York: Washington Free Beacon was original Fusion GPS funder

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York: Washington Free Beacon was original Fusion GPS funder

Insight on 'Hannity' from Washington Examiner correspondent Byron York.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," October 27, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JUDGE JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS HOST: Welcome to this especially edition of "Hannity." I am Judge Jeanine Pirro in tonight for Sean.

This week, major developments in several Democrat scandals, including the controversial Uranium One deal. And tonight, breaking news about the anti- Trump dossier, Byron York who joins us in just a minute, is reporting that the conservative website, the Washington Free Beacon funded the original Fusion GPS research into Donald Trump. According to York, Fusion GPS was also looking into other Republican presidential candidates.

The Washington Free Beacon is responding to this explosive information with the statement confirming York's reporting and adding, quote, "The Free Beacon had no knowledge of or connection to the Steele dossier. Did not pay for the dossier, and never had contact with, knowledge of, or provide payments for any work performed by Christopher Steele. Nor did we have any knowledge of the relationship between Fusion GPS and the Democratic National Committee, Perkins Coie, and the Clinton campaign."

Joining us now is Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York. All right. Good evening, Byron.

BYRON YORK, WASHINGTON EXAMINER CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good evening.

PIRRO: All right. Now, you've got everyone talking about what this Fusion GPS situation is. You've got the whole thing turned on a tip. Now it appears that the original funding for the GPS, the Fusion GPS -- we thought began with the Clinton campaign and the DNC, was funded by the Washington Free Beacon, which is a conservative publication. Tell us what you know.

YORK: It is, indeed. You know, this week we found out that the whole Russia part of the Trump dossier, the part alleging collusion with Russians was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign in the Democratic National Committee. We had always known that earlier than that, several months earlier starting in late 2015, a Republican group had funded opposition research. Not about Russia but opposition research into Donald Trump and some other candidates.

And now tonight I reported who it was. It was the Washington Free Beacon which is a conservative website, kind of with attitude. It's a website that mixes journalism and activism and some of its top staffers have history and journalism activism and politics and they are the ones behind this original effort.

PIRRO: All right. So, people are now saying, you know, who is the Washington Free Beacon? I mean, who owns the Free Beacon? I understand at one point it was actually a 501C4 not a profit?

YORK: It was. It started in 2012 as a 501C4. Those are the groups called for Center for American Freedom that ran it. One of its board members was Bill Kristol. The former editor of The Weekly Standard who is very prominent never Trump voice in our political debate today. And then 2014 it becomes a private organization. And we do know that Paul Singer who was a New York hedge fund billionaire who has contributed to many conservative causes is a major funder of the Washington Free Beacon today.

PIRRO: And Paul Singer we can assume was someone who was antitrust as well.

YORK: Very much so. And certainly in the never Trump camp later endorsed Marco Rubio. And actually wanted to somehow stop Trump at the convention. You know, there is kind of a last ditch effort to hopefully stop them at the convention which didn't work. So, yes, Mr. Singer was definitely very anti-Trump at the time this oppo research is going on.

PIRRO: All right. And do we know who else was being -- did they seek this opposition research on? I understand it was not just Donald Trump.

YORK: That's a good question and the answer is, I do not know. They did say tonight when the Free Beacon acknowledged after my report -- they published an acknowledgment of all of this. They said that in the fall of 2015, Donald Trump was the leading candidate if you remember back then in the Republican race. In the fall of 2015, they started this opposition research project with Fusion GPS, looking into what they called multiple Republican candidates including Donald Trump. So, unclear who those other ones are right now.

PIRRO: And, you know, going forward, I mean, the Washington Free Beacon has said, you know, we basically did not do any of this stuff based upon a request by individuals. Are they saying who the individuals are?

YORK: Well, look, a lot of people -- there had been gossip that this was a Paul Singer operation. And people have said that he was the one who was behind all of this. And I think what the Free Beacon is saying is that Singer is a major funder but the Free Beacon has in the past used, employed, retained opposition research firms in its work. And this was something like that.

Now, I've got to say this is not standard journalistic practice. I mean, you go to places like the Washington Examiner or The Washington Post or any other organization and they do not go around hiring political opposition research firms to do work for them. So, this is an unusual situation.

PIRRO: Well, clearly if there are investigative reporters, they wouldn't subcontract someone on opposition research to give them their information. But Byron, stay with us.

I also want to ask that a few more journalist, Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt and American Conservative Union Chair Matt Schlapp.

All right. Gentlemen, I will go to you first, Matt. I mean, what is your take on the information that Byron had just released this evening?

MATT SCHLAPP, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION CHAIRMAN: Well, there's been a lot of smoke around this for a long time. And I give Byron great credit. Because it just seems like there is almost an access of political evil here. People who are willing to do almost anything to stop Donald Trump and there's some familiar names involved. Bill Kristol who we've all debated throughout the last two years.

He was a prominent never Trumper. Paul Singer who has put his money where his mouth is to do everything to stop them. You know, Judge, the thing I is interesting is, how did it move from this Republican effort to stop Trump back over now to the DNC and to the Democrats through Perkins Coie, this law firm? There is a lot more here that we all need to know.

PIRRO: Yes. And you know, Byron, do we know anything about that? Because as I understand, you know, the original investigation from the fall of `15 to the spring of `16 and then it's ended in terms of the funding by the Republicans or, you know, the anti-Trump people. And then it's picked up by the DNC and the Clinton campaign. Who contacted who? You know?

YORK: Yes. We do know something about this. You're right. What we've been talking about this effort starts in the fall of 2015. And it's a conventional oppo research operation. It's looking at Donald Trump's casinos, its businesses. Charges that he did this or that. Bad thing. So, it's kind of a conventional oppo research and it goes on until early May. And if you remember, on May 3rd, Trump won the Indiana primary, be Ted Cruz and that and essentially clinched the nomination.

So, this effort stopped at that point. And what we do know is that after that, Glenn Simpson who is the head of Fusion GPS shop the project to Democrats. And the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign picked it up and at some point after that, that's when they hired Christopher Steele, this former British spy. And that's when it turned towards Russia.

PIRRO: All right. And so, Charlie, I will go to you now. You know, we just heard that or we know that Debbie Wasserman Schultz, John Podesta, you know, go before Congress with Mark Elias. The attorney here from the law firm in question, Perkins Coie, through which the money was funneled before he got to Steele. And so, the question is, are those two individuals at risk of having lied to Congress because they said they do knew nothing about it.

CHARLES HURT, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, certainly the report reveals something that a lot of it had known it for a long time. And that is the incestuous nature of the way things, business was handled in Washington. But I will be honest with you, for me, doing the oppo research, everybody does that. I'm not terribly concerned about all of that. What does concern me is though is that we've had these past six months where Democrats in particular or rather the past year, for that Democrats in particular, the Clintons have made such a big deal about these Russian connections.

PIRRO: Yes.

HURT: And they've been lying all this time about their own fingerprints all over this completely fraudulent dossier which then led to the Obama administration launching of I think an unprecedented investigation using the most powerful intelligence service on the planet. The demand for the political opponent.

YORK: That's right.

PIRRO: Right. Right. Matt, I see you nodding your head. Go ahead.

SCHLAPP: Yes. I mean, I'm disgusted by the fact that Donald Trump, Jr., gets an email about meeting with people who have information and he is called a traitor. And he's said that he is colluding with the Russian government. Hillary Clinton and her team went to Russia to shake down the trees with Vladimir Putin's cronies to get information and they're getting away with calling opposition research. That cannot stand.

PIRRO: Well, and Byron, you know, you've got to -- this whole thing is based upon -- this Mueller investigation, as well as the unmasking that came as a result of FISA warrants are based on this dossier which apparently is purchased by Hillary Clinton and her friends who say they know nothing about it which supposedly cost millions of dollars. You know, my faith in the American justice system, I'm destroyed by this. Because right now, its fruit of the poisonous tree. If that is false, everything else comes down and Mueller has got to end it.

YORK: Let me add one thing in addition to the Mueller factor here. The reason we are talking about this now, the reason we learned earlier this week that it was the DNC and the Clinton campaign and the reason we learned today that it was Washington Free Beacon is because the House Intelligence Committee and the much-maligned person, Devin Nunes, had issued a subpoena for Fusion GPS' bank records.

They had been stonewalled by Fusion GPS before that. People had come before -- Fusion had come before the committee and asserted their Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer questions. So, they subpoenaed bank records. And that's what has shaken this sluice. In response and anticipation of their bank records being handed over to the House. All of a sudden well, whoa, we find out that Hillary Clinton and the DNC had funded and now we found out about Fusion GPS. So, a lot of this is being driven by the House Intelligence Committee investigation.

PIRRO: Yes. And you know what, Charlie, to them we certainly owe -- they get kudos. I mean, on Monday, Fusion is supposed to respond to the subpoena handing over the names of clients. Their bank records. What do you think Fusion is going to do?

HURT: Absolutely. We owe them a total -- gratitude to them. And the big difference here between today and what we've seen for the past 25 years is, Democrats aren't circling the wagons around the Clintons. Normally, when the Clintons get in trouble and when they cost a mess like this, the whole party circles around them. Now you have the DNC standing back and saying hey, man, we didn't know anything about this. Talk to them.

SCHLAPP: Right.

HURT: And you even have former CIA Director Leon Panetta saying, we have to investigate all of this. That's huge stuff.

SCHLAPP: And where's Hillary? Where is she? She's been hiding out. You know, she's been so talkative and now she has gotten quiet.

PIRRO: Yes. And you know what's interesting is that once the law firm, Perkins Coie who is the initial receiver of the monies, millions. Once they waive the privilege, then the focus is on Fusion. Fusion is now a big travel. I think it is all going to start crumbling. Byron, again, thanks to you. What can we look forward to next week?

YORK: Well, this is big. This is the next step which is that the House Intel Committee has also subpoenaed the FBI for all of its information about the dossier. Because you have to remember, Christopher Steele went to the FBI, offered his stuff and they kind of took him under its wing and started using this dossier material in some way. So, Devin Nunes subpoenaed them. On August 24th, he was totally stonewalled. They have not turned over anything.

Now Speaker Paul Ryan in the last couple of days has said, look, this is not just one committee chairman. This is the House of Representatives telling the FBI you have to comply with this request. And the FBI promises to respond next week and that could be really, really big news to see what they did with this dossier information.

PIRRO: And what they did with it and how much Jim Comey knew about what was going on.

All right. Gentlemen, thank you so much.

And coming up, former high-ranking Obama administration official is agreeing that there needs to be an investigation into who paid for the anti-Trump dossier. We will tell you who as this special edition of "Hannity" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PIRRO: Welcome back to the special edition of "Hannity." More and more people are demanding answers about this anti-Trump dossier, including President Obama's former CIA director, Leon Panetta. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: How can both the chair, the DNC, and the Clinton campaign not know about these payments?

LEON PANETTA, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Well, it is obviously something that the Intelligence Committee is going to have to look at. You know, knowing presidential campaigns, their big operations and somehow the left hand may not know what the right hand is doing. And that could be the case here. But I really do think that the committee is going to have to get into this to determine just exactly what happened, who knew what and when.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PIRRO: Joining us now with reaction is Salem Radio nationally syndicated host, Larry Elder. And radio talk show host and Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce.

All right, Tammy, I have to ask you this. Okay, so we've got Leon Panetta. And everyone is giving him credit because he said obviously we have to look at it. But then he took like the slant but these are big operations. You'd never know. The left-hand may not know what the right hand is doing. What is your take?

TAMMY BRUCE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: That's what they are always thinking and that's what they're always saying. And that's the dynamic. Plausible deniability when you know you're doing these things. The fact of the matter is here, I think the Clintons though and we know the Democrats have been very sloppy. If you think about the Pakistanis running the DNC system, right?

The server itself with Hillary, these individuals who have gotten away with so much for so long. They figure they are immune. They are made of Teflon. But they are not. We are finding this out. Now Panetta also though smart enough to know when something is so much of a mess that you've got to at least start the fire. That this could be so bad that he can't even deny that an investigation at least might stop the disaster. Yes.

PIRRO: Yes. All right, Larry, I will go to you. And you know, Leon Panetta, now I remember Leon Panetta from Benghazi. All right? In 2013, Leon Panetta said something like, and he was drinking that Clinton Kool- Aid. We did not have an intelligence warning. We didn't have enough time to get armed military assets to respond to Benghazi. When we were in Northern Africa, that's when I stopped with Panetta. But what's your take on Panetta now?

LARRY ELDER, SALEM RADIO NATIONALLY SYNDICATED HOST: Well, Panetta is usually pretty reasonable, Judge. He's one of the many and Obama's National Security team that wanted him to leave or stay behind for us in ISIS and one of the retired General Ray Odierno said, they had to stay behind for us. ISIS could have been dealt with. So, Leon Panetta is not a loon.

But it's fascinating how nobody seemed to know who paid. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she had no knowledge of this. John Podesta had no knowledge of it. Hillary spokesperson had no knowledge of it. I wonder about Donna Brazile. Donna Brazile was vice chair and if you know, she played these shenanigans and got Hillary the debate customs. I wonder what her role is and has Hillary been asked about this, Judge. Has anybody asked Hillary about this?

PIRRO: Yes. Well, isn't it interesting that we have not heard from Hillary in the past few days? And you know, but --

ELDER: She's on her book tour, Judge. She's on her book tour. How can somebody hasn't called and asked her about it?

PIRRO: Yes. She must be in the woods with that dog again. But let me ask you this. All right. Even Leon Panetta Tammy is now saying, yes, maybe we ought to look at this. Does this now take away some of the steam? Should we now recognize that for all the talk for the last year about collusion and Trump and Russia, not one iota of evidence but now, it's almost like the noose is getting tighter, the evidence is becoming pretty obvious.

BRUCE: Yes. Real evidence. And the thing that Mr. Panetta called awkward was when Podesta in front of Congress Mark Elias sitting next to him who was facilitating all of this, when he said he had no idea who is paying for it. When the man who was managing it, who was his personal attorney was the manager. So, we know and this is where you realize that this is out- of-the-box.

That the genie is out of the bottle and they've got to be able to do it and there has to be investigations and this is where the real panic sets in. Because they realized how sloppy they've been. All the doors that weren't closed because impart I think Larry would agree, is because they expected her to win. So, they never locked the door. They never figured it out.

PIRRO: That is interesting. That's a great point.

BRUCE: That is the thing that really is killing us.

PIRRO: You know, Larry, 18-USC, a thousand one, making a false statement to Congress. We've got Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Podesta with Mark Elias, the attorney who even the New York Times lied to us for a year and we are fed up with you.

ELDER: Right.

PIRRO: All right. They are in big trouble right now. And it seems to me, you know, there have been calls for Mueller's resignation for the last week. I mean, some serious calls in light of this uranium deal. So, what does Mueller do? Does he now start pressing for indictments so that it looks like he's doing his job?

ELDER: I think he ought to resign. I agree with The Wall Street Journal. He should resign and step aside and let somebody else do it. And regarding Mark Elias, you are absolutely right. There are at least two New York Times reporters who say, he flat out lied to us. There is even some suggesting that Fusion GPS may have paid journalists to plant stories. This thing is just now beginning, Judge, and it looks like the whole thing is reverse, the real colluder appears to be Hillary, the DNC, and maybe even the FBI.

PIRRO: Okay. Well, I am going to go to that in a second but let me just add something to that. Elias is the attorney for Podesta, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, he also was the attorney for the DNC --

BRUCE: Right.

PIRRO: So, one of the attorneys for it. Now, I take that back. He's the attorney of Perkins Coie, the law firm that received the money. Here's the thing. If he knows that they were lying, Podesta and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and it's pretty clear they were, he is also guilty of subornation of perjury.

BRUCE: Wow!

PIRRO: For sitting there and allowing them to lie to Congress. But in terms of what Larry just said, I mean, what is your take on that?

BRUCE: Look, I think that Mueller is an interesting spot and the Wall Street Journal was the big collar for his resignation. Because of his length of time with the FBI and with the FBI, possibly being part of the collusion as Larry noted. That that would make him, you know, really, he is not able to be fair in the sense of judging them and investigating them, just to spend there over 10 years, and because of his relationship. Not just with Comey but his own work.

ELDER: Right.

BRUCE: So, that's a fair dynamic with what we know now. What troubles me is Mr. Mueller knows himself his whole history and yet he felt he was fine that he would take this job. He is always so fabulous in this really great guy. Just like what they said about Comey. He should have demurred saying, I really have too much involved here. I'm not the right person for this.

PIRRO: Or I'm a little too busy for this.

BRUCE: Either way. Yes.

PIRRO: And the fact that Mueller has always said or has been involved in everything from being in the FBI at the time of the investigation of the Russians who were carrying on this organized criminal racketeering enterprise, trying to bribe people in the United States and the witness now being allowed to talk hopefully in the very near future by Jeff Sessions, so Comey is too much involved. Comey is the one who should be investigated.

What do you say, Larry? Mueller and Comey.

ELDER: Mueller has this long friendship with James Comey. This whole thing absolutely stinks. This is an outrage. It vindicates Donald Trump. It shows you that he was right when he said that he was being wiretapped at Trump Towers. Some of his aides are being wiretapped at Trump Towers. And the question is, did Mueller know that this dossier was phony yet used it as a ruse in order to go after Donald Trump?

Was it used to get a warrant to tap Donald Trump even though the people knew when they were relied on this dossier that it was full of crap? These are the kinds of questions that need to be answered and this thing is now just the beginning. And again, it vindicates Donald Trump. You have to have an IQ two points under plant life now to still believe that there's some sort of Trump collusion going on right now.

(LAUGHTER)

BRUCE: Let me tell you.

PIRRO: Quickly. Quickly. We've got to go to a break.

BRUCE: The only person who has not been involved in this message Jeff Sessions. And he is the only person who recused himself. He's the one guy who has not been a part of this.

PIRRO: Right. And I'm not sure he should have recused himself.

Anyway, coming up, got to go. Coming up, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse for Hillary Clinton, there are new developments in another one of her scandals. We will tell you why this particular scandal isn't going away anytime soon. That and more as this special edition of "Hannity" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PIRRO: Welcome back to the special edition of "Hannity." More bad news for Hillary Clinton this week involving another one of her scandals. The chairman of the house judiciary and oversight committee have announced that they are opening a new probe into how the FBI and DOJ handled the investigation into Clinton's private server. Also this week, judicial watch, announced last year, the FBI recovered the 72,000 pages of Clinton email records. 40,000 of which the state department still has to process. Joining us now is the President of judicial watch, Tom Fitton from the American Center for Law and Justice, Jordan Sekulow. All right, let me ask you. What is the latest in terms of the information you've gotten from your subpoenas?

TOM FITTON, JUDICIAL WATCH PRESIDENT: Well it is a freedom information act request. We've been asking for these emails for years. They've been stonewalling this information even under this new administration. The deep state is running things at the state department, justice department on these Clinton emails. As you highlighted, there 72,000 pages of Clinton emails the FBI went and found. We've only released a few of them. At the rate they are releasing to us now, we won't get all of them until 2020. On top of that, they're 2800 pages of records or documents on Anthony Weiner's laptop. That are also from the Clinton email server. We don't know what is in them, is it classified information. Is it Russia information? What was being deleted by Hillary Clinton is a big mystery.

PIRRO: You know, my take is if we got 72,000 emails and the state department that was asked for them at the time of Benghazi how many years ago? In 2012, it's taken them this long? I have an idea. Let's defund Mueller and his special counsel and use that money to get people to start releasing those state department emails. Jordan, what say you about this?

JORDAN SEKULOW, AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE: I'm encouraged that congress is now looking at this judge. With a new lens. A couple of different ways. One when it comes to the newly investigations with how the FBI handled this whole investigation, they never wanted to call it that matter, I guess into Hillary Clinton. Why they were giving updates about Hillary Clinton and ultimately made the call not to prosecute instead of deferring to the department of justice, the normal course of action and also Trey Gowdy, who chairs the oversight committee wants to bring James Comey back to testify under oath that is important. I think this is something we are working on right now is that the FBI we know was part of -- and the deal with Christopher Steele to continue the opposition research that Hillary Clinton's campaign was paid for through fusion GPS. We want to know how far along the FBI went. To get that information, that is absurd. As you had said earlier in the broadcast, it takes everything. For the masking. The starting point for the special counsel. For all of this Trump-Russia info. It's really a Hillary Clinton Russian scandal.

PIRRO: Clearly. Clearly. People abuse this term all week. The whole thing is turn on its head. $50,000 I believe is has gone from the FBI to Christopher Steele. How do they justify that and is that the correct amount?

FITTON: We don't know and we asked for the documents too, in fact we are already on federal court on it. The Justice Department and FBI have told us they cannot confirm or deny whether any documents exist about the dossier or payments related to it. This is where we stand. Everyone's talking about the FBI's relationship with Christopher Steele that the FBI doesn't want to say anything about it. Now they are going to turn over some documents to congress. We wonder if they will update the court on if they still believe they can credibly say they cannot confirm or deny whether documents exist.

It's helping Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and hurting President Trump.

PIRRO: Clearly.

FITTON: Is also hurting the credibility of law enforcement that is what's so damaging. People's top law enforcement agency, like the FBI, it's totally undercut when they behave this way.

PIRRO: Clearly as is between Comey and Mueller. They have done more to destroy the country's confidence in the FBI and as someone who worked in law enforcement for over three decades, what they have done is stunning.
If this Trump dossier is the basis of the unmasking of Americans and was used knowingly funded by the Clinton campaign and Jim Comey is the guy that goes out when it's not his job, Tom and makes a decision he is going to exonerate Hillary? I mean the whole criminal justice system falls on its head.

FITTON: The Clinton campaign and DNC had their problems with the dossier, but to the extent that the FBI and Justice Department used this as a pretext to spy on President Trump's team or President Trump himself, this is more of a significant government scandal in term of the Obama administration, the justice department and the FBI, in fact than anything Hillary Clinton did.

PIRRO: Clearly. Jordan, final question. What can we look forward to in the next few weeks?

SEKULOW: I think the confidence of the informant is going to change everything. That is why you will start seeing both sides tried to speed up their activity. Because we have people on the run right now, so to speak in Washington D.C. Now they know a confidential informant is going to be able to provide information on the influence Russians were trying to assert on both Hillary and Bill Clinton. Specific to the uranium deals in the United States. And ultimately were approved by President Obama.

PIRRO: Very sad, all right Tom Fitton and Jordan Sekulow. Thank you so much for being with us.

SEKULOW: You're welcome.

FITTON: Thank you.

PIRRO: Coming up. The media once again is doing everything it can to defend Hillary Clinton and the Democrats against these scandals. We will play some of the most biased moments next, as this special edition of "Hannity" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PIRRO: Welcome back to "Hannity." the Clintons, and other prominent Democrats now embroiled in their own Russian scandals. The left's most faithful ally, the mainstream media is providing plenty of cover for their comrades. For example, take a look at some of these egregious attempts to defend, deflect, and even blamed Fox News for the current rush of troubles for the left. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Trump administration trying to divert attention away from the Mueller investigation by pinning the Russia problem on Hillary and Bill Clinton.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Remember. This whole uranium thing comes from Fox News. This is a story that has been pushed, pushed, pushed in recent weeks by Fox news, even though it was settled in 2015. It's an old story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been pushed by Fox and been embraced by the White House.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's claimed that it has been debunked for years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you turn on Fox or Breitbart, you would think Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder were the ones that hacked the election that help stirred towards Russia. It's absolutely absurd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Trump dossier is back in the news. Let's clear up fact from fiction. We knew the dossier was funded by Trump opponents in both parties. The big question is whether it was true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One does opposition research, the candidate rarely knows. The campaign manager usually would.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

PIRRO: Joining us now, turning point USA founder Charlie Kirk and Fox News contributor Doug Schoen. Doug, I'm going to you right away. Someone who worked with those Clinton's, let's talk about how they spend their money.

DOUG SCHOEN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: The idea that the Clinton's or any other candidate for that matter, judge would spend $12 million and the candidate would not know what was being done and what was the result of what is being done. I was in the '96 campaign with Leon Panetta. He would have known about big expenditures. I certainly knew about big expenditures and the President would have known. No evidence Bill Clinton would have known about this, every reason to believe Hillary Clinton would have known about this.

PIRRO: OK. So Charlie, I will go to you then. Given that it's clear that this money went from the Clinton foundation , the Clinton campaign in the DNC, doesn't it seem now that it's time for Rod Rosenstein, the deputy Attorney General, who came in and said to Jeff Sessions "get out of the way, Jeff" let's appoint Bob Mueller. Isn't it time for him to say Bob Mueller, get out of the way. You are in the middle of this whole thing and then appoint a special counsel to investigate the Clinton's?

CHARLIE KIRK, TURNING POINT USA FOUNDER: Yeah, I agree with The Wall Street Journal to what they said. He should step down and should resign. I agree there should be a special prosecutor into this uranium one deal. You look at what the Clinton's did. They lost the Presidential election in 2008. The primary. They said how can we make a bunch of money? Let's sell out something very valuable to America. How about our uranium. Let's sell it out to some Russian billionaires and take a bunch of cash for our charitable foundation. $110 million in Quid pro quo. You hear the sound clips. This is put forth by Fox News. No, it was The New York Times that reported on this ten days ago. They said there's uranium being taken out of the state of Wyoming and being illegally exported to Canada and this was signed, because of Hillary Clinton selling out America as Secretary of State, quid pro quo.

PIRRO: In addition to the other people on (inaudible). But the committees that approved this sale does not make her pay for play any less illegal. Let me ask you this, Doug you have worked with the media for many years. He worked in Presidential campaigns. Ok, how does Jeffrey Toobin that guy is a lawyer. Where does he get off saying this thing was settled in 2015? Who settled this whole thing with the uranium one deal in 2015?

SCHOEN: Jeff Toobin is a friend of mine, but he is wrong in this case. This calls for a special prosecutor. Someone separate and distinct from Bob Mueller with no ties to the FBI, because one of the big questions that we have to figure out, with the dossier, what happened with the FBI? What was their role and the uranium deal there are so many questions, money funneled through Canada, the speech in Moscow by President Clinton. What Hillary Clinton knew, what she did not know? She said she did not know anything. Let's do an investigation. I was all for the Russian investigation. I'm a Democrat but I'm also for doing an investigation on the uranium deal.

PIRRO: Then let me ask you this, if you are all for the Russian investigation, after 11 months of nothing, they announced we don't have anything but we are still looking. Time to shut it down.

SCHOEN: I don't think it is time to shut it down.

PIRRO: Why? What did they come up with?

SCHOEN: We are still looking at General Flynn and Paul Manafort and my reaction is, let's see what happens with those two individuals and see where it leads.

PIRRO: OK. You know what? Honestly Charlie Kirk, DOJ, they can handle Paul Manafort and Clinton. They did not need to be a special prosecutor. I question Rod Rosenstein's motives.

KIRK: He was the guy that advised Jeff Sessions to recuse himself. If you look at bigger picture and with the media is trying to paint. What I think that is so disturbing is Donald Trump, Jr., taking one meeting a year and a half ago that resulted in nothing, came on the front page of Time magazine with the word "traitor" for nearly a month straight. He had to testify many times in front of Senators and a closed session and now you have all these new developments that Hillary Clinton actually sold out something of value for $110 million for her foundation. Nothing about that. You knew nothing about that? You look at the horrible discrepancy. Don, Jr., took one meeting in that is all they could talk about for two months. They were saying oh, its treason. He is a traitor. The double standard is horrendous.

PIRRO: Do you see the double standard?

SCHOEN: What I see are issues that need to be investigated. When General Flynn goes to Russia and sits with Vladimir Putin.

PIRRO: We are not talking about General Flynn.

SCHOEN: I'm saying there issues on both sides.

PIRRO: We are talking about the Trumps. They would take Donald Trump, Jr., who took a meeting. I would take a meeting with anyone -- I take the meeting with the devil. You were meeting with me.

(LAUGHTER)

And you lost.

SCHOEN: I know.

PIRRO: Now I forgot the question.

SCHOEN: The issue is not what Donald Trump, Jr., did in my mind. It's what did the Russian lawyer who was in the room who is with the kremlin, did I get the name wrong? Bit that is what I am concern with, what the Russians were up to. Donald Trump, Jr., I don't believe.

PIRRO: They are blaming Donald Trump Jr.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHOEN: I am not. You ask me my opinion.

PIRRO: Charlie, last word. We got to go for a break.

KIRK: Yes. Look, it resulted in nothing, unlike the Hillary Clinton scandal. $110 million came out of it. Big difference.

SCHOEN: That is investigating Charlie.

(CROSSTALK)

PIRRO: I think it was $145 million to that foundation. Ten seconds. Thanks, guys. Coming up, more on the special edition of "Hannity." right after the break.

(LAUGHTER)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PIRRO: Welcome back to the special edition of "Hannity." Tonight we want to hear from you. What to think about the anti-Trump dossier scandal? Head over to my twitter, @JudgeJeanine and let me know what you think, but before we go tonight, the movie that Sean executive produced, it is called "Let there be light" is out in theaters today. Earlier this week, Sean spoke with Kevin and Sam Sorbo as well as their son Braiden about the film.
Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: So this is the weekend, Let there be light in theaters near you on Hannity.com. Let there be light movie.com. We hope you go see it. Yes, we are taking over Hollywood. At least we are going to try. Kevin, Sam Sorbo. By the end of this weekend, you're going to be a rock star, you know that.

KEVIN SORBO, "LET THERE BE LIGHT": I hope.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: You are so mean to your father in the movie.

K. SORBO: He was mean to me. What's up with that anyway?

BRAIDEN SORBO, "LET THERE BE LIGHT": Then I did a good job.

K. SORBO: He did a good job.

HANNITY: A lot of confidence but you did to a good job. About a year and a half. Nearly two years ago. "God's not dead."

K. SORBO: "Soul surfer." you called me up and said I want to do a movie with you.

HANNITY: What was I thinking?

K. SORBO: We came here and we pitched to you and we talked for 25 minutes. Sean did not interrupt one time!

HANNITY: Shocking, I know. I do not have that reputation. Here's what I've been saying all the interviews. I've been saying Hollywood is formulaic. You get violence, sex, spider-man 90, Jennifer Aniston falls in love with whoever the new Hollywood person is. They have a baby and a dog and the movie ends. That is pretty much it. And there's been contempt for conservative Christian faith values in Hollywood. This is an antidote and we went independent. Totally different.

K. SORBO: This is the story (inaudible) before, going back to what Hollywood used to be before the '50s. These new movies come, these characters people can identify with.

HANNITY: You are the meanest, he write a book, a boarding god and she is proud of it.

K. SORBO: I was acting.

HANNITY: You were a drunk, a womanizer. A drug addict. And you helped transform his life. He had the patience dealing with him.

SAM SORBO, "LET THERE BE LIGHT": You write a story that hopefully is compelling. You want people to be interested and in order to be compelling you have to have characters that sort of brush against extremes.

K. SORBO: You want to see art.

S. SORBO: You have to juxtapose it with what he was before to what he becomes. People identify with each of the characters in the movie and that is what's great about it. That is why it touches people so much.

HANNITY: Every single person I've shown this movie to cries. Your son makes them cry. No, you don't.

K. SORBO: The comic relief. How was I as a Director?

B. SORBO: Director or dictator?

HANNITY: Oh!

S. SORBO: A burn on "Hannity."

HANNITY: Is this your first movie or have you done other things?

B. SORBO: This is my first movie.

HANNITY: You did great. You and your brother did fantastic. You are protecting your mom against him. Is that how it is like in real life?

K. SORBO: It's the other way around.

(LAUGHTER)

S. SORBO: For a lot of kids his age in a single-parent family, it comes with that. That is why this film touches people. There's a real reality in it.

K. SORBO: This movie in the screen we had done and testament from people, we are finding out that women love it but men love it even more because it touches them. We do have a father problem in this country. The dads always fat and dopey and stupid in comedies. The generations growing up over the last 20 have been 30 years. We are treated that way. It's such a bad attitude.

HANNITY: I think this is also grabbed from the front pages. It's a societal problem but there's a debate on the college campus today. "Aborting god," he is going to have the crowd on his side.

K. SORBO: Oh coming out. Which is amazing.

HANNITY: the most amazing thing is, you are torn back. Come back, you have all your handlers that want you to make more and more money and you try.

K. SORBO: He has an event that definitely changes his worldview and make him actually go spiraling further down, because he doesn't know how to handle this.

HANNITY: Can anyone explain?

S. SORBO: You enter film festivals. We entered a film festival and we won an award. It was fantastic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PIRRO: And looks great. Anyway, don't forget to tune in tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern for Justice, Congressman Ron, Corey Lewandowski, Mike Huckabee, Jason Chaffetz and the chairman of the board of the museum of the bible in D.C., all of them.

END

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