tucker. >> tucker: thank you. that's it for us. we back tomorrow, 8:00 p.m., the show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink. we want to remind you, we have those documents from the mueller investigation, catherine herridge is going through them now. "hannity" is up next, and four seconds. and we'll have more on that. sean hannity. >> sean: so timely, it's amazing. >> tucker: i got a clock. >> sean: i'm mad tonight, and i'll explain. great show up as always, thank you. welcome to "hannity." just breaking, big news out of the mueller witch-hunt. the special counsel just released its report on lieutenant general michael flynn, you know the guy who served his country 33 years, five years in combat? now mueller is recommending, after all of this time, no prison time for general flynn. but the damage has i been done. flynn is "a convicted felon, a victimless process crime based on evidence that is suspect."

the fbi didn't think he lied. now you can't get him on an actual crime so the old perjury trap always becomes the fallback in the mueller camp of democratic donors.k this is how america is going to treat a military hero? this is a sad and pathetic moment for not only the special counsel, but for the country. we'll check in with catherine herridge. she has been reviewing as we have the full report. we will also react to this travesty of justice. also tonight, we continue to monitor the dangerous situation at our southern border. now while the left active is actively promoting illegal immigration with promises of citizenship, on this program we have always told you the cold, hard truth. as we speak, there are thousands of migrants stuck south of the border in tijuana, mexico, camping out, squalid conditionsdi and now a daily stream of migrants are sneaking into the united states and another border rushh has happened. now coming up, we're going to do something you will never see on any other network. we're going to break down

the serious and deadly risk. the numbers are staggering as it relates to illegal immigration.um also, we have alarming video we will share with you tonight. look at this: young children being dropped over the border wall by smugglers.s. some as little as 2 years old. and later, you won't believe what a cnn panel said about president trump because he was paying respect to the late president george h.w. bush, it's vile, shouldn't shock you coming from cnn. i will explain in a mini monologue tonight. last night we told you how a teacher ruined santa for her kids inne class, we'll tell you about that. also, we have an update, plus much, much more. sit tight, buckle up, we have a big breaking news opening monologue that we begin with. ♪ after multiple delays, it has been a full year, a full year ruined in general flynn's life. robert mueller's report on the former national security advisor lieutenant general michael flynn, three stars by

the way, finally out. and he has been jerkedth around by this witch-hunt for almost an entire year. we know now he was coerced into pleading guilty only to a process crime.to lying to investigators. now this despite fired fbi investigator james comey, fired fbi director andrew mccabe, and even peter strzoknd who interviewed him saying that there was zero indications that, in fact, flynn ever lied. actually lied when they e were in charge of the investigation. we begin tonight with a report in washington with our own catherine i herridge. catherine, i actually have a report that you did, if i can put my glasses on, i will find out the date on this thing.g. may 4th. in it, house intel report, comey testified fbi agent saw no physical indications of deception. >> that's right,ic um-huh. >> sean: by general flynn. >> that's right, that came, sean, from testimony given by the house intelligence committee by the former fbi director james comey as well

as his deputy andrew mccabe. and that testimony was given several months apart. they both reported the same thing, that agents saw no signs of deception. in other words, they didn't think flynn was lying to them when he tried to relate his conversations and contacts with the russian ambassador. so the question has alwaysn been how do they get from, as mccabe said, a very poor foundation for false p statements case to a guilty plea for lying to federal investigators. i'm still going through the recordsti now. just to break it down and keep it simple, this sentencing memo from the speciall counsel, robert muelle, says that flynn lied about two separate issues. one was his contacts with the russian ambassador during the transition and also his communications and business dealings with the republic of turkey. based on high level of cooperation with the special counsel, theyom are recommending the minimumim on the sentencing spectrum, which would be no jail time, possibly probation.

but whaton everyone is going to be talking about is what's called an addendum. this is the document thatwh the special counsel has put forward that lays out how former national security l advisor mike flynn has been cooperating with the specialad counsel. and according to the addendum, which is heavily redacted, he has provided almost two dozen interviews with the special counsel and just taking the redactions out, what we can see is that those interviews have s focused on contacts between the trump presidential campaign and russian officials, so that is phase one. and then also in the second phase, the trump transition team as well as russian officials. so we know flynn has cooperated, provided information about both ends of the spectrum there, the campaign and then also the transition period. what i draw your attention to is these heavily redacted sections which the special counsel is withholding, they say, because of sensitive ongoing investigations.

but what they do say in one section is that flynn has been so important to their investigations because, "the defendant began providing information to the government not long after the government first sought his cooperation. his early cooperation was particularly valuable because he was one of the few people with long-term and firsthand insight regarding events and issues under investigation by the special counsel."" so the bottom line is the special counsel is recommending the minimum, so no jail time for the former national security advisor. you are quite right. what's detailed here are process crimes, what they call lying to federal investigators, which is a violation of a thousand and one, typically a maximum of five years, but in this case they are recommending the minimum. lying about contacts with the russian ambassador during the transition period and lying about his work with the republic of turkey.

what we can't know at this point is what is in those redacted sections and how it may relate to other individuals and any future criminal prosecution in the coming days or weeks, sean. >> sean: catherine herridge in washington. we will get back to her later in the program tonight. >> sure. >> sean: when weam talk about process crimes, wouldn't it be normal, when you look at the date, december 2016 incoming national security advisor talking to his russian counterpart. this is way over the line. look, i'm going to go through this slowly. if you believe in this constitutional republic, equal justice under the law, application of the laws you ought to be very concerned tonight and outraged. general flynn's entire life has been put in limbo for an entire year for this? i have read the entire report. they even used the logan act.e and actually rarely ever used or invoked. but hillary and the espionage

act? he has lost his house because he couldn't afford the attorneys. he had to sell his house. his life's work, 33 years of serving his country, washed down the drain for this? reputation destroyed for this? nobody in the fbi thought this man lied. comey didn't think so. mccabe didn't think. strzok of all people, he didn't think so, and he interviewed lieutenant general flynn. 33 years of service, five years in combat in iraq and afghanistan. and this is the treatment?t? this is the thanks this country gives him? this is what -- this is how we treat people? what kind of justice system is this? his house nearly faced bankruptcy, literally and his world crashes before him and his entire family, and i would bet any amount of money that the only reason he signed this deal was, well, it's the same old system. well, we might have to go after your son, worked with you and then we are going to invoke the logan act, which nobody invokes, to go after

him. so he could have made,m. instead of serving his country in the private sector, a lot more money. but now he has to sell his house, literally fall on the sword for his family. and don't forget, we know that they got through, what, a lot of this information, through what? we knew he was the victim of illegal surveillance, illegal unmasking. illegal leaking of raw intelligence. what about the people involved in those crimes? his rights were violated at every level. now this is a disgrace and this is what we have been telling you. the glaring example of a two-tiered justice system in america. in mueller's sentencing memo, it says "senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards." can we start with hillaryja clinton?ha and james comey, because we have a long list of democrats and trump haters who have lied under oath before congress and have faced no consequences. for example, long-time clinton aide cheryl mills, humame abedin lied when they

told the fbi investigators they had no knowledge of hillary's private email except they used it. neither doj official bruce ohr, fusion gps founder glenn simpson they, of course, one of them was lying due to their contradictory testimony. l nobody was held hostage likeon this for a year. dirty dossier author christopher steele, his whole dossier was debunked, he was fired for lying to the fbi.. but he was still working with the justice department and bruce ohr to get to special ohcounsel mueller. james clapper lied under oath about the national surveillance program. so, too, did john brennan, also likely lying under oathh about leaking. and don't forget james comey himself lied under oath when he said the report about the clinton investigation had not been written before she was interviewed. lie!vi that was being written in may of 2016. they interviewed her in july of 2016. comey, second in command at the fbi. andrew mccabe, fired because of his pathetic pattern of

lying. so you are going to end up with something like this in his life? where are the federal cases against any of these people? and that's the short list. are charges going tos be brought to all of thoset. people? when are the screws going to be turned so they sing or compose? don't hold your breath. according to michaelel goodwin, president trump is now preparing, and he should be, preparing for all-out political war for good reason.oc robert mueller and his team, partisan democrats, even clinton attorneys and a pitbull that lost 9-0 in the supreme court, cost tens of thousands of people their job, andrew weissmann, and put four people in jail overturned by the fifth circuit, they have set out to disrupt, discredit, and destroy the presidency of donald j. trump. no matter how many lives are ruined in the process. you can't get him ones the crime, let's get him on a process crime. let's set a perjury trap. we have a lot more all throughout the hour.ry we will check in with

congressman mark meadows and congressman jim jordan and matt gaetz. also, let this monologue be a warning for anyone thinking about traveling through mexico tonight in order to cross the southern border illegally. a "hannity" investigation, it is not easy and safe. you are literally risking your life. if we had a wall up people could never get in. lives would be saved. look ought this from the a.p. last four years, approximately 4,000 migrants have gone missing. 4,000 during their trek through mexico. the a.p. is also reporting that the true number is likely, their words, "much higher" and, "bodies may be lost in the dessert and families may not report missing loved ones who were migrating illegally." cartels have long scary history of enslaving, murdering undocumented migrants traveling tout u.s.ra 2010, a mass grave containing 72 dead migrants was discovered. they were all murdered by a dangerous gang cartel called the zetes cartel.

just this year, 100 migrants from the caravan, including children, have been kidnappedva way that same cartel is reportedly responsible for those who successfully do cross the border illegally, the risks continue, even within the united states, as a truck to rural areas of texas, north of thete border. hundreds of bodies have been found. many dying of dehydration after getting lost in the dessert. in one texas county alone, over 550 bodies have been recovered since 2009. we talk about family separation. what about permanent family separation with people dying? now, meanwhile, look at this video, fencing along the southern border poses a serious risk for illegalhe immigrants, lest we build a sufficient wall. shocking video from arizonaa shows a suspected smuggler, look at this, tossing children over an 18-foot border wall. others below attempting to catch the kids, look at this, on the other side. take a look attc that video.

one as young as 2-years-old. in tijuana, where the majority of the 10,000 plus 1 members of the migrant caravan are indefinitely stuck in limbo, the conditions there are horrific. they face squalid camp sites, insufficient facilities. rampant disease, a third of the migrants are now being treated for health-related issues. tijuana's health department is reporting three confirmed cases of tuberculosis, four cases of h.i.v. and aids. four case of chickenpox and a hepatitis outbreak. and yesterday, dozens of migrants attempted to sneakk across the border near tijuana, scaling a 10-foot metal fence. that's the one probably chuck schumer wants. others were able to squeeze through gaps in the fencing nearqu the coast. most were apprehended. i have no doubt the majority of migrants headed to the u.s. are merely in search of a better life and more opportunity. that's why if a wallif is properly built, it willhy secure people on both sides and the door can be built and we can reform ourr immigration system. but be warned, while immigrating into the u.s. is

legal and not easy, coming across illegally can take your livedl through the southern border, very harsh, risky, deadly, and, we often report the serious consequences illegal immigration poses to those already living in the u.s. we have a briefing i witnessed from texas governor rick perry. 62,000 crimes happened in the seven year period in texas alone. keep in mind every single illegal immigrant thatat crosses our border costs you the taxpayers around 70 grand. last year's total tax bill was a whopping $135 billion. a massive border wall would cost just a fraction of that. and not only would americans literally would be given important opportunities here to control our borders, but it would be a deterrent for people that would take that treacherous journey through mexico. simple solution to a complex, costly, dangerous problem. time for the border wall to be fully funded and right now we're going to have morend on that later in the show. we first get back to our top

story, as we are joined by north carolina congressman mark meadows. ohio congressman jim jordan, both leaders of the freedom caucus. all right. jim, i will start with you tonight. >> sure. >> sean: this is what we get. >> yep. >> sean: a man's life ruined. all of these other people have committed crimes that we know of. the information obtained on general flynn was obtained illegally. >> yep. >> sean: they put his family through hell. he has to sell his house. they threaten his family or he falls on the sword and signs something he knows is not true so they don't go after his family. is that justice in america?af >> no, it's not. and your monologue was right on target, sean. remember, james comey, director of the fbi, fired, deputy director mccabe lied three times under oath, fired. chief counsel at the fbi demoted and then left. lisaot page, demoted and left. deputy head of

counterintelligence, peter strzok, demoted and then fired. but even those five people thought mike flynn didn't lie when he was interviewed by the fbi. only bob mueller did and now this is what happens. we have got to keep this in context.s the top people at thehe fbi all demoted, left, or fired who have launched and ran the clinton investigation, launched and ran the russia investigation, put the fake dossier in front of the fisa court to get a warrant to spy on the trump campaign. even they didn't think mike flynn lied whenn he was being interviewed by the fbi. now bob mueller is saying he should getue the most lenient sentence possible but they still have the information he gave him. we will find out what that is when we get the unredacted version of what catherine was referring to tonight. >> sean: i'm looking, mark meadows, through all of this here, "the washington post" published a story. russia's ambassador to the united states on december 29th, wouldn't it be a normal process for an incoming director, such as

general flynn, to have conversations with his soon to be counterparts about important issues, even a change of policy that might be coming, or different points of view that they may have, considering we have diametrically opposed views between obama and president trump? >> well, it would be a natural occurrence. and i can tell you there are democrats and republicans on the hill that probably have had a lot more conversations with the russian ambassador than mike flynn ever thought about having. and yet, here we are tonight looking at a three starng generl being held guilty for missing a day and perhaps not recalling something. but here's the other thing that we have got to remember, sean, is this: i have looked at this report and, yes, everybody is going to focus on what has, been redacted. let's look at what is not in there. there is no suggestion that michael flynn had anythingn to do with collusion. he was with the transition team. he was part of the campaign.

and yet, there is no mention of collusion. i think it's good news for president trump tonight that this is what has come down to, even though they said he substantially cooperated, i think he substantially cooperated to say that there was no collusion and we can s look at it with that in mind. >> sean: jim jordan, i will read to you "the post" queried whether the actions violated the logan act. u.s. 9 c 953. it's old but rarely federal statute prohibiting unauthorized private diplomacy with federal nations. i think five or six times it's been used and most instances the people get off innocent. so this is what they are suggesting in this and that he was speaking, you know, as part of the president's incoming team, transition team, that they had spoken to the defendant, that he denied speaking to the, t russian ambassador about sanctions, which the president had already said

publicly, if i'm not mistaken that, in fact, oh, there's no -- you know, that's probably going to be what our policy is. that's it? this is what this is about? >> no, i know. when you look at the larger framework, of course, first of all, he's a national security advisor. of course is he going to be talking to foreign dignitaries and doing that in the transition and you are exactly right what the presidentt said earlier. i keep trying to bring this back into a context. the guy we need to talk to, sean, while the left is making all kinds of hay about this story tonight about mr. flynn, the guy we need to be talking to is rod rosenstein. it has been 10 and a half weekswe since it was reported that he talked to subordinates about wearing a wire and invoking the 25th amendment. mark and i and other members of congress have yet to ask him one single question sincee that became public. that needs to happen in the next 26 days before nancy pelosi is speaker of the house. that's what i'm focused on. this is new stride, i get it. we've been through it but that

is the real thing we have to focus on them last few weeks of this congress. >> sean: let me go back to mark meadows. congressman, if you go back to the house intelligence report, comey testified that fbi agents saw no physical indications of deception. now, that includes mccabe. that includes comey. and that includes peter strzok, of all people, that interviewed him. they didn't think he lied. and, you know, and this sends a very bad message to everybody. and that is, boy, you better never talk to the fbi. even though you might be inclined because have you -- i grew up with reverence for this great institution. you better never -- unless you are a democrat then you can say s whatever you want. then you are covered. that's what i take out of it. >> well, i think -- it's not just in the house intel. jim and i have been part of testimony and briefings and questioning where that was reiterated not once, not twice, but three different otimes that they didn't

believe that mike flynn lied. so here's what we have got. we have got a situation where we are a year and a half into this investigation. started back in may of 2017 and here we are in december. if this is the best we have got coming out of mueller's investigation, it is time that he writes the report, closes it out, and let the american people focus on what is important to them, which is really about making sure they keep their jobs and the economy and what the president has been delivering on. so it's time for mueller to bring it to a close. hopefully this is m the beginning of the end, but it can come none to soon for most americans. >> sean: it's amazing to me jim, as i'm reading. they are courting "the washington post." i'll give you what example. the talk again about 18 usc 953, the that's the logan act. they literally quote "the washington post," and an article, "prior to the defendant's fbi

interview members of president-elect's trump transition team" -- i think they might be talking about vice president pence -- "publicly spoken they had spoken to the defendant and he denied speaking to the russian ambassador about the ivsanctions." look, i don't know what your guys' lives is like. i can tell you what my life is like. the number of conversations i have on a daily basis, if you ask me who i talked to yesterday, i will not be able to recall with any sense of certainty. most people live busy lives. i was there, i watched this. this was as busy as a time as anything else and i'm sure there are a lot of pleasantries back and forth. we look forward to working with you. we will work on a lot of issues together, which would seem perfectly appropriate to me. >> if they thought he said something that wasn't accurate, why not circle back with him? he served our country, was a threery star general. why not circle back with him? as we pointed out several

times, the fbi, these key people, the same fbi who i think took something to the fisa court that they didn't check out themselves, those same people said we didn't think he was misleading us at all. if there was some kind of question, circle back to theo general and find out instead of using it to get the information that looks like mr. mueller was trying to get. >> one other thingng that we have to realize, jim and i have been in these interviews and testimony. there is a whole lot more that we can look at in terms of the conversations that fbi agents and previous agents have had that call into question whether they are being truthful or not than what we see with general flynn. and this logan act, it's a relic of a bygone era. it was meant and designed to say, we want to make surent you are speaking on behalf of a legitimate government. it's time that we look at this in a very different light.th >> sean: i think we have to look at in a different light. i just gave you a>> list. cheryl mills, huma abedin, all of these people who lied

before congress. all of them. we know that they lied. then we have hillary clinton. james comey wrote this exoneration in early may with peter strzok. he lied and said he wasn't beginning the writing of that exoneration. that's a lie by him. he might have issues with the espionage act when he leaked the information to the professor friend for the very purpose of getting it to the "new york times" so that might spark the appointment of a special counsel. he should have the same legal jeopardy. hillary's mom and pop shople bathroom closet server, we believe at least six foreign entities hacked into it. we know it's a violation of the espionage act. we know that her aides emailed that very site and had email addresses from that site. i don't see any of them going through what a 33-year veteran, five years of combat veteran, has gone through, guy that served his country. do you? why is there this double standard? >> there is a double

standard. it means if you are associated with the trump team, the trump campaign, and the trump administration, you come under greater scrutiny than a lot of other people that have been here and playing the game here in nwashington, d.c. that must come to an end. it will come to an end. guys like jim andd i are willing to hold them accountable. but enough with the talk. let's get rod rosenstein inal here and make sure that he testifies and actually tells the americanan people what he said or didn't say. >> sean: i have a tape. we played it the other night, jim jordan, of james comey literally saying, well, i lie, you know, i have lied and mccabe lied. but you can still lie and be a good person. the exact words of james comey. >> sean, james comey was saying he didn't want to come testify in a closed door session with congress because of leaks.si this is the guy who leaked the information to the "new york times" to create the momentum for the special counsel. so come on, mark is exactly right. you are exactly right. there is two standards, one for us regular folk, a different set if you are part of the political

iestablishment. that's what drives americans crazy.f >> sean: thank you, both, markpp meadows and jim jordan. we have a lot more on this breaking news with mueller recommended no prison. time for former national security advisor michael flynn. we bring in florida c republican congressman matt gaetz, pollster mark penn. t mark, you have been extraordinarily critical of c the process crimes that are involved here. we have in the last week talked to jerome corsi. he was offered a plea deal. 72 years old. he can't take it. he says i can't lie under oath before god. it would have made his life easier if he did. in an interview with me on my radio show for an a hour, he literally said they were telling him what they wanted him to say. if he just said it, he probation.t he wouldn't go to jail. his life would be great. now he risks dying in jail. we have all of these process

crimes but no underlying crimes. >> i think that's exactly right. i think what i observed is that the independent counsel's office, instead of getting people to sing, is getting people to plead guilty to things so they can build a circumstantial case against the president in a report, completely misusing the judicial process. now, look, 19 interviews with someone suggests maybe they didn't like what he had to say in the first ten. that is an incredible number of interviews to get somebody to wind up. let's all relax here. if, in fact, general flynn was colluding with the russiansly he wouldn't be getting no prison time. w that means, on its face, he was not colluding with the russians. and if he had things to say about a transition team doing the transition, i'm sure they had communications with taiwan, with china, with south korea. this is what transition teams do.

>> sean: you know what's missing here? marks, you remember during the whole clinton impeachment issue. and you were working for the clintons for years as their pollster. do you remember there was never any proportionality. here we have a guy that served his country 33 years, five years of combat. and he is the incoming, you know, serving his country, national security advisor. and he is meeting with his future counterpart. literally three weeks away they are having discussionsee and getting to know each other. maybe he didn't want to remember. i don't know. it's so insignificant to me. i know they are recommending no charges here and tryingng to hold out, well, heer helped s here and here and here, and it's big mystery of the media.ow if they had evidence of collusion, wouldn't we know by now? >> well, as i said, you would know it in the sentencing because it's not what he is being sentenced for.aued they wanted to get him for something so that when

president trump said, hey, maybe you should consider the flynn case and the situation in totality, that, in fact, they would find something here that flynn did. so they could make it look at the president was obstructing justice, when in fact, the use of the logan act was outrageous. the fact that fbi agents went to question him in the first place was really part of what seems to me -- >> sean: come on, unauthorized private diplomacy for a guy that's going to be in power in 20 days. >> senator kerry went recently to visit thee foreign affairs ministries of iran themselves in person. so obviously, somebody coming in and transition would be totally inappropriate to do this. but remember, the obama people did not like general flynn. they did not want him back. >> sean: let me get to matt gaetz. we just got this in. rudy giuliani, theli itpresident's attorney, has come out with a statement and he likened the offense in the flynn guilty plea to spitting on the sidewalkit withal major repercussions for many. he said that there was

nothing in the sentencingg memo at all to suggest collusion. denounced the mueller team and the overzealous media-inspired prosecutors and that "they are sick puppies." your reaction? >> i think that mayor giuliani had pretty stiff penalties for spitting on the sidewalk in new york during his time there. but the great irony, sean, is that robert mueller hasas achieved the same outcome that donald trump was at. i mean, robert mueller has essentially said to the court lay off of mike flynn. he is a good guy. if trump said the good thing to comey, they apparently want to throw him in jail forow it. it shows the double standard. look, we will would not be talking about michael flynn right now if it were not for the initial interviews with, wait for it, peter strzok.cy the same peterzo strzok who has the insurance policy against the trump presidency. the same peter strzok who t said, no, we will stop him, and most importantly the same

peter strzok who, when 10 months into thisbe investigation, after michael flynn's story had already been told, was saying there is no there there. there is no evidence of collusion with michael flynn or president trump or anyone else. this whole thing is a joke. michael flynn won't be facing any prison time butdn he would have faced no legal jeopardy at all if he just wouldn't have pled guilty because they would have never gotten a conviction with peter strzok as their star witness. >> sean: okay. let's go through where we are here with the sentencing issues. mark, you actually had a really good column on this. all right, so, michael flynn we got process crime, lying to the fbi. but the fbi we know didn't think he lied. and they did surveil him illegally, unmask him illegally and leaked raw intelligence illegally, but let's forget that part, we got it illegally. so he got a process crime. michael cohen, taxicab medallions and taxes, and he lied to congress, okay?e i listed all these democrats that lied to congress, they don't get anything. george papadopoulos, again, two weeks, lying to congress. then we go to paul manafort.

okay. paul manafort, loan application and tax issues. then jerome corsi, you know, they want him to sign on to lying to the fbi. roger stone, who knows what they are going to do with him. and i'm thinking, are we going to apply this to there podestas? for the fara act? are they going to look into theher they did it right way? i don't know that they have or haven't, or anybody else that might have violated this? where is -- why are we here two years later? where we are going back to 2007 and going back to 3 weeks before you are about to take the position and you are meeting with counterparts? why are we here? >> look, we are here because an effort was begun to have an insurance policy against donald trump winning the presidency and, you know, i spent a year fightingr the independent counsel for president clinton. i thought that was wrong. i thought this has been wrong from the beginning.

the kind of pleas where the crimes are created by the independent counsel, conveniently he gets them to plead where he wants them to plead after finding unrelated offenses.i this is starr chamber tactics. i have seen it for a long time. you are coming it to the fore. with flynn. >> sean: it's scary. >> papadopoulos, getting two weeks, from a pr point of view, had to come forward with no jail for flynn or looked even worse. this mueller effort is a pr effort as much as it is a hreal effort. >> sean: here's what we know. we know that hillary had a private server, illegally. we know she had top secret classified and special access programming information, congressman, on that server. then we know that an exoneration was written in may of 2016 before they interviewed her or 16 other people associated with those issues. and three days after thesu interview, they basically laid out that she violated the law but they give her a pass. okay. then they begin this whole witch-hunt into the whole russia thing.

by the way, long before this december so-called discussion that flynn had with his soon-to-be counterpart. f here is what is interesting to me. then we do have some russia collusion in the 20166 election. we have hillary and the dnc's bought and paid for unverified, uncorroborated dossier was that debunked. we know it was used to obtain a fisa warrant, four separate fisa applications against the trump campaign associate. we know that they lied to the fisa court. there were grand omissions in the fisa court. the bulk of the information was hillary clinton's bought and paid dossier. they didn't tell the judges it was her document.. hookers peeing in beds was leaked to the american peopleie before the election to influence their vote with russian lies. and then we know that it was used post elections to bludgeon donald trump and get the appointment oflemp robert mueller because they had a media leak strategy followed by insurance policy. and where is the -- when are

these people going to jail? never mind the intelligence abuses, surveillance abuses, et cetera? >> well, they are not. the reason they are not going to go to jail is that jeff sessions was the low energy attorney general who never brought the resources to bear to hold them accountable. it's deeply troubling. probably the reason why jeff sessions isn't there. the real question, sean, isn't whether or not there a nedouble standard. your fact pattern lays that out. the question is why. i think that the inspector general gave us the answer. when he says that never before, never in the history of the fbi he had seen the same people involved in that hillary clinton investigation migrate overd and start investigating the other contender in the presidential race, donald trump. then, lo and behold, they end up on the muellerer team. so i think a big part of the reason why there is this attack on the president is because have you got people covering up for failing to do their job as it related to hillary clinton or actively trying to help hillary clinton avoid consequences for her

crimes. the personnel overly are outrageous. >> sean: stay right there. joining us on the phone, number one best times sellernu "the russia hoax: the elicit scheme to clear hillary clinton and frame donald trump," fox news legal analyst gregg jarrett. i know you have read it. i have read it multiple times. the more i read it, the angrier i get. this is how we treat a guy who served his country all these years and put his family through hell and sell your house because you can't afford to keep paying the attorneys to defend yourself. >> representative gaetz is correct that, had this case been brought to trial, mueller would lose and flynn would win. a i have read the sentencing memo, nothing about collusion. the addendum, very short, five pages, heavily redacted. it says flynn helped in two cases, two areas. one, a criminal case not handled by mueller, and,

therefore, not collusion related. and the other area was discussions that the trump transition team had with foreign governments, including russia. that's not collusion either because the election was over. it sort of makes you wonder what's mueller doing here. is he going after people in the trump transition team for a logan act violation, interfering with foreign diplomacy? that's absurd because transition team is allowed to contact foreign governments. >> sean: the logan act, they forget aboutn: the espionage act, where i believe and you believe that both comey and hillary could very well, we believe they violated it, we have identified about 18 crimes with rudy giuliani that hillary probably committed. ien mention you had -- i just

went through out whole litany of everything that happened with the clinton dossier. real russianor collusion, really paid for, really designed and used to influence the election. but let's got to the logan act in particular because that's what they cite here. how often has that been invoked, that federal statute, which prohibited unauthorized private diplomacy with foreign nations. wouldn't an incoming administration official at this level, wouldn't it be normal to have contact with your soon-to-be-counterpart? >> yes. in fact, in my book, i interviewed the author of an expert who wrote a book himself on transition and he said, are you kidding me? it would be malpractice for an incoming administration not to have these conversations with russian and other governments. that's what they are supposed to do. you have conversations to prepare the incoming administration and he laughed when i suggested that it could possibly be a logany act violation. nobody has ever been

prosecuted successfully under the logan act. >> sean: the night you released your book, when it finally came out, we had been telling the audience. i watched you write the whole thing. do you remember out specific of the conversation we had before we went on the air? do you recall? >> [laughs] you said that the premise would be proven true. >> sean: well, if i asked you the details of that conversation -- this is one of the biggest day of your life. this book, i told you this book would go number one of the "new york times" list and it did for six weeks in a row. here is the point. you wouldn't be able to recall, would you, what weou talked about off air? >> oh, no, of course not. >> sean: how do they recall people to recall specifics. in conversations with people? and what does it say about somebody like myself, whose mother was a prison guard and my father worked

in family court probation and two brothers were cops. and two guys who made it to the fbi. what does it say if you want to cooperate with institutions that we grew up revering and you get it wrong and it's a political case, this is how you are going to be treated? the only recommendation i could give somebody is don't help, don't open your mouth. >> right. if the fbi or robert mueller, your door, do not talk to them. go to the nearest lawyer. you should not provide documents. you should not provide any information whatsoever because they will entrap you and snare you in a perjury trap. they play a game of gotcha. if you forget one conversation or one email that they have their grubby hands on, they will charge you with lying. and that's what they did to michael flynn. his recollection of a

conversation with kislyak was different than the fbi's version of events. well, there is the fbi but that's not a crime but mueller makes it a crime. >> sean: and that's the point. and every single example we have, from michael cohen taxicabs, well, he did admit to lying to congress. he changed his testimony. we'll put that aside. tax issues, loan application issues with manafort had nothing to do with russia long before he was near donald trump and his life. the same with tax issues with him. george papadopoulos, really? two weeks in jail, again, another process crime. it seems like mueller's goal at this point to go after trump and collusion in two different areas, which is why he's trying so hard to tie people i interviewed in the last week, both jerome corsi

and roger stone, to wikileaks saying they were trying to get that information and give that information to the trump campaign. now both of them have told me in strong terms that they never talked to julian assange, they never talked to wikileaks. they never talked to any representatives of wikileaks. after the dnc leak, i assume they wanted the information. they were speculating that he might have more or, in the case of roger stone, he says a friend toll told him he had more. like the pentagon papers case, even if they did have the information, it wouldn't be illegal for them to get it if they didn't conspire to get it and steal it or hack into somebody's system to get it, correct? >> that's exactly right. let's assume that jeromet, corsi or roger stone successfully made contact with assange and gained information and passed it along to the trump campaign that passed it along to americans. that's not a crime. that's what i tried to do. that's what you did. you are the only one who successfully interviewed assange. >> sean: by the way, and he said to me -- >> -- the problem is that mueller is criminalizing

acts that are not criminal at all and weaponizing the system of justice for partisan purposes. >> sean: didn't they illegally surveil, unmask, and leak raw intelligence on michael flynn to get toaw this point? didn't they steal the information illegally? isn't that how we got here? >> absolutely they did. >> sean: who is going to be held responsible for that? >> none of those people involved in the unmasking have been properly investigated or prosecuted, which is a crime. there is a two-tier system of justice here. you are friends of bill and hill and obama, you can do banything. if you are remotely soassociated with donald trump, they will come after you. >> sean: last question, and i think this important. assange, if he didn't hack it himself and he was given the information, wouldn't the pentagon papers' case

hold for him, similarly, the "new york times" published the exact same thing! >> yes. it probably would, although it's a debatable subject as to whether or not assange qualifies as, you know, a journalist or a news organization, wikileaks. but, nevertheless -- >> sean: if he didn't hack it and given information it but was given to him in the past, it would seem that the 6-3 supreme court decision, the pentagon papers case would e apply to anybody, especially because that information was also used by anotherer news organizations. >> if you are prosecuted, he wouldnk have an excellent defen. let's put it that way. >> sean: thank you. we have a lot more to get to tonight. catherine herridge now a has been combing through mueller's filing and she has found some very interesting tidbits. also sean spicer, dan bongino.

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narrator: your kids are not an experiment. protect them from e-cigarettes. [music ends] >> sean: this is a fox news alert, robert mueller finally releasing his sentencing report a year later, lieutenant general michael flynn. with more from washington, she has been combing through the details. look, i read it over and over again but you still find little nuggets every time you read it. >> that's right. it's definitely worth the folks reading at home, taking the time to read the documents themselves. it's not that long and they can reach their own assessments and also, sean, some are heavily redacted. one of the things that jumped out at me is when you look at one of the first violations, which is lying to federal investigators, if you just think back to october of this year, a senior fbi official was found by thef justice department inspectr general to have lied about sports tickets they received from a television journalist who was covering that department,

yet there was no prosecution in that case. i think that goes to the ideaov that critics say there is a double standard in the mueller probe. the second is the lying about work on behalf of the republic of turkey. this is a violation of something called fara, the foreign agent registration act. in this particular case, the special counsel makes the argument that general flynn lied about his activities for the republic of turkey and a l projt his company was doing with them. also wrote an op-ed on their behalf, lied about how that was initiated.-e but for most people, violations are kind of paperwork problems and once paperwork is resolved, and gotten in order, it does not result in a criminal prosecution. the third thing, if i could, that jumped out at me is if youu read the statement recommending a reduced sentence for michael flynn for his lengthy cooperation with the special counsel, there is a reference to this january 2017

"washington post" story, i know you've been talking about it, but this really is one of the important data points in the investigation. it was the first time that there was a leak about michael flynn and the conversations he had with the russian ambassador at that time. as i recall, mike flynn was outside the country so his communication, even as an american citizen, would have been picked up by the intelligence community, but in those circumstances, the american citizen's identity is hidden and anonymized -- >> sean: if i may, i don't mean to interrupt but i think the audience needs to know, there is a process -- i understand he's out of the country -- but there is a process when we know that there is an americande citizen on the line, a process called minimization. they are not supposed to identify -- they would usually identify as american citizen unless it was cleared, terrorist talk or something so outrageous

that it was a national security issue. >> that's right. this is what they call the unmasking controversy that t republicans have been so focused on and in one case, the house intelligence committee foundee that a former obama administration official had unmasked over 200 names, oror their office had, in the course of one year. that is highly unusual. >> sean: in 2016, samantha power, it was over 300. >> correct. the thing people need to know at home, when someone leaks the name of an american citizen whose conversations have been picked up in the course of foreign intelligence gathering, at the very least, that is a mishandling of classified information or ath disclosure under usc 798. those are criminally prosecutable actions. >> sean: also we know the logan act, a rarely invoked federal statute about authorized private diplomacy with foreign nations, but also talking to a

future counterparts, it's pretty unbelievable. >> folks at home can read the documents and decide for themselves whether they think it is an equal application of the law or whether there was a separate set of rules. >> sean: great job for us tonight. thank you from washington. joining us, we don't have a lot of time. dan bongino, sean spicer. i'm glad about one thing in this document, and that is talked about his 33 years of. service, five years combat duty. retired three-star general. but it says, however, senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards. dan bongino, are we holding hillary clinton \to the highest standards? james comey? mccabe, stzrok, page and the rest of his "bad cops, corrupt cops?" a few, those are the top that abuse power or lie to the by the courts. do we hold them to the highest standards? >> of course not. this entire case was based on the dossier. let's go from the top, james comey said it was salacious and

unverified. andy mccabe said he they would have had no case without the dossier. the number three said they hadn't even verified it, peter strzok, who was the lead investigator at the fbi, in his own text, said there was possibly no there there. lisa page, the lawyer in the fbi said, "it could be literally nothing." that is the upper level of the fbi. i >> sean: i apologize, i only have 30 seconds and we will have you both back. i s apologize, last word. >> i would just say that the timing of this is what concerns me. the president had probably the best seven days of his administration between the g20, china, and the way that he has been pitch-perfect, the way he and the first lady have handled it, it's really a shame what is happening now. ♪ -looks great, honey. -right?

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♪(piano music) jessica! we need to leave. right now! i need to get something. (boy): dance recitals are so boring. ♪there's a me no one knows ♪waiting to be set free so, what's the empty suitcase for? the grand prize trophy duh ♪i was born to be somebody ♪ . >> sean: when you really look at this in its entirety and you've got a man of 33 years of

service, five years combat duty, an entire year of his life ruined on a process crime, and all these other people go free, we are in the middle of a constitutional crisis. equal justice, equal application of our laws. we'll have more tomorrow. let not your heart be troubled. laura ingraham i wish i had an extra hour tonight. i wish you said go ahead, hannity, i'm taking the night off. >> laura: okay. whatever. >> sean: welcome to the laura ingraham show, i'm the hannity, filling in for laura >> laura: sean all of the cheryl mills, people like -- people forget there's so much stuff that happened from the fall of 2016 to today. >> sean: yeah. >> laura: obviously mueller, all the stuff we're learning about with flynn tonight. it just swamps all this other stuff that happened, we're going to talk about it with chaffetz. >> sean: you know what