RUSH: So there’s Christopher Wray. He’s at the Aspen Idea for skiing and the forum for skiing out there, and he’s saying in addition to the fact that the Russians do not actually try to tamper with our election infrastructure, he also said that I don’t think the Mueller probe is a witch hunt. I don’t think it’s a witch hunt.

Grab audio sound bite number 21. My buddy Andy McCarthy’s now a regular Fox analyst. He was on American Newsroom today with Sandra Smith. And her question for Andy was, “Is it a good idea for the president to keep taking aim at Mueller and his investigation?”

MCCARTHY: No, I think it’s a terrible idea, for two reasons. One, Mueller’s probe is bigger than the president and any sort of suspicion of an espionage conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign, which really hasn’t developed any evidence of that we know publicly. What Mueller was assigned was a counterintelligence investigation of Russia’s interference in the election. So when the president takes a shot at Mueller as if it was at that whole investigation, it’s as if he’s attacking that part of the investigation which I think everybody thinks is pretty important, that we get to the bottom of what Russia did.

RUSH: Well, I’ve been struggling with this, that it’s pretty important, that we get to the bottom of what Russia did. And I’ll tell you my problem with this as best I can. We already know, we know one heck of a lot about what Russia did, and it’s being ignored. We know a heck of a lot about what Russia did, and nobody is interested in it. We know, for example, everything we need to know about Hillary Clinton and the DNC and the Steele dossier.

Now, if this bores you, I want you to stick with me on this. Because it’s almost becoming an article of faith conventional wisdom that in order to have credibility as a commentator on this, you must acknowledge the Russians meddled and you must acknowledge that Mueller is a good guy, and you must acknowledge that Mueller’s investigation is worthwhile, and you must acknowledge that criticizing Mueller’s investigation is not useful. And it’s quickly becoming groupthink. It’s becoming conventional wisdom. And what troubles me about it and always has is that there appears to me to be real substantive crime that isn’t being investigated that we know of.

Let me walk you through just some of the basics. The entire existence of this dossier, it was a created, manufactured, strategic political opposition research document. It was bought and paid for by the Democrat National Committee and the Clinton campaign. It was designed to create opposition research to be used against the campaign of Donald Trump. And guess who helped create it? Russians.

A retired MI6 spy by the name of Christopher Steele was hired by another bunch of Democrat operatives at Fusion GPS. They hired Steele. Steele then worked as a retired — i.e., no longer credible — agent of MI6 with former Russian intelligence agents that he knew. And they manufactured out of whole cloth a dossier that doesn’t contain any truth in it whatsoever and several demonstrable lies. This dossier then became the centerpiece of an investigation into Donald Trump, not Russia, an investigation into Donald Trump and potential obstruction of justice and potential collusion with Russia.

This dossier was used to secure a warrant from one of the most powerful, mysterious courts in America, the foreign intelligence services court, and the purpose of the warrant given by that court was to spy at first on a member of the Trump campaign team, Carter Page, and then expanded to include others.

So we had something that started out as political opposition research with Democrat Party and Hillary Clinton that eventually finds its way to the FISA court where a warrant or two are granted and then renewed every 90 days granting spying on the Trump campaign and then names of people who were overheard in the spying were unmasked. All of this is happening at the direction of Obama administration officials.

Now we know that Comey was urged by Clapper to tell Trump about the golden showers aspect of this dossier. Comey reported — he even talked about this — “My assignment was to perform the president about golden showers.” “Did you tell him the source of the dossier?” “No, I didn’t.” “Did you tell him the Clinton campaign paid for it?” “No, I didn’t.” Didn’t occur to me. “Did you tell the president that it was written by a bought and paid for retired MI6 spy with dubious Russian –” “No, no. I didn’t tell him any of that. My assignment was to tell him about the golden showers story.”

So after Comey on July 7th and again on the 21st tells Trump about this, he then reports back to James Clapper and says, “Mission accomplished.” At that point James Clapper calls CNN and says, “Comey just told the president about the golden showers. You can now run it because it’s a legitimate news story since the president knows.” That same day BuzzFeed publishes the entire dossier admitting none of it’s true, no corroboration, but it’s so important we think you should see it.

I don’t know how many crimes exist here, but not a single damn one of them is being investigated. And yet we’re supposed to sit here and say, A, the Russians meddled, B, Trump may have been involved, C, the Mueller investigation is entirely legitimate and worthwhile and you better not criticize it otherwise you’re only causing further troubles for yourself, Trump, because this investigation is about far more than you.

Yeah, Paul Manafort, for crimes the Department of Justice previously passed on that happened years and years and years before Trump even dreamed of running for president. And now that guy is in some kind of solitary confinement in jail, and his defense is being impeded by special counsel restrictions. And yet, slowly but surely we’re being told that the Mueller investigation is absolutely legit, it’s absolutely necessary, because the Russians did meddle. Like I said, it’s become conventional wisdom. Well, the Russians always meddle.

Christopher Wray today saying they did not meddle in the infrastructure, meaning votes were not changed, no election result was affected. So what is this? To me it remains singularly in the political world of Washington a focused effort to nail Donald Trump, not to find out what the Russians did! But people are say, we gotta find out what the Russians did, we’ve got to find out, and Mueller has got to get to the bottom of it. We must not discredit his investigation.

But Andy just said he’s been pointing out it’s a counterintel investigation. By definition, they don’t look for crimes, and these indictments that were announced Friday have already been passed off to a Justice Department division that does not try cases. So these indictments were never meant to be dealt with, they were never meant to see the inside of a courtroom, have a jury, much less a trial.

Let me say one more thing about the hacking. There’s a premise that attaches itself to the hacking that whatever the Russians found out and released, if in fact they did, it was very, very bad. Right? I mean, the reason everybody’s upset about this is because what? The Russians learned secrets of the Democrat Party. And they were trying to learn secrets of the Republicans, but somehow they couldn’t get into the Republican server.

So what you might say is baffling with all of this hysteria about the hack of the Democrat National Committee and its server, you notice that nobody is talking about the substance of what was hacked? You notice that nobody is refuting what we learned from the hacking. Such as the Podesta emails and any number of other things that ended up in WikiLeaks that then ended up in the public domain, the contents of the Podesta emails and the knowledge it contributed to the overall aspect of the Clinton campaign and Hillary Clinton personally were very, very damning, because they exposed what type of people she and her organization were.

So are we saying that the American people didn’t have a right to know what was released? Are we saying that the American people should not have been informed, WikiLeaks should not have published the Podesta emails, and we should not have known the kind of person Hillary Clinton is and the kind of campaign she was running, we should not have known that.

Voters should not have been able to have that information to put in the hopper while they decided how to vote. Instead, voters should have made their decision on lies and what they didn’t know. Is that what we’re saying? Because you’ll notice — and I’ve made this point for a long time — nobody, not a single person ever refuted what WikiLeaks released.

And WikiLeaks, by the way, to this day denies that the Russians are who gave it to ’em. Be that as it may, nobody ever denied what WikiLeaks released about Podesta, his emails. What’s also interesting is that no emails of Hillary Clinton’s were released. But if you ask me, the information that ended up in the public domain was useful. It helped people make up their minds about who to vote for because it unmasked Hillary Clinton and her campaign and the people working for her.

Are we saying that shouldn’t have happened? Are we saying the Russians should not have been able to reveal all that information? Is that why the hack was bad, because it revealed certain unflattering things about Hillary and her campaign? Meanwhile, none of that is being investigated. None of it. There isn’t even any interest.

I firmly believe that all of that is what’s being covered up by all of the other attention being paid, which we’re now being told we must acknowledge as the Mueller investigation and the Russian meddling and so forth. But I’m old enough to know the Russians meddle everywhere around the world, and they do it every year and there’s nothing new about this. And yet this is being presented as a new low. The Russians meddled in our election. They meddle in everything. They practically own universities in America today.

Soviet communist infiltration is all over this country, and it has been for decades. The idea this is something new and that only Robert Mueller can ferret it out? There’s just a lot about this that doesn’t add up to me, and as I say the groupthink and the conventional wisdom start amplifying, and that’s when I start getting really suspicious.

Like, it is almost now a requirement that you and I, everybody admit the Russians meddled. But that has a specific meaning. The Russians meddled — whisper, whisper — to help Trump. We must accept this, we must acknowledge this, otherwise we’re not serious.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Mr. Snerdley just said, “Have you seen this TIME magazine cover?” I said, “Yeah, I’ve seen it.” “This is outrage. I just hate these people.” So I said, “Okay, let me get a copy of it, we’ll put it on the switcher here, we’ll show you on the Dittocam.”

For those of you not watching the program today on the Dittocam, which you must be a member a RushLimbaugh.com, and then you can watch the Dittocam any time, watch it live or archived programs, on the app as well. In both places you can visit the brand-new Rush EIB Store, which is off and running now with new stock, new merchandise, great quality stuff.

Anyway, we’ve got this composite photo. TIME magazine’s famous for screwing up photos. What they’ve done is create a composite of Trump and Putin on the latest cover with the headline: “The Summit Crisis.” Go ahead and switch to it there, Brian. This is the cover. Now, those of you not watching on the Dittocam, we’ll put it at RushLimbaugh.com, you’ll be able to see it. It’s probably gonna be pockmarked all over the internet by now. But there it is.

It was just moments ago. You know, you think I’m joking when I say that they’re trying to say that Trump is owned by Putin ’cause Trump ran out of money a long time ago, bankrupt. It must be Russian money propping Trump up and that’s why Putin can have his way with Trump and that’s why Trump will not put down Putin, it’s why Trump will not criticize Putin because Trump is afraid of Putin because Putin is the reason Trump’s a billionaire, blah, blah.

Well, here’s your proof that this is what they think. There was a story in New York Magazine a week or two ago by Jonathan Chait suggesting that Trump has been a Russian agent since 1987. This is TIME magazine’s contribution to the theory that President Trump is a Russian agent and spy and that he is here to undermine the United States in favor of Russia, which of course in real life is the exact opposite of what is happening. You say that picture made you mad. Did it sicken you? Is it like eerie to you? Well, that’s who they are and what we are up against.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here is Susan in Glendale, Arizona. You’re next. I’m glad you called. Hi.

CALLER: Hello.

RUSH: Hey.

CALLER: Hi. I’m just wondering, I’m a veteran. I was in the Army. And one of the biggest fears that we came on is NC, nuclear, biological, and chemical. And the Russians are poisoning British citizens. I’m just wondering why no one’s pressuring Theresa May. All they did was send some Russian billionaire, couldn’t come back into Britain so he went to Israel. Like, there’s no pressure on Theresa May. I’m not sure, but wasn’t chemical of any kind banned after World War I?

RUSH: Well, what Putin uses is polonium-210, I believe.

CALLER: Oh.

RUSH: All you need is an eye drop. I mean, just a couple of drops in a cup of tea and the victim’s dead inside of three weeks. Polonium, I think it’s polonium-210. That’s what they got Yevdeshenko on or whatever his name was. But, yeah. But look, the Russians are meddling in Democrat elections, and so that doesn’t matter over there. Russians are meddling and Mueller is gonna get to the bottom of it. Mueller is investigating, right, and we’re gonna find out everything about the Russians meddling in the election. If some Brits die, well, blame Putin. He’s doing it.