RUSH: We move on to Comey here, and I really want to harp on just a couple of things to illustrate what I think makes all of this understandable as bogus. And I want to start it with audio sound bites. Grab sound bites 3 and 4. David Asman of Fox News late Friday afternoon on the Fox Business Network, the show is After the Bell, and he’s got Howard Kurtz on. Howard Kurtz hosts a program called Media Buzz on the Fox News Channel. And here’s Asman’s first question.

ASMAN: There was one exchange that fascinated me, and so far the only person besides myself who showed any interest in it is Rush Limbaugh. Between Stephanopoulos and Comey, not to alert the president of the United States that another party had used all this salacious information, which had been used, by the way, as a basis at least in part for a FISA warrant against him, that this was opposition research from the Democratic Party using Russian — he didn’t think that was significant? I find that extraordinary, don’t you?

RUSH: It is. Tell you why in a minute. But here’s Kurtz’s reaction.

KURTZ: I do. And I think the exchange is very significant, and I give Stephanopoulos credit for asking that question. My sense right now from the early reviews, the early commentary and coverage, is that the mainstream media are, obviously former FBI director calling the president a liar, that’s gonna be a headline, but are almost embracing the Comey indictment of Donald Trump because many of its members agree with it.

RUSH: Okay. Now, here’s the thing about this question of the dossier and Comey telling Trump. This is really, really profound, folks. We have this dossier that has been bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton. You know this. It was written by a retired British spy named Christopher Steele, who ostensibly talked to some sources in Russia, who gave him a bunch of salacious stuff that Trump had done, including hiring prostitutes to urinate on a bed in a hotel room in Moscow.

That document was used to get a FISA warrant to spy on Carter Page, who really had nothing significantly to do with the Trump campaign at all. So it was really secured as a means of spying on Trump. So on two different dates, January 6th, January 27th, Comey tells Trump about this dossier. On neither occasion does Comey tell Trump what it is! On one occasion, Comey tells Trump (paraphrasing), “Hey, you need to see this. This is this kind of stuff that’s out there. You’ve said that you don’t need a daily intelligence brief. Well, you really should because this is the kind of stuff that could be out there. You need to know the kind of stuff that’s going on.”

So Trump looks at it and sees the urination story. “Oh, my God, this is crazy. Do I look like a guy who would hire hookers to you?” And Comey thinks that that is an indictment statement, that Trump is admitting that he hires hookers but that it wouldn’t look like he does. “Do I look like.” But Comey doesn’t live in Trump’s world and never has and doesn’t know how people in Trump’s world think or talk.

In Trump’s world, appearances count. In Comey’s world it’s all but innuendo and evidence and, you know, what people say doesn’t count. You know, every perp denies the crime. So you never believe a denial.

The second time Comey mentioned it to it, Trump says, “You need to disprove that. I mean, if there’s a 1% chance my wife thinks that’s true, oh, my God. That could be horrible.” Comey says (paraphrased), “My wife would never think that any of that could be true, not 1%, not 2%. I find that’s a really crazy marriage if your wife is somebody who thinks there’s even a 1% chance it could be true.” And then he says, “Mr. President, you might not want to have me investigate this because it’s very hard to prove that something didn’t happen.”

At no time did James Comey tell Donald Trump that this was a fraud document. At no time did James Comey tell Donald Trump that that document was essentially part of the Hillary Clinton campaign. At no time! If he had… Had James Comey told Donald Trump that that document, the Steele dossier, was work product of political opposition research bought and paid for by the Hillary campaign, it would have ended the entire investigation at that point, which Comey knew.

Therefore, Comey could not tell Trump the truth and never was gonna tell Trump the truth because this entire investigation is based not on intelligence, not on truth, not on evidence. It’s based on nothing more than a political desire to nullify the election of Donald Trump. It has as its purpose to either get him thrown out of office or to force him to resign simply because the people who don’t like Trump inside the Beltway think it’s offensive that he won, and they want him gone.

If Comey had admitted what this was, it would have been the end of every aspect of the investigation. That is how important this is. Now, I must say, there’s a caveat to this. We don’t know for certain when it is that Comey knew about the origins of the dossier. I am assuming (and I am relatively sure) that when Comey told Trump about it, he knew that it was not intelligence, that he knew it was an opposition-research document bought and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign, the DNC.

But I can’t state that with ontological certitude. He first briefed Trump on January 6, 2017. Now, there is evidence of when Comey knew what, but it is currently either classified or under seal — and I believe this is what Devin Nunes is trying to get disclosed. I think this is part of what’s redacted in all of these memos that Nunes wants that the FBI is reluctant to share — and when they do share, there’s a bunch of redactions.

I think Nunes is trying to confirm that Comey knew on January 6th and certainly January 27th that this was not intelligence, that it was opposition research, and that he did not tell Trump about it. In that interview with Stephanopoulos, he says, “I don’t think I even used the term ‘Steele dossier.’ No, of course I didn’t tell him. It didn’t occur to me.” Didn’t occur to you to tell him that the thing was political opposition research? Didn’t occur to you!

Folks, this to me… I don’t care what else is in this book, this is bombshell stuff to me. Now, admittedly, I’m not a denizen of the swamp, and the denizens of the swamp apparently don’t think this is that big a deal compared to other things in this book. But to me, this is everything! That dossier is everything. They got a FISA warrant twice based on this thing. They were spying on the Trump campaign. They were trying to get Trump thrown out of office.

Fake, bogus allegations.

Nothing substantial behind any of these allegations.

Nothing corroborated.

Nothing verified.

Even Comey admitted that. He presented this to the president so that that would become news. That’s how they could get the existence of the dossier into the mainstream media. “The president has been shown this dossier…” It was free and clear to report on the thing. There is nothing new in the Comey book, and that is powerful — and here’s why. If Comey had anything new — if Comey had anything that nobody else knows, if Comey had the bombshell, if Comey had the silver bullet — he would have revealed that in under-oath testimony.

If he had it. He doesn’t have anything new. This book is fraudulent in the sense that it’s being reported as Comey unloading and telling people all kinds of things we don’t know. There isn’t anything new in the book. The book makes Comey look like the biggest nerd in high school you can ever remember. He thinks the world revolves around him, thinks he’s the only Boy Scout left. It’s really perplexing in that regard. But here’s my…

Not only did Comey know that this Steele dossier was political opposition research, they all knew it, folks. They all knew it — and by “all,” I mean every investigator. Strzok, Rosenstein, take your pick. They all knew that this dossier was a fraudulent, fake bunch of crap. John Brennan at the CIA — who I think is the general leading this army. I think Brennan is the guy running everybody, and the reason I think that is ’cause Brennan can’t shut up himself, in his opinions of Trump and Trump’s presidency and what he’s done.

Brennan just can’t shut up, and he is revealing his bitterness and his anger. Why should any of this be personal to Brennan? He was Obama’s CIA guy. Well, the reason it’s personal to Brennan is because this hasn’t worked. They were gonna get rid of Trump in six months, folks. That was their objective, and this was Exhibit A in doing it — the dossier — and they were hoping the American people would believe this and buy it and demand that thrown be thrown out on the basis that we can’t have such reprobates in the highest office in our land.

“We cannot have a president who would hire prostitutes to urinate on a bed, especially because Obama slept in it. That’s beyond the pale.” That’s what they were hoping. And that’s why Comey didn’t tell Trump the whole thing was fake and fraudulent when he knew it was and when they all knew it was. And if Comey had told Trump that, I’m telling you: That’s the end of the investigation. It’s the end of all this. It all ends right there, because everything descends from that dossier.

I have to take a break. But I’m not through.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, there’s one other piece to this in the Daily Caller: “Former FBI Director James Comey says he is unsure whether the infamous Steele dossier is a ‘credible document.’ ‘Has it checked out? Is it a credible document?’ ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Comey … ‘The answer is, I don’t know,’ said Comey … ABC News did not include the segment in its one-hour 20/20 special.” So in the special, in the segment, Comey says he didn’t tell Trump that it was Hillary Clinton opposition research.

Stephanopoulos knew it, knows it now. “Did you tell Trump it was opposition research?” (stammering Comey) “N-n-o. Of course not! Eh. No! In fact, I didn’t even call it the Steele dossier.” In his book, Comey is saying he doesn’t know if it’s credible. If he doesn’t know if it’s credible, would somebody explain to me how Comey allowed it to be used to get a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign? If it not evidence, if it’s not corroborated?

Well, I can give you the answer: Comey and the FBI said they relied on totally on past credibility of Christopher Steele. He had never let them down in the past. I simply do not believe this. I do not believe that James Comey did not know that this was opposition research. I do not believe that James Comey literally thought this was true.

It’s possible, given what they think of Trump and given the deranged minds that make up the Never-Trump movement. But I’m gonna tell you, the fact that it’s a political opposition research document being used to get a FISA warrant and Comey says he can’t corroborate any of it? Then how does it get used? There’s gotta be some… We’re talking a FISA search warrant here. There has to be some probative, evidentiary value to this, supposedly, to be able to get such a warrant.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: James Comey said in an interview that he revealed the reopening of the Hillary Clinton email investigation on October 28th, 2016, in part because he expected her to win the election. Comey told Stephanopoulos that he was influenced by the assumption that Clinton would win. What he is saying is that he wanted to get this wrapped up and have her exonerated — well, no, this is not what he’s saying, actually.

I’m gonna tell you what he’s really doing here. He had evidence that Hillary emails were on Huma Abedin’s computer and her husband, Carlos Danger, Anthony Weiner, for months! He knew for months what he announced on October 28th that he was gonna do. He knew he had those emails. There were thousands and thousands of emails. Supposedly they were able to go through them all over a weekend and clear Hillary yet again.

So he reopens it October 28th on things he could have done back in September or August. He announces after a three-day weekend that Hillary’s in the clear, nothing happened, he says he did this because he thought she was gonna win and in that sense he wasn’t really hurting her.

Here’s the real reason for this. Let me tell you the real reason he did this. He announces on July 5th that he’s not gonna prosecute her because no reasonable prosecutor would prosecute because Hillary didn’t intend to break the laws that she broke. Intent is not in the law. In other words, she did not have to intend to do what she did in order to be breaking the law. Comey invented that.

But he was there to clear her because everybody had to keep Obama safe and dry. Because Barack Obama had lied when he said that he didn’t know Hillary was using her own server, until he saw it in the news. But that’s demonstrably false because Obama was communicating with her on that server. And he saw her email address did not have a .gov suffix at the end of it, he knew it was off site and he knew it was personal, and he used it, and he was sending classified data back and forth with her. And he lied about it that.

They had to protect Obama. So Hillary was never gonna get prosecuted. They had to go through this big dog-and-pony show to exonerate her, and Comey calls this press conference on July 5th. And if you’ll recall, folks, after that happened, we’re all agog here because it’s not standard FBI behavior. They never go public with the status of an investigation. And when they close one, they just close it. They never tell anybody that they were investigating X and it’s over, and they never explain what happened.

But in this case Comey went out and veritably gave us the bullet points of what an indictment of Hillary would look like. Remember what we all said? At the time, we all bought into this notion that Comey was Mr. Integrity. And what we thought was that Comey was handcuffed, and he wanted to go get her but couldn’t and so he was telling the public, “Hey, she’s really guilty, I want you to know it, but I can’t do anything about it.” Remember this? That was my take. I wasn’t alone.

I really thought that James Comey was who we’re told he was, who we thought he was, Mr. Integrity, Mr. Law and Order. And I thought Comey was frustrated that he had the goods on her and couldn’t do anything about it because of presidential politics, pressure, or that he didn’t want to involve himself in a presidential race and himself or the FBI be responsible for killing a nominee’s candidacy.

So instead what he did was called a press conference and tell everybody the crimes she had committed and then said, “Sorry, but we’re not prosecuting because we couldn’t find any intent.” The Democrats hated that. They despised it. They didn’t understand it. We thought Comey was on our side when he did that, some of us did.

Then on October 28th Comey reopens this. And the Hillary campaign is fit to be tied. We played the audio montage last Friday where all these Democrats hate Comey, demanding that he resign. He’s embarrassed himself, he’s embarrassed the FBI, worst FBI director ever. And on and on and on.

Then the book comes out and Comey says, well, he did this because he thought she was going to win the election. “At some point, was the decision to reveal influenced by your assumption that Hillary was gonna win? You’re concerned that if she wins and this comes out weeks later, this is taken by her opponents as a sign she’s an illegitimate president?” Comey said, “Yeah, it must have been. I don’t remember consciously thinking about that but it must have been because I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was gonna beat Trump.”

So he’s dumpin’ on the media.

“Hey, everybody told me she was gonna win,” and he’s saying, “Yeah, it must have been. I’m such a Boy Scout, my thoughts are so pure! Yeah, it must have been that I was trying to do the right thing.” Let me tell you what he was doing. He thought she was gonna win, and he waited until a late date where his public reveal of the opening of the investigation would do as little damage as possible because the election was so soon afterwards. It was a great miscalculation.

The effort here was indeed to exonerate her in toto before the election so that they could bury this email thing once and for all so that it would not resurface after she had won. That’s why he did it. He could have done it in August. He didn’t have anything on October 28th that he didn’t have months earlier. He did it late, in a miscalculation that doing it late would cause her the least electoral damage because he thought her lead was sizable.

He was believing Nate Silver, he was believing the New York Times and everybody else who said Hillary had a 95% chance, seven- to eight-point election margin of victory, whatever, and so he was doing this to cause her the least damage. But stop and think. Forget the motivation. An FBI director announcing, revealing, admitting that he took a course of action in pursuit of a criminal matter based on political polling and news media reporting.

Since when does the FBI pursue justice on the basis of public opinion polls, conventional wisdom, and media reporting? Hmm? And remember, the overall objective was to protect and save Barack Obama legally. What Hillary was doing was demonstrably illegal, provably illegal, and Obama had lied when he said he didn’t know she was doing that. These two things, to me, are all I need to know to realize that all of this is a gigantic scam and fix.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Yeah, that’s right. Stephanopoulos says, “Did you tell Trump that the dossier was opposition research of the Clinton campaign?” “No, I didn’t know it at the time,” Comey could have said. “No, I didn’t know at the time that was opposition research.” But he didn’t say that. (iPhone music playing) “No, I didn’t think about that. I mean, I didn’t even call it ‘the Steele dossier.’ No, no, no, no.” And he was just totally preoccupied with…

Hey, Siri, stop! I thank you for telling me that because I couldn’t hear the racket. What was it playing? Could you tell? (interruption) The Funk Brothers? Anyway, Comey could have said, “I didn’t know it, George, that it was opposition research at the time.” But he didn’t say that. This whole thing — and they all knew that it was that!