate and the origins of this investigation were legitimate, you would at the very least, he'd want to talk to Bruce or and find out why was he playing the intermediary role.

I was told today, emphatically, Bruce Ohr has said he was never interviewed. I think that raises a lot of questions for people in Congress. What is Bob Mueller really up to?

HANNITY: He worked -- now, we have 63 pages of text, emails and handwritten notes, Congressman, between Ohr and Steele. Steele had already been fired for lying and leaking. He got paid not only by Clinton through Fusion GPS and the DNC through Fusion GPS, but he also was on the record as hating Donald Trump saying he was desperate that Trump not get elected and passionate about him not being president.

Did he comment on any of that today?

RATCLIFFE: He did. I can probably summarize it the best way like this, Sean. When the Department of Justice walks into the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and says, we want a warrant to spy on an American citizen and the central piece of our evidence in our case is a dossier, there's an obligation to say, oh and by the way, the number four person in our organization and his wife had major prominent operational roles with respect to how that dossier was put together, how the FBI received it. And by the way, they were paid handsomely by third parties for that.

Those are what we call material facts.

HANNITY: Let me ask you this --

RATCLIFFE: The material facts that have to be disclosed and in this case, they weren't.

HANNITY: But he told, he said today as I understand it that in fact, he told the FBI that his wife had put this together, and they still used him as a back-channel. So, they never told the FISA court that piece of evidence. They never told the FISA court who paid for the dossier.

So, the only conclusion is now we know, it's irrefutable at this point that the FISA court was repeatedly lied to in four separate FISA applications. Is that a true statement?

RATCLIFFE: Well, here's what he said -- or here's what I can tell you about his testimony today. My real question walking in, Sean, was what did the FBI in the Department of Justice know about Bruce Ohr and his wife?

HANNITY: The FBI I know I'm told.

RATCLIFFE: His testimony today that he gave us a list of a half-a-dozen senior FBI and Department of Justice officials that he told of his involvement, his wife's involvement, all of the details of their interactions with Christopher Steele with Glen Simpson, with the payment.

And these are names, Sean, that would be familiar to you. I've heard you say some of these names on your program before and I can tell you as someone that has reviewed the FISA applications, the unredacted versions -- I can't talk about what's in there but I can tell you what's not in there and what's not in there is any information about Nellie and Bruce Ohr.

HANNITY: Well, so, basically I want to go back to my question though -- the FISA -- a fraud was committed multiple times on a FISA court. They purposely withheld information to the court as it relates to if the FBI knew that, in fact, Steele that it, in fact, put this together and that he'd never verified it and if they never told the court that Hillary paid for it, isn't that a fraud committed on the court? Isn't that lying to a court?

RATCLIFFE: If Bruce Ohr testimony today was truthful and accurate than what you're saying about the information that was not submitted to the FISA court, it should have been -- it's a big problem.

HANNITY: A big problem or is it against the law to lie to a court?

RATCLIFFE: Well, as a former officer of the court you have an obligation to have a full and complete disclosure of facts and --

HANNITY: If I lie to the court, do you think you could get me out of prison?

(LAUGHTER)

RATCLIFFE: Hey, there is nothing more sacrosanct than Americans civil liberties. So, what we're talking about here --

HANNITY: Right, I agree with that. I wouldn't think of it. Just like you pay in taxes, do it. Just do it.

RATCLIFFE: If I were one of those folks that were identified today and I can tell you that in at least one case, one of the names that he identified for us today signed one of those FISA applications. I'd retain a really good lawyer.

HANNITY: I think his name's J.C., but I'm just guessing. There's one of them anyway.

Thank you, Congressman, for being with us.

RATCLIFFE: You bet. Thanks for having me.

HANNITY: John Solomon for your breaking report because you go into great detail. Here we have, you know, you tie it all together as it relates to this Russian oligarch and Bruce Ohr and Steele and the Department of Justice. I'll let you give a summary of this report.

SOLOMON: Yes, listen, the FBI had a 10-year relationship with Oleg Deripaska, the head of the largest aluminum company in Russia. He funded $25 million rescue mission for the FBI to try to rescue a former agent. That's a good thing.

In 2015, Ohr showed up and asked him some questions about organic on organized crime in Russia. He tried to give him some guidance. In 2016, a more consequential event occurred. The FBI showed up in September 2016, one month before the FISA application, and they said, listen, we think Paul Manafort is colluding with Russia to help Trump win the election.

We now know where they got that information. They got it from Christopher Steele. That's in his dossier.

And Deripaska tells him, a trusted guy who's been with him helping him for 10 years, I'm telling you, it's preposterous, it's not happening. You got it wrong.

HANNITY: You wrote in this piece that collusion occurred, Russian collusion.

SOLOMON: Yes.

HANNITY: And you tell a tale of Ohr, Steele, Deripaska, the FBI and DOJ tie it all together so everybody understands completely.

SOLOMON: You know, we talk about any contact with Russia must be terrible. Well, the FBI had lots of contacts with Russians and many times they got benefit from it, right? They got a help in trying to locate a former agent. They got information waving them off bad intelligence.

But here's the real problem with collusion that goes into the FISA warrant -- when Deripaska tells them, hey, you're wrong about Manafort. I can tell you, you're wrong about Manafort, they had an obligation a month later to go to the court and say, well, listen, Steele's telling us this, but this Russian guy we've had a lot of good record with, he's telling us something different. There's no evidence that occurred.

Another thing that Steele --

HANNITY: And, by the way, Deripaska, this is not just any oligarch.

SOLOMON: No.

HANNITY: This is a friend of Putin's. This is a guy that frequently appeared with Putin.

SOLOMON: If you look at video clips, you'll see him in many of the clips with Putin when there are public meetings. He's a very powerful in Russia.

HANNITY: So, what's interesting that all of these are the players --

SOLOMON: Yes.

HANNITY: -- Bruce Ohr, others, they're all meeting with Deripaska who's friends with Putin. This is supposed to be about collusion and we're talking about taxi medallions and bank loan applications now.

SOLOMON: It -- for people who are frustrated by the case, they see this double standard, right? Democrats can collude with the Russians, get whatever information they need. They can buy it. They can hire British intelligence guy. But when Republicans have a meeting with a Russian, it suddenly sounds like it's criminal.

HANNITY: Yes.

SOLOMON: That's been what's frustrated people so much about the unfairness and that telling of this story so far.

HANNITY: Congressman, we'll give you the last word on this time tonight.

RATCLIFFE: Well, as a former federal prosecutor, I got to tell you, what I heard today in Bruce Ohr's testimony was shocking alarming and disappointing. These types of things didn't happen in the Justice Department where I worked and, you know --

HANNITY: Let me ask the question another way, Congressman. We're running out of time.

You're a former prosecutor, and I have a lot of respect for prosecutor. It's a hard job, especially people that don't go on witch hunts and they believe in equal justice under the law. Is there anybody that could do what happened here that's watching this show tonight that could omit purposely key information in an application to get a warrant to spy on in this case an opposition party campaign associate in the lead-up to an election and not be arrested and put in jail?

Those people that put their name on those FISA warrant applications, aren't they swearing by the truthfulness, the veracity of those applications and if they knowingly withhold information in those applications, aren't they really -- is this premeditated fraud on a court? Everybody that signed them, did they commit fraud on a court?

RATCLIFFE: My opinion on this is, Sean, that there's a guy named John Huber who's been -- he's the U.S. attorney for Utah who's been tasked by Jeff Sessions to investigate FISA abuse.

HANNITY: Where is he?

RATCLIFFE: Well, my recommendation to Mr. Huber would be would be for him to contact my office and ask for a copy of the transcript of Bruce or and I'll make his job a lot easier.

HANNITY: Can I -- can I have a copy of it?

RATCLIFFE: Not yet. But --

HANNITY: OK, thank you, Congressman, we appreciate it.

RATCLIFFE: You bet.

HANNITY: John Solomon, great reporting.

We're going to stay on this. First, we do have a FOX News alert.

FOX News has another race to call and tonight on this busy night oh big night in Florida for the president. He's two for two down there. Ron DeSantis, Governor Rick Scott both won their primaries. DeSantis running for governor. Rick Scott is running for an important Senate seat down in Florida against Bill Nelson who does nothing.

Ed Henry, what do you got?

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sean, this is a huge upset. Fox projecting right now an upset win in Florida's gubernatorial primary. Based on the latest vote returns, FOX is projecting that Andrew Gillum has won the Democratic nomination. The key here is that he is backed by socialist Bernie Sanders. This is a complete upset.

He beat former Congresswoman Gwen Graham. She's the daughter of the former Florida governor and Senator Bob Graham. She's much more moderate establishment. This is a sign the Democratic Party being pulled further and further left even in a swing state like here in Florida. It pits this Bernie Sanders backed candidate in Andrew Gillum against as you mentioned, Ron DeSantis, backed by President Trump.

So, this could be an epic clash here in the Sunshine State in November in these midterms. Gubernatorial battle Sanders versus Trump essentially when you've got DeSantis who was given no chance of winning just a few months ago had a dramatic victory tonight against Adam Putnam, the state agriculture commissioner.

The president tweeted just a few moments ago, quote, such a fantastic win for Ron DeSantis, and the people of the great state of Florida. Ron will be a fantastic governor on to November.

Look at how pivotal the support was by the president. In mid-June, Mason- Dixon polling had Putnam beating DeSantis by 15 points. A week later, the president sends out a tweet, one tweet endorsing Ron DeSantis. All of a sudden, the numbers completely flipped. DeSantis in mid-July was up by 12 points, so that's a 27-point swing, Sean.

And all of a sudden, DeSantis tonight wins not, just wins, wins big on the Republican side for governor.

You mentioned Rick Scott who is leaving office as governor, he has easily won the Republican primary to face Bill Nelson, the Democratic senator. He may be in a lot more trouble the Democrats first thought. Nelson in this battle against Governor Scott now running for Senate.

And then again, in this gubernatorial race, I can't stress what a big upset this is that Andrew Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, would be a first African-American governor if he wins in Florida by the way, Sean, backed by Bernie Sanders that was his big endorsement.

Sanders versus Trump in the Florida governor's race.

HANNITY: All right. Ed Henry big report tonight, big news, and we saw the DeSantis rise and it was connected directly to the Trump endorsement and he's well liked out in Florida. He'll be a good governor. Rick Scott will be a great senator.

All right, and today, disgraced DOJ official Bruce Ohr wart testifying on Capitol Hill behind closed doors.

Fox News chief intelligence correspondent, our own Catherine Herridge, she has the latest from Washington now -- Catherine.

CATHERINE HERRIDGE, FOX NEWS CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Sean. Good evening.

The closed-door deposition lasted seven hours with the consensus among Republican lawmakers the Justice Department official Bruce Ohr told the FBI there were issues with the Trump dossier and its author former British spy Christopher Steele, but the evidence suggests the national security court or FISA court was kept in the dark when it granted a surveillance warrant for a Trump campaign aide just two weeks before the 2016 election.

One lawmaker said Ohr's answers about the timing and handling of the dossier do not line up with other witnesses, including former FBI lawyer Lisa Page who sent anti-Trump texts and Glen Simpson who testified on the Hill last December. His firm Fusion GPS was paid by the DNC and Clinton campaign for the anti-Trump research.

With more than two decades of government experience, Ohr's portfolio at the Justice Department was gangs and drugs not Russia, but in 2016, documents show or became the back-channel between the FBI officials and Steele after the bureau fired him as a confidential source.

Earlier today, Ohr ignored my questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERRIDGE: Mr. Ohr, who authorized your contact with the FBI? Mr. Ohr, were you acting alone or did you have authority from a Justice Department official? How did your wife benefit from the dossier's contract? Did you have a conflict of interest? Mr. Oh, will you take our questions?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HERRIDGE: Lawmakers say Ohr had a conflict because his wife Nellie worked for Fusion GPS and did the Russia research. Those inside the closed-door deposition told FOX that they saw no Democratic lawmakers participating in the questioning today. They left that to their staff and lawyers, Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Thanks, great work, Catherine Herridge, as always.

HERRIDGE: You're welcome.

HANNITY: Joining us now with more reactions in today's breaking news, he is the author of the three weeks in a row number one "New York Times" bestseller, "The Russia Hoax", way ahead of the curve, "The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump", FOX News legal analyst Greg Jarrett, and FOX News investigative reporter and contributor Sara Carter.

Sara, let's stay on this, then we'll get the background from Greg. We'll do it backwards, and that is, oh, he never testified, never was called to testify before Robert Mueller -- Robert Mueller who cares more about loan applications and taxicab medallions, and we've got real evidence that FISA courts were lied to. It is irrefutable and incontrovertible. We've known for a long time, this blows it out of the water. The courts were lied --

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: It does.

HANNITY: -- to repeatedly. Anybody that signed those warrants signed on to what they knew was a knowing lie. That means Comey and Yates and Rod Rosenstein. They signed up, they lied and put a fraud on the court not once but four times using phony Clinton bought and paid for Russian lies.

CARTER: Sean, the sources that I've spoken to today that were privy to the testimony that Bruce Ohr gave said -- what they learned showed that what the FBI did and the DOJ was so unacceptable and absolutely inexcusable. One of the things that Bruce Ohr did discuss, some of the questions there that Catherine (ph) was throwing out was that he had not informed his superiors at the DOJ that he was providing this back door channel for Christopher Steele. Another really interesting point, I thought...

HANNITY: But, Sara, he did tell FBI officials.

CARTER: That's right.

HANNITY: Didn't his boss, James Comey, sign off on the first FISA warrant?

CARTER: That's absolutely correct. And he did discuss with deputy -- former deputy director McCabe who was fired for lying. He discussed this with Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, which was really fascinating because Lisa Page played down her communications with Bruce Ohr. She was actually according to Ohr part of his circle, part of the people that he was discussing this with at the FBI. I think that's highly significant. And the fact, Sean, that they withheld all of that -- that is evidence withheld, all of that evidence from the secret courts. The top court in the land is absolutely inexcusable to the sources I have been talking to. And it's very, very damaging.

HANNITY: Let me go to Gregg. Your piece today is phenomenal. You really give the whole history. You lay a great foundation unto this. But I want to get to this because you have Bruce Ohr saying today that he understood this could never be used in a court of law. OK. But it was used as the bulk of information for the FISA court applications.

Now, if he understood that, and his I guess his wife understood that, why was he still trying to read 65 pages of notes, texts, emails, messages, hope the firewalls hold, I hope we don't get exposed. It is now beginning to come together that this was a broad conspiracy to defraud the FISA court and to really take down Donald Trump? This is not a game anymore.

GREGG JARRETT, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: It's essentially the title of my book. And everything that came out today corroborates.

HANNITY: You're right.

JARRETT: In fact, it's worse. We learned today that James Comey's FBI was far more corrupt than we ever knew. We already knew that he used a false document from a wire they fire (ph). But today we learned that Bruce Ohr told Comey and his confederates that this is a guy, Christopher Steele, who had said he was desperate to stop Donald Trump. He was vagrantly (ph) anti- Trump. They should have stopped right there in their tracks and said goodbye to Steele, thrown his dossier in the garbage. But they didn't care. They moved ahead to launch this investigation of Trump to damage him and to spy on a Trump associate.

These people should be prosecuted for obstruction of justice, for perjury, abuse of power, and about three other felonies I can think of. The law enforcers became the law breakers. And where is the FISA court? Why aren't these judges holding these in criminal contempt? Why didn't they prosecute these people with indictments.

HANNITY: Ohr is admitting today, right -- he is admitting that what we already knew that Steele didn't standby his own dossier. That was in your column today. We have mentioned that many times. Oh no, no, I don't know if any of this is true, but he had -- he was desperate that Trump not get elected, passionate about him not being president, but they still used it.

JARRETT: Yes.

HANNITY: That's the point.

JARRETT: Oh, it's a fraud on the courts.

HANNITY: Isn't that a crime, Gregg?

JARRETT: Oh, absolutely. It's six different felonies as I outlined in my book.

HANNITY: And it's a fraud based on Russian lies paid for by Hillary Clinton.

JARRETT: They knew were going to get caught, which is why they can continue to verify the dossier even after they used it.

HANNITY: Great report.

JARRETT: We're trying to cure their illegal conduct.

HANNITY: And by the way, didn't Rod Rosenstein sign off on the third application?

JARRETT: Yes.

CARTER: Yes.

JARRETT: Rosenstein is knee-deep in obstructing Congress by withholding documents.

HANNITY: Sara.

CARTER: Sean, you know, look at this. They used the dossier, not only through the court system, they withheld that information. But then later, James Clapper, John Brennan, the briefing that they gave to then-president- elect Trump, where we know the information from the dossier was then leaked to CNN suspectedly by Clapper himself according to congressional members that are investigating this.

So not only did they know the dossier was invalid, but they continued to use the dossier to pump out disinformation on president-elect Trump and President Trump. This is serious. These are serious crimes to the court. And what they have done is presented a disinformation campaign against an administration where the only people that appear to have been collaborating with the Russians were the people that were involved in this, Fusion GPS, the Hillary Clinton campaign, you know, and all of the other people that were involved in collecting information.

HANNITY: All right, guys. Great work tonight. Both of you -- both of your articles on Hannity.com, FoxNews.com, SaraACarter.com. We have a lot news this week. Pretty amazing day. Thank you, both.

When we come back, Joe DiGenova and Mark Penn on Alan Dershowitz's warning, Robert Mueller is gearing up to subpoena Donald Trump. That and more straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Earlier today, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said that he believes that Robert Mueller is quote, gearing up to subpoena the President of the United States. Here is now with reaction, former Clinton pollster Mark Penn and former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Joe DiGenova. Full discloser, yes, he's done some legal work for me. He's very expensive, but really he's worth it, him and Victoria (inaudible) lawyers in the country. And he did come to my Christmas party. Mark Penn will be invited next year.

But you know, I'm watching all of the developments today. And I think probably Dershowitz is right. I think Mueller wants to do it. He is following taxicab medallions and loan applications. We've got FISA courts literally lied to with Russian propaganda, the American people, Russian lies perpetrated in this last election cycle. He has no interest in any of this. Can you believe we learned today that Bruce Ohr was never called before Mueller? Mueller is not serious about any really Russian collusion. Joe DiGenova.

JOE DIGENOVA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: What we know is that Bruce Ohr also, we just learned, was not interviewed by Mr. Huber out in Utah who allegedly is investigating all of the FISA abuse and the unmasking. Sean, if Mr. Mueller wants to subpoena the president, he can certainly try. But he is going to lose. And the reason is very simple.

The special counsel has already interviewed the president's lawyer, Mr. McGahn, for 30 hours. Anything that he learned from him, that's the president's knowledge. The president therefore under the law is not readily available. He is under no obligation to testify. And if Mr. Mueller pursues the subpoena, he is going to lose in the Supreme Court because he already has all of the information he needs. And then, there is one more very important thing. He is using the grand jury for impeachment. That's an unconstitutional use of the grand jury. And that's another reason he will lose. You can't use grand jury subpoenas to get testimony...

HANNITY: What he will do, Joe is that 70 days from now, we know that we're going to have a selection.

DIGENOVA: Right.

HANNITY: In my opinion, what Mueller is going to do is he is going to write a road map for the Democratic Party to impeach President Trump.

DIGENOVA: Oh, absolutely. Oh, absolutely. This is an impeachment investigation as far as it concerns the President of the United States. And any notion it was designed to get illegality concerning that the entire campaign is a falsehood. Not only is Mueller not investigating it, but it is clear now that the Department of Justice under Rosenstein and Sessions is not investigating the unmasking or the leaks from the grand jury, or anything else, or the leaks of classified information involving the president. Jeff Sessions and Rosenstein have now abandoned all semblance of respectability. This is truly disgraceful.

HANNITY: And the president politically if he fires them, I can hear the comparisons on the Saturday Night massacre.

DIGENOVA: He doesn't need to fire them now. It's not going to make any difference because the damage that they have done to the presidency over 18 months has actually made him stronger. Oh, well, but let me just say this, this president will survive this. And when the elections -- when the midterms are over, Mr. Sessions and Mr. Rosenstein will be gone.

HANNITY: Mark, I know you come at this a little bit different from me politically. But you see the wide range. How did we go from what was supposed to be collusion and we have evidence of real collusion that were blown wide open. And FISA court judges lied to and omissions on purpose and even information they were fed from Russia, that turned out to be lies. That's not discussed. People care more you know about loan applications.

MARK PENN, FORMER CLINTON POLLSTER AND ADVISER: Well, look, my fear all along was that this would be 1998 all over again. We wasted a year of our nation on something that we then decided was of no consequence. And again, the same thing that is happening as this investigation has moved not from whitewater but from Russian collusion to payments to Stormy Daniels.

HANNITY: There were convictions. There was some connection in the original mandate.

PENN: True. True, there was connection to the original. And remember, we made the decision to testify before the grand jury. In my recent poll said 60 percent would like President Trump just as they wanted President Clinton to testify. But when President Clinton testified, what happened, he got impeached. It didn't actually do him any good.

HANNITY: You would tell the president that in this case, stay away from Mueller and his band of Democrats?

PENN: I would say that if you ask me three months ago, before what has come out, I would have said you got to testify. I think today, I would say don't testify because there is nothing you could say that would be new that he would really need to write the same report that he is going to write anyway.

HANNITY: And we know -- let's say if Don McGahn testifies for 30 hours, whoever made that decision doesn't make sense to me, but maybe in the end, it was the right one. But if the president says something that contradicts what Don McGahn said, it's the special counsel that hates Trump will decide which one to believe, Joe?

DIGENOVA: Well, there is no doubt whatsoever that the Mueller investigation has lost all credibility, all semblance of objectivity and fairness. And it is now abundantly clear since he is not interested in any of the violations of the law from the Obama administration, DOJ, and FBI since Bruce Ohr hasn't even been interviewed by him. It's very, very obvious that Mueller is a get-Trump operation, impeach Trump operation. And therefore, it is completely, completely out of control, and is entitled to no respect whatsoever.

HANNITY: Last word, Mark Penn?

PENN: Look, I think there is no question that if the Democrats win, right now, we're headed for the same thing in 1998. And I wish we could avoid it by getting to the bottom of what really happened to the FBI, and blow this thing over.

HANNITY: I know we can avoid it. Don't vote for Democrats.

PENN: I'm not going to agree with you on that one, Sean.

HANNITY: Nothing in there -- there's nothing that they want to do that is going to help the men and women of this country. They want their crumbs back. They want open borders, they want to keep Obamacare, and they want to impeach the president and the investigation into the biggest abuse of power ever. Not a good scenario.

PENN: I want to see some moderate Democrats, Sean.

HANNITY: That's all right. We still like you.

When we come back, Ari Fleischer, Don Bongino, they will weigh in on CNN fake news, report on the Trump-Russia collusion. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Fake news CNN, they're at it again. And Mediaite points out, quote, that CNN addresses Lanny Davis and Michael Cohen report without answering any questions about. Joining us now with reaction, former White House press secretary, Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer, and our ATV contributor, former secret service agent, Dan Bongino. Ari, when the source says they were wrong and then they still standby the report, why do I think they don't care about the truth at that point. They will just make it up.

ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is just such a mistake by CNN. I really can't understand it. Right before we came on the air, CBS retracted the story. Everybody retracted their story, except CNN. And it's the fifth in my playbook. It's a bombshell that CNN reported. All of which were anti-Trump and none of which came true. And if CNN had eggs on its face, four out of five they had to retract. And they don't want to retract this one. I don't know why.

HANNITY: You know, Dan, to me, I believe that the president calling out fake news has done more damage I think in a very positive way. It's something we conservatives said for a long time. There is a liberal bias in the press. And I think they will be viewed with skepticism that maybe didn't exist in the minds of the mass population before.

DAN BONGINO, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: You know, Sean, for guys like me who ran for office before, that dealt with the press in a different way, that bias is real. No one is going to convince me otherwise. I've had arguments about facts like 2 plus 2 equals 4, where a liberal media person will say no, it's 4.5. I promise you.

Listen, here is the problem with this. And Ari is right. It's just incredible that just by sheer odds alone, you think a Trump scoop that CNN got at least once would be a pro-Trump scoop. The problem is, as Ari correctly said here, all of CNN's scoops that get debunked later, their big stories are always anti-Trump stories, which means one of two things. Either CNN is full of suckers or they are lying. I don't know which one is. And for them not to retract this story, Sean, is absolutely absurd. Ari is right. The source for the story is the lawyer of the guy, Michael Cohen.

HANNITY: Michael Cohen's testimony is coming out, Ari. It's all going to be -- we are all going to see, we all know that he denied vehemently these things. And he did it in other publications.

FLEISCHER: Right.

HANNITY: You know, I think -- I will be very charitable to Lanny. I have known him for years. I think he is just blinded. Any time Clinton is involved, he is just blind.

FLEISCHER: All right. Lanny is a spokesman and a loyal Clinton spokesman. He wants to take Trump down to be blind. It's another for journalists to allow blind people to get on the air to speak, and not deal with it when they make a mistake.

Now, I will put myself in CNN's shoes. The only thing I could think off that would allow them to standby that story when they know that Lanny got it wrong is that Michael Cohen told it to them. But then, if Michael Cohen told it to them then he committed perjury when he testified before Congress. So that's the only thing you can hang your hat on if you are CNN. And if that's the case, they need to come out and say it. Otherwise, this is journalistically embarrassing for CNN, as the only network standing by when everybody else has pulled it back.

And especially, Sean, like I said before, do you know what they did to Donald Trump, Jr., when they said he had advanced knowledge of WikiLeaks? They got burned on that story. They won't cite their sources who burned them, yet they reported that as a bombshell. These bombshells that are duds are killing journalism.

HANNITY: All of these networks, all of these newspapers, sort of all group thing to quote Tucker. They get on one fixation a day. We will hate Trump on this today. And they all get on the same page. It's remarkable the amount of this bubble they live in. But the American people are in that bubble. Dan Bongino.

BONGINO: Yes, Sean, you play these montages on your show before. It's like a coordinated outrage campaign. The one you had the other day was genius, the impeachment one. This is what they do. They compete with each other to see who could be more angry at Trump. But they don't realize they are not hurting Trump, they're just hurting themselves as their reputations go down the toilet.

HANNITY: Well said. All right. Thank you, both. Good to see you.

When we come back President Trump today gave the press a red card at the White House. We'll show you the video. We'll explain straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Today, the president met with the president of the FIFA organization to commemorate North America winning the bid to host the 2026 World Cup games. And at the end of the meeting, there was a lighthearted moment if you watch soccer. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIANNI INFANTINO, FIFA PRESIDENT: One more thing. It could be useful for you. You know, in soccer, we have referees, right? And they have cards, yellow cards and red cards. The yellow card is a warning. And when you want to kick out someone, it's a red card.

TRUMP: Now, that's true. That's very good.

INFANTINO: Well, this would be useful, I don't know.

TRUMP: I like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: You know, they pull them out quick. All right. Let not your heart be troubled, Ingraham is here, taking it over.

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