Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: Rep. Ratcliffe Breaks Down Bruce Ohr's Testimony

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(CROSSTALK)

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

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

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

SOLOMON: Sorry, sir.

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

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

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

Did he comment on any of that today?

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

Those are what we call material facts.

HANNITY: Let me ask you this --

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

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

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

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

HANNITY: The FBI I know I'm told.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(LAUGHTER)

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

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

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

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

Thank you, Congressman, for being with us.

RATCLIFFE: You bet. Thanks for having me.

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