FNC's Martha MacCallum asks Sen. Lindsey Graham about a report from Real Clear Investigations citing a former FBI agent who says "there were seven attempts by U.S. intelligence and Clinton operatives to entrap members of the Trump campaign."



Former agent Mark Wauck told Lee Smith in the Real Clear Investigations piece, "Seven Mysterious Preludes to the FBI's Trump-Russia Probe," that he sees evidence of entrapment: "What appear to have been repeated attempts to implicate the Trump campaign in some sort of quid pro quo arrangement with the Russians who claim to have dirt on Hillary look like efforts to manufacture evidence against members of the Trump campaign or create pretext to investigate it."



"What we know now is that the person in charge of the Clinton email investigation, Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page, were in the tank for Clinton and hated Trump," Graham said. "Now, did those two people start an investigation against the Trump campaign because they had a political bias? Or was it based on legitimate evidence?"











Sen. Graham has sent an open letter to deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein asking several questions about Peter Strzok, the main figure of the investigations: "Did Strzok and Page have any role in retaining or supervising the informant or directing the decision to use the informant? Did Strzok or Page of any such role to any informant use to investigate the Trump campaign or Trump associates? Did Strzok or Page have any role in reviewing, approving or supplying information for the FISA warrant obtained to surveil Carter Page?"



"So, you know, when you put those two things together," the FOX host asked Graham. "Your letter and that "Real Clear Investigations" piece, everybody is probing at how this whole thing got started and whether or not it was some form of entrapment."



Graham said: "How would you like this guy supervising a confidential informant against the Trump campaign given his bias and given his dislike for President Trump? He should be the last guy to go to court to get a warrant on anybody associated with the Trump campaign. My question is, what role did they play in the Russia investigation?"



"Here’s what’s important," he explained. "On July 31st, they clear Clinton. Now, let me tell you this, if you had done what she had done with her email systems and compromised classified information, you would not have been cleared. So, they could not stop Trump if they found her guilty of abusing classified information. So, there was no way in hell they were going to find Clinton liable if the goal was to stop Trump because you’re giving him the election."



"The primary investigator when it comes to the Russian-Trump connection early on was Mr. Strzok, who was clearly in the tank for Clinton and hated Trump. I understand why Mueller fired him," he also said. "So, we’ll see what Mr. Mueller does."



"But I’m shocked that nobody in your business really outside of FOX News seems to give a damn that the head investigator for the FBI wanted to stop Trump and basically bastardized an investigation of Clinton, had a bias that was beyond belief, and started the Russia investigation."



Transcript:





MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS HOST: So, tomorrow, the elusive Peter Strzok, who was the lead investigator for the FBI in both the Clinton investigation and exoneration and the Russia-Trump campaign investigation. He did the interview of Michael Flynn and others. He will appear behind closed doors with the committees on Capitol Hill, but we are told this may just be a warm-up and that we can potentially expect him to testify publicly in the near future, so we can all watch his answers to these questions as well.



A new piece by "Real Clear Investigations", very interesting story, quotes a former FBI agent saying that he sees that there were seven attempts really by U.S. intelligence and Clinton operatives to essentially entrap members of the Trump campaign. This former agent's name is Mark Wauck and he says, "What appeared to have been repeated attempts to implicate the Trump campaign in some sort of quid pro quo arrangement with the Russians who claim to have dirt on Hillary look like efforts to manufacture evidence against members of the Trump campaign or create pretext to investigate it."



Tomorrow's hearing will drill down on that very central question here. And earlier this evening, I spoke with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.



(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)



MACCALLUM: So, let's take a look -- you are announcing tonight a letter that you wrote to Rod Rosenstein who is very central to all of this. And in it, we’re going to put up on the screen the two questions that you would like him to answer.



Number one, did Strzok and Page have any role in retaining or supervising the informant or directing the decision to use the informant? Did Strzok or Page of any such role to any informant use to investigate the Trump campaign or Trump associates? And number two, did Strzok or Page have any role in reviewing, approving or supplying information for the FISA warrant obtained to surveil Carter Page?



So, you know, when you put those two things together, your letter and that "Real Clear Investigations" piece, everybody is probing at how this whole thing got started and whether or not it was some form of entrapment.



SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC), SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Well, what we know now is that the person in charge of the Clinton email investigation, Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page, were in the tank for Clinton and hated Trump. Now, did those two people start an investigation against the Trump campaign because they had a political bias? Or was it based on legitimate evidence?



How would you like this guy supervising a confidential informant against the Trump campaign given his bias and given his dislike for President Trump? He should be the last guy to go to court to get a warrant on anybody associated with the Trump campaign. My question is, what role did they play in the Russia investigation?



MACCALLUM: You know, it follows up on their text messages, which, you know, I would imagine --



GRAHAM: Right.



MACCALLUM: -- he's going to say, look, those are just -- I was being funny, I was just kidding around. You know, no, I didn't like the president --



GRAHAM: Sure.



MACCALLUM: -- but it had no bearing whatsoever on my actions. But, you know, talking about the insurance policy, I mean, talk about stopping him. And then, you know, late spring of 2016, all these efforts to try to sort of poke for soft places within members of the campaign to see if they pick up on this stuff began it appears.



GRAHAM: Well, look, here’s what’s important -- July 31st, they clear Clinton. Now, let me tell you this, if you had done what she had done with her email systems and compromised classified information, you would not have been cleared. So, they could not stop Trump if they found her guilty of abusing classified information. So, there was no way in hell they were going to find Clinton liable if the goal was to stop Trump because you’re giving him the election.



MACCALLUM: Yes.



GRAHAM: The question now is about the Russia investigation. Was it a counterintelligence investigation where they were worried about Russia trying to penetrate the Trump campaign? If that's the reason they investigated the Trump campaign, they should have told the Trump campaign, hey, there are some associated with Russia that you need to be aware of. The fact that they never told the Trump campaign about the investigation is very curious to me.



MACCALLUM: I agree. It was -- that would be a defensive briefing and there's a very clear --



GRAHAM: Yes.



MACCALLUM: -- mention of the decision not to do a defensive briefing and, you know, hopefully, we are going to get to some of the -- the bottom of some of these questions.



John Brennan, who is no fan of the president, has said this: When the special counsel's work is done, the Republican Party must have its modern-day equivalent of Watergate heroes -- Howard Baker, Elliott Richardson, Bill Ruckelshaus, John Dean, who will put country, fellow citizens and law above any one person including Donald Trump.



Your thoughts?



GRAHAM: The last person I would receive counsel and advice from about anything related to Trump would be Brennan. I think Brennan has shown a dislike for the president that questions whether or not he actually was fair as the CIA director.



You've got to remember that the people we are looking at here hated Trump and I think they were all in the tank for Clinton and we’ll see what Mr. Mueller says, but I do know this -- the primary investigator when it comes to the Russian-Trump connection early on was Mr. Strzok, who was clearly in the tank for Clinton and hated Trump. I understand why Mueller fired him. I understand why he would fire other people given their behavior regarding the Trump campaign.



So, we’ll see what Mr. Mueller does but I’m shocked that nobody in your business really outside of FOX News seems to give a damn that the head investigator for the FBI wanted to stop Trump and basically bastardized an investigation of Clinton, had a bias that was beyond belief, and started the Russia investigation.