chairman gowdy. ranking member cummings. it's an honor to testify today for this hearing. as you know, i'm the dean of the miliken institute school of public health at the george washington university and we conducted a recent study about the excess mortality in puerto rico from hurricane maria. i submit for the record my full testimony, as well as the executive summary of our reports for puerto rico. using sophisticated models that account for migration, annual and seasonal deaths rates and adjustments for demographics like age, sex, and social class, we found that there were 2,975 excess lives lost due to hurricane maria for the six-month study period of september, 2017, through february, 2018. all regions in puerto rico were affected but those living in municipalities with the lowest socioeconomic development, older adults especially males, experienced the greatest risk of excess mortality. the two highest risk groups continued to have excess mortality through february, 2018. like all the u.s., th

>> more firm trey gowdy, first from ed henry. good to see you. >> michael cohen one said he would take a bullet for the president and now he is turned on his former boss that is facing three years in prison. he arrived at the courthouse in new york with his wife, the cost of these investigations but in court he went into the president saying he was motivated by blind loyalty to cover up what he called the president's dirty deed. tonight, the president's current attorney rudy giuliani is firing back. he says, how can he claim blind loyalty when he was taping his own client? he also declaring mueller's probe is a witch hunt. he is ignoring that he has lied to them on others. he will surrender for prison on march 6th after pleading guilty to some crimes that are nothing to do with the president-like tax evasion. the violation of campaign finance law or at least tied to the president, he claims president trump directed him to play hush money. the president told him, he trusted his lawyers to follow the law in those transactions. whil

here is trey gowdy. >> the f.b.i. had a criminal investigation into a presidential candidate and in less than a month after that ended, they launched a counter intelligence investigation into the campaign of the other major presidential candidate. it is not too much to ask for the former head of that entity to come explain to congress the decisions made and not made during the relevant time period. >> bill: mike emanuel is watching the movements on capitol hill. >> good morning to you. this is an important moment for these house republicans on these relevant committees wanting to question the former f.b.i. director james comey. he arrived on capitol hill a short time ago ahead of his closed door under oath session with house lawmakers. a compromise struck by agreeing to release a full transcript to avoid selective leaks. questions for comey about the integrity of the department of justice, the possibility of fisa or foreign intelligence surveillance act abuse and regarding some of the comments he has made in interview

gowdy. trey gowdy asks him while you were director you never knew the dnc hired a law firm that hired an opposition research firm that hired christopher steele. christopher steel was the author of the anti-trump dossier. it's established the dossier was paid for by the dnc and clinton campaign, one of the foundational pieces for the surveillance warrant on a trump campaign aide and mr. comey says no, i don't think so, i don't have any recogniz recollection g told that or reading that or learning that when i was director. he said he believes he learned that information from the media after he left as director but i'm digging further. so number one, there's a big chunk of transcript that certainly has to do with the dossier, its use to secure surveillance warrant hand the director knew about the sourcing of the document and the intelligence officer, the british intelligence officer who put it together. in this case, he's saying he was not aware of the financial relationship with the dnc and cl

that need to be asked and we are prepared now with some very experienced former prosecutors like trey gowdy and john ratcliffe and very experienced investigative staff to ask those questions, and get to the bottom of the answer.

gowdy: paul ryan is been the speaker of the house. he has been the chairman of the budget committee and the chairman of the ways and means committee. he's the smartest kid in the room. whether it's tax, budget, health care, entitlement reform. those are not the things i will remember the most or remember the most dearly about him. ofl was my favorite member congress before i ever got to congress. transition from a courtroom to a congressional candidate, i would read his roadmap to recovery. i would read his speeches. i would watch his interviews. he was smart. he was persuasive. inwas contrasting, but not an overtly confrontational way. notecards during the debate. he did not need staff to whisper the answer in his ear. he was, to me, as a candidate for congress, exactly what our party and our country needed, which was a smart, persuasive, contrasting person who understood and knew the issues. i got to congress in 2011. i made it my mission that i was going to meet paul ryan. when we orientation were sworn in, i went by his office. no

republican congressman from south carolina, trey gowdy, is here on the house judiciary committee, also chairman of the house oversight committee. mr. chairman, thank you for your time tonight. >> yes, ma'am. >> shannon: people want to know about a lot of things that james comey might have about information about, from the hillary clinton investigation to the infamous investigations looking into potential russian collusion with the trump campaign. what is the main focus? >> everything. the integrity of the department of justice. everything you just mention goes to whether or not you can have confidence in the department of justice and you can add into that, fisa abuse and you can add into that has memos and you can add into that all the interviews he has done since he separated from service, but the fbi had a criminal investigation into a presidential candidate, and then less than a month after that ended, they launched a counterintelligence investigation into the campaign of the other major presidential candidate. so that is a lot of power that we have given an entity, and it is not to

that chairman gowdy on the benghazi hearings was going after something where there was no there-there. however, with special counsel mueller, he has spent his time looking for things and he has come up with a lot because where there is smoke there was a lot of fire here. and a number of convictions and indictments that he's brought shows you this was a real serious problem. now, gowdy, after he announced his retirement, started complaining about some of the witch-hunt tactics of his colleagues and said he wanted to get back to being a regular prosecutor. he has a chance to show that he's actually interested in rule of law. he's interested in stopping obstruction of justice tomorrow, and it will be very interesting to see when director comey comes out of that meeting, what he says about how gowdy was. >> chuck, you may have heard my complaint earlier that there is a toner shortage crisis going on in american newsrooms because of the dreaded black stripes of redaction. this is by way of asking you for a preview where to set our sights. we have these two different documentary leases tomo

gowdy: and my sadness is not that you are leaving. my sadness as i do not know how many paul ryans there are behind you, and how many young men and women like you would choose to enter the current political so you were right when we met eight years ago. we are peers. we are colleagues. we became friends. but, paul you are wrong about , one thing. we are not equals. you don't have an equal. people like you don't come along very often, and when they do, they don't come with your humility. when our founding fathers decided to engage in this experiment, this intersection of virtue, knowledge, and freedom, it was people like you they had in mind. and if i had one draft choice if we were starting this experiment to lasso human nature through government, if i had one pick as a modern day founding father or mother it would be you, paul. , of all the people i know in politics, it would be you. so you leave as you began. my favorite member of congress. and i'm not alone. on behalf of a grateful congress and a grateful country, thank you for you

let's get right to what james comey had to say yesterday when questioned by trey gowdy. president obama said of her email arrangement i don't think opposed a national security problem. how would he have known that at the time? i can't answer that. >> he also said, meaning obama, that this is not a situation in which america's national security was endangered, how would he have known that at the time? comey, same answer, i can't answer that for him. what do you make of this exchange? >> trey gowdy was showing flair is a former prosecutor with cross-examination style questions which proves to show that either comey was completely incompetent at his job or covering for president obama because he says on one hand that he personally didn't direct anyone else to brief president obama on the situation yet we have that clip that is contemporaneous from president obama saying he made that assessment at the time so which is it? i would agree with mark meadows who tweeted yesterday that come is showing he's taking no responsibility for the erosion of trust in the fbi and the doj an

gowdy at one point asked why they even sent in fbi agents to interview michael flynn. comey testified the reason they did initially was because the incoming vice president at the time, mike pence, was making false statements about the interactions that flynn had with the russian ambassador. he wanted to know why, according to gowdy, he said i'm trying to understand it's not the fbi's job, unless i'm mistaken to correct false statements between two political figures and james comey pushes back. he said because it is the fbi's job to understand the efforts of foreign adversaries to influence, coerce, corrupt the government of the united states. comey says they were sent there as part of the counterintelligence mission to try to understand why it appeared to be the case that the national security adviser was making false statements about his conversations with russians to the vice president of the united states. now, of course this is significant. just today sarah sanders echoing the line from the president that michael flynn was somehow ambushed by these fbi agents in th

gowdy asked why can't you answer that? comey said because i think it calls for information that falls within the special counsel's investigation and instructed by the bureau not to answer questions that fall within that. however, remember, last time comey was here he said the f.b.i. was investigating four trump campaign associates for possible inappropriate talks with russia during the campaign and trump was not one of them. >> bill: more to come on that. peter doocy. see you next hour. four minutes past. >> julie: fox news alert on another big story this morning. facebook defending itself after a stunning new report. according to the "new york times" facebook gave other tech giants like apple, amazon, netflix gave them more data than previously disclosed. good morning. >> according to internal documents obtained by "the new york times," the social media giant partnered with more than 150 companies allowing them specially negotiated windows into user's privacy. windows that smaller companies did not have. one example, face

that chairman gowdy on the benghazi hearings was going after something where there was no there-there. however, with special counsel mueller, he has spent his time looking for things and he has come up with a lot because where there is smoke there was a lot of fire here. and a number of convictions and indictments that he's brought shows you this was a real serious problem. now, gowdy, after he announced his retirement, started complaining about some of the witch-hunt tactics of his colleagues and said he wanted to get back to being a regular prosecutor. he has a chance to show that he's actually interested in rule of law. they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again! get stronger... get closer. start listening today to the world's largest selection of audiobooks on audible. and now, get more. for just $14.95 a month, you'll get a credit a

how can we evaluate it other than what he apparently said to congressman gowdy. you can't answer or you won't. and he said it's a little bit of both. if he can't answer, if we are coming to the end of the congressional session, we are stuck with that. but if he says i have respect for the institution would say i won't answer. eric: he had a doj lawyer there. he didn't know the genesis of the investigation. he wasn't clear on that. here is the back and forth with congressman gowdy. when did you learn much gps and per kin coie? that seems to be a slam dunk to know christopher steele was being used by the fbi then fired for apparently talking to the media. he's the fbi director and he didn't know it? >> somebody who is a figurehead maybe wouldn't know it. but jim comey had a re reputatin of being very hand on. when you have a sensitive investigation, i don't want to call anybody as not telling the truth, but it trains credibility. eric: do you think he's book and weaving and is a little punch drunk? 225 answers like that, i don't think there is much doubt there are

gowdy got a bit emotional when introducing his friend and colleague. speaker ryan saying he's proud of his time at the helm of the house. >> the drivers of our broken politics are more obvious than the solutions. so this is a challenge i hope to spend more time wrestling with in my next chapter. as i look ahead to the future, this much i know, our complex problems are absolutely solvable. that is to say our problems are solvable if our politics will allow it. >> speaker ryan is retiring after more than two decades on capitol hill and three years as house speaker. >> supporters are calling it a christmas miracle. the senate in a rare act of bipartisanship has passed the most sweeping criminal justice reform in a generation by a vote of 87-12. the house is likely to approve it today and president trump is expected to sign it this week. this bill expands early release programs for non-violent offenders. it eliminates so-called stacking provisions for crimes involving firearms. it shortens mandatory minimum sentences and reduces disparity between crack and

gowdy: thank you. paul ryan has been speaker of the house, vice presidential candidate, chairman of the budget committee, chairman of the ways and means committee. he's the smartest kid in the room whether it's tax, budget, healthcare, entitlement reform, but those are not the things that i will remember most or remember most dearly about him. paul was my favorite member of congress before i ever got to congress. when i was trying to make the transition from a courtroom to a congressional candidate, i would read his road maps to recovery. i would read his speeches. i would watch his interviews. he was smart. he was persuasive. he was contrasting but not in an overtly confrontational way. he didn't need note cards during a debate. he didn't need staff to whisper the answer in his ear. he was, to me, as a candidate for congress, exactly what our party and our country needed, which was a smart, persuasive, contrasting person who understood and knew the issues. so i got to congress in 2011 and i made it my

it included the fiery exchanges between james comby and trey gowdy. is intlition when trey gowdy pressed comey on why he skirted fbi protocol by sending agents to the white house and interviewing general michael anyone without counsel. this is his response. and i quote. i never worked in the transition time before. but my understanding that a more established administrative environment you wouldn't get away with calling a witness and saying, hey, can we come and talk to you. i guess eric holder wouldn't allow that, right? one of those agents sent to the white house was peter strzok who was fired from his job for huge bias. remember that? the peter strzok lisa page texts? joining me right now, andrew stoltman. maybe general flynn should have realized the severity of it. but clearly he didn't under the circumstances and james comey had no problem with that. is that some kind of violation of something? >> there are so many violations here, it's amazing. nobody said what michael anyone did wasn't wrong. clearly it was. but this has nothing to do with russ

. >> bill: trey gowdy calling out what he considers hypocrisy. >> everything that is calculated to disrupt the last two years of the trump of his tenure in office, and it's -- they may be smart enough not to pursue impeachment. some of them are not. 60 of them have said they should be impeached and mueller hasn't issued a single finding yet. it will be bitterly ironic to me to listen to democrats clamor for the administration to be responsive when they didn't say a word for the six years we were trying to get information from the obama administration. >> bill: judge andrew napolitano with analysis and we start at the white house with kevin corke. what does the judge want in in matter? >> not only the documents related to flynn's questioning and all memoranda as well. judge emmett sullivan. we've talked about him before. he has made mauj or rulings. they're trying to get to the bottom of is what happened during the course of the f.b.i.'s questioning of general flynn? this is an extraordinary demand with a 3:00 p.m. friday deadline for the special counsel's office to produce those sensitive

we could get to this. >> one thing about trey gowdy. trey gowdy is retiring. he has only three weeks, four weeks to do whatever he is going to do. he has holidays in between. what will he do in this very, very short amount of time? this is his last hurrah. brian: he can pin him to the ground, with a good prosecutor with series of follow-up questions he can finally get answers. >> comey is way too slick for that. he will be very combative. has answer for everything. he is very schooled. he did the book tour. he has been -- brian: a lot of this stuff came out after his book. >> give me one example you think comey cannot answer. brian: either he is lying or struck is lying about hillary clinton emails when he was informed on anthony weiner's laptop. you told him three weeks ago and you said you didn't find out until two days before. >> congressman, my best recollection is i didn't see it -- brian: you called strzok a liar? >> i don't think james came my will hesitate to call peter strzok a liar, anyone a liar who disagrees with him. ainsley: what about preferenti

he was introduced by congressman trey gowdy of south carolina.

he was introduced by his friend and colleague, congressman trey gowdy. >> thank you. paul ryan has been the speaker of the house, vice presidential candidate, a chairman of the budget committee, a chairman of the ways and means committee. smartest kid in the room. whether it is tax, budget, health care, entitlement reform but those are not the things that i will remember most or remember most dearly about him. paul was my favorite member of congress before i ever got to congress. when i was trying to make the transition from a courtroom to a congressional candidate, i would read his roadmaps to recovery. i would read his speeches. i would watch his interviews. he was smart. he was persuasive. he was contrasting, but not in an overtly confrontational way. he did not need cards during a debate. he did not need staff to whisper in answer into his ear. he was to me exactly what our party and our country needed which was a smart, persuasive, contrasting person who understood and knew the issues. so i got to congress in 2011 and i made it my mission that i was going to meet

trey gowdy once in a while will throw you a bone, he'll say, if the evidence is there, you should hear what mueller has to say. but it rehashed everything we've already heard. there was nothing new. the bias, the issues vis-À-vis james comey, and that's all that we heard in the seven-page letter and there was nothing new that came out of some big filing by the gop. >> it's pragmatic at the end of the day. azi? >> how republicans should be thinking of themselves. mueller's report, when it comes out, could be explosive, it could have nothing at all. house republicans have a different set of priorities than the president. it may not be something he wants to hear or fully endorse. but they're political survival may rely in part on separating themselves from the president depending on what comes out of this report. >> they're certainly watching that barometer. >> oh, yes. >> it's a tough one certainly for many of the members who have said certain things and represented certain things during the election that just finished. i really enjoyed this conversation, katie phang, azi, josh lederman

that need to be asked and we are prepared now with some very experienced former prosecutors like trey gowdy and john ratcliffe and very experienced investigative staff to ask those questions, and get to the bottom of the answer. we want to follow this matter. we want to follow the truth where it leads and then we want to make these transcripts available to the public so that they can draw their own conclusions about what occurred in 2016. i'm concerned and it's my hope that by doing this we will prevent it from happening again in 2020 or hopefully ever again. the fbi was misused in 2016 and this is an organization that is very very important. every day, thousands and thousands of great fbi agents and others protect us from terrorist attacks, prevent crime , solve crimes, this organization has been hit hard and they need to be rehabilitated and let me just say christopher wray, the new fbi director has done a job of making major personnel changes at the top and in terms of taking the inspector general's report to heart, and making changes, so that this kind of thing won't happen again. maria

trey gowdy asked about remarks made by former president obama in october of 2015. >> you think it's not that big a deal? >> what i think is that it is important for her to answer these questions i to the satisfaction of the american public and they can make their own judgment.on i can tell you that this is not a situation in which america's national security was endangered. >> laura: okay, so gowdy followed up, asking comey if he'd ever spoken with president obama about the clinton email investigation, to which the ex-fbi chief replied no. he said he never directed anyone at the bureau to do so either. joe, let me get this straight. comey's fbi never briefed president obama on an ongoingg investigation about the democrats' nominee for the presidency. how could obama be so confident there was no national security risk? >> what's interesting is what president obama did was command influenced by publicly telling the fbi and the department of justice if she broke the law. he told them the results he wanted. james comey delivered. he exonerated her illegally. she broke the law. there isn't a

but the one thing that i can tell you today that surprised me is that under trey gowdy's questioning and john ratcliffe ratcliffe's, it was the justice department meaning that the fbi attorney that was their time and time again. they are to the pleasure, but told him not to answer, question after question, fundamental to the investigations that brought him there. there is no question in my mind, we will be over at the fbi, we will be over at the department of justice working out the details for a great many things that they came prepared not to answer. >> harris: like what? >> i have to be a little careful, let's just say in broad strokes that everything related to hilary's investigation, everything related to how they got onto it and what their process was, everything related to the fisa warrants and the fake dossier, broadly, those are the areas in which time and time again he is not answering. and i have to be careful, because the transcript is not out and i want to respect the process, but the one thing that is remarkable is even though i can't tell you what he did say, i can tel

it shows what trey gowdy is purrs. what jim jordan will pursue. what was striking about it is that there is no secret. they are asking the same questions they have been asking receipt orangally debt receipt okurally the last two years. that framed up with the newer information to me suggested hat the balance of who has additional arrows in their quiver, it is really in mueller's favor. there is not some secret counter report that you should expect jim jordan to issue sometime next year. >> ryan goodman, and i wrote a piece on eight take aways from he filings on friday night and into saturday. i think obviously the screaming headline is that the prosecutors adopted michael cohen's allegation that the president directed what the prosecutors are saying are illegal and felonious campaign contributions. there was another line in that filing that also suggested that other people in the trump campaign were also involved in that effort, which sort of suggests without saying it that there could potentially be conspiracy liability for people other than the

trey gowdy and mr. ratcliff to have in our unimpeded. to get an hour with the republicans, our birth democrats. that continues to toggle back and forth and when you have ratcliff and trey gowdy not limited, you have a very different result, much more illuminating and get much more in-depth and i think mr. comey was trying to run out the clock but showing up on friday is an imperative and i'm glad he's going to do it. >> shannon: i think he will have some saturday reading when that transcript is alleged to be public. jason and harry, thank you so much. a few months ago, federal judge ordered stormy daniels to pay the president's legal fees after ruling against her defamation lawsuit. this become the president's lawyers are back in court is a stormy daniels owes them $340,000. arguing they racked up big bills because of her lawyer, michael avenatti's, public grandstanding. daniels previously sued the president seeking to break a nondisclosure deal about an alleged one night stand with then businessman trump back in 2006. confederate statue

trey gowdy said and you followed that protocol with presidents bush and obama? comey said i don't remember having an occasion like this with either of those respects. still some lawmakers on the republican side upset that comey didn't remember some importance questions, neil. >> neil: more of the fbi inquisitors on the white house grounds doing that. thanks very much. you think we'll have a shut down and its inevitable come friday? fair and balanced looking at a republican senator and a democratic senator after this. ♪ ♪ the united states postal service makes more holiday deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. ♪ with one notable exception. ♪ i've always been amazed and still going for my best, even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin... i want that too. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. what's next? reeling i

so your friend trey gowdy is leaving washington, leaving capitol hill. >> come back, come back! >> martha: he says there is one thing -- funny you ask that. he said one thing that would bring him back. >> what was that? >> martha: listen to this. >> ever run for office again? >> never. i will get back in politics if tim scott runs for president. and if he says look, i need you to iowa or new hampshire and knock on doors. you will never see me on the ballot again. >> martha: are you getting trey gowdy back to politics sure? >> i'm not sure i can get him to walk on the homeowner's association or knock on doors. but god bless him. he has served our neighborhood incredibly well. we have been blessed by his public service. >> martha: senator tim scott, pleasure to have you here tonight and i hope you come back soon. good to be with you. >> merry christmas. >> martha: merry christmas to you, too. many thanks. >> yes, ma'am. >> martha: so still ahead this evening, the shock decision from president trump today declaring victor are you against isis in syria and preparing u.s. troops to p

our guest today is so royalty trey gowdy and singer and songwriter and i love blackwell as always i'll be looking out for your comments live on you tube so send them my way and we've already heard from numerous soca fans from around the world sharing some of their favorite lyrics from my last song take a look. or. see here all of. these gadgets. down the narrative what you're going for what she come from a very nice. notes the. c. word. he. gives it to me and our work i'll give it to me low give it to me. give it to me in a low. voice you'll get a hearing more like moment but first what you were singing yes. little clips of singing that was so can you say yes if people were just listening right now thinking what is that what would you say i would say this is the land east india and africa. this is. yes there's so much more to it than just blend in and fusion we have more music that does that as a world but there's a particular story to how. this happened here family is part of that story definitely very instrumental my grandfather's in the russia also known as lord shorty and he was th

he was introduced by congressman trey gowdy, who was also retiring from congress.

gowdy to mr. comey -- why not advise general flynn of the consequences of making false statements to the fbi? here's mr. comey's response. he was an extraordinarily experienced person and so reasonably should be assumed to understand you can't lie to the fbi. second, it's not protocol. the fbi does not do that in noncustodial interviews. and third, we want to find out what the witness will say to you before you heat up an interview by raising the prospect that the witness might be lying to you. frank pa gluzy, anything in there your former boss said that would surprised you? >> no, that's right on the money. that's how it works, despite whatever you might see on tv or hear other people say, that's how it works. it was a voluntary interview. he could have said no. he could have said i want my foreign present. come back tomorrow, come back another day. i want to do this at another location. but the hubris involved here combined with dishonesty is extremely disturbing and i think that's what got unde

jim jordan, mark meadows and a team of people who made sure that these hearings, trey gowdy, made sure there were hearings two years ago, three years ago, in fact are the reason hillary clinton isn't president and donald trump is. if hillary clinton had gone the away with it in front of the voters she would be president today. i want to commend the people i serve with who fought against leadership that always wanted to say don't make waves. fought to make sure the american people when they went to the polls and voted for an elected donald trump unthey had a choice of a man who would do what he said or a woman who lied about everything she ever did. judge jeanine: my viewers and i personally are sad you are leaving. we think you have done a great job. i don't know if anyone congratulates you in the end. but we thank you for your service and thank you for being honest and for doing what you did. thank you. >> thank you, keep fighting. judge jeanine: no worries. tom fitton from judicial watch next. a new foil tore dan bongino tonight. we'll have a spirited debate next. a gas hike. but tha

jim jordan, mark meadows and a team of people who made sure that these hearings, trey gowdy, made sure there were hearings two years ago, three years ago, in fact are the reason hillary clinton isn't president and donald trump is. if hillary clinton had gone the away with it in front of the voters she would be president today. i want to commend the people i serve with who fought against leadership that always wanted to say don't make waves. fought to make sure the american people when they went to the polls and voted for an elected donald trump unthey had a choice of a man who would do what he said or a woman who lied about everything she ever did. judge jeanine: my viewers and i personally are sad you are leaving. we think you have done a great job. i don't know if anyone congratulates you in the end. but we thank you for your service and thank you for being honest and for doing what you did. thank you. >> thank you, keep fighting. judge jeanine: no worries. tom fitton from judicial watch next. a new foil tore dan bongino tonight. we'll have a spirited debate next. fact is, every insu

he refused to answer a northbounnumber ofquestions andd robert mueller, who gowdy asked -- was working with russia to influence the election. i can't answer that, comey replied. higit falls for special count sl investigation. yeah. comey claimed he did not entrap michael flynn, he said they knew he was lying whole time. flynn was supposed to be sentenced for that crime today, but that of postponed. until march. now judge will no longer guarantee flynn will stay out of jail. catherincat herridge with story. reporter: federal judge sullivan pressed flynn and his lawyers on whether he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea orin challenge circumstances surrounding the fbi interview on january. a critical moment, flynn told court he knew what fbi asked him about russia ambassador. and 2016 conversation about sanctions this lies will be criminal and punishable. the judge responding, you lived to senior officials in the incoming administration. high asked, are you continuing to accept responsibility for his fault states. the judge -- for making false statement in the west wing. you sold out your

trey gowdy asked who at the fbi has the authority to launch an investigation into a major campaign. would it require approval by you? comb any said i don't know if i ever was in a circumstance in a campaign. who would have won those elections. he applauded the mueller probe. he said this was an all-star team of prosecutor and attorneys. he said i would bet my life bob mueller would do things the right way. this was only the first round of this. he was up there for 6 1/2 hours. he's coming back on the 17th. we expect. > -- we expect another round of. jesse: when he was asked do you know who paid for the steele memo? did you know it was financed by the democrats? he seems so wishy washy, saying i don't really know, i am not so sure who chris steele is. he seems blase' that this was a politically motivated democrat investigation and smear job with a bunch of unverified claims he used to get a fisa warrant. when catherine herridge asked him about that did you have faith in the veracity of the dossier? he said i have faith in the process. chad, i have got to run, but good job out there.

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jim jordan, mark meadows and a team of people who made sure that these hearings, trey gowdy, made sure there were hearings two years ago, three years ago, in fact are the reason hillary clinton isn't president and donald trump is. if hillary clinton had gone the away with it in front of the voters she would be president today. i want to commend the people i serve with who fought against leadership that always wanted to say don't make waves. fought to make sure the american people when they went to the polls and voted for an elected donald trump unthey had a choice of a man who would do what he said or a woman who lied about everything she ever did. judge jeanine: my viewers and i personally are sad you are leaving. we think you have done a great job. i don't know if anyone congratulates you in the end. but we thank you for your service and thank you for being honest and for doing what you did. thank you. >> thank you, keep fighting. judge jeanine: no worries. tom fitton from judicial watch next. a new foil tore dan bongino tonight. we'll have a spirited debate next. (music throughout)

>> trey gowdy pressed him on the fact that look, you think president trump did, firing you and other things it results in observe instruction of justice. and then barack obama did the interview with chris wallace saying let hillary clinton go, she didn't have criminal content. what did you think of that? i didn't see that through the lens of obstruction of justice. did you make a memo about barack obama? did you tell your staff not to be influenced by it? no? >> president trump does something he finds sticky, there's a memo and a federal case. barack obama does something and there's nothing. >> try to replicate the info so it becomes an fbi information with our conclusions rather than a reliable person's conclusions. may of 2017 james comey admits nothing verified about the vaishes dossiethesalacious doss. >> how does that happen. how did a salacious unverified document because the basis of how they got the warrant. and adopt forget about the three extensions of the warrant. that for me is the clincher. >> he also repeated in his testimony what he told brett barbaier on his book tour

trey gowdy says this was not a situation in which the national security was endangered. comey, same answer for him. democrats call it a waste of time but republicans say it wasn't a fair arbiter of justice. >> i lost all objectivity. a lot of folks defending him 2 years ago. i don't mind if jim comey is partisan but don't pretend to be a fair and impartial umpire. >> reporter: next in the hot seat will be president obama's former attorney general retta lynch. shannon: have a good day. rob: federal judge postponing michael flynn at sentencing with a blistering criticism. judge emmet sullivan telling the national security adviser, quote, arguably you sold your country out. i cannot hide my discussed or disdain for the crimes you committed. judge sullivan would not guarantee no jail time as suggested by farrell counsel bob mueller. he did apologize for his remarks. it was a buzz are hearing. flynn's sentencing is scheduled for march. questions were recently raised about how the fbi handled the interview with michael flynn who pleaded guilty to lying to the agency. fired fbi

maybe it's trey gowdy, maybe it's sean hannity. >> sean: i wouldn't get one vote. >> that could be a bad idea, they would never confirm you. they have to have someone, sean, who is going to be relentless. not in trying to be harsh to the democrats but trying to be fair to the truth. >> let me add, because the person who is going to do the best job will be the person who the democrats freak out about the most. this is why the senate, as it exists now, even with romney, we have to make sure the president makes it clear to mitch mcconnell and every other senator in the republican party that this matters. that the next attorney general must be confirmed. that they cannot allow the democrats to muck up the waters and change the framework. everything is at stake because a person who is right for that office and every appointee of the president will upset people specifically because they intended to clean house and that is what is important here. >> sean: great analysis. we will stay on it and do their job. when we come back, another example of abuse and bias against conservatives. this tim

and people who we all respect originally trey gowdy made a lot of excuses for some of these guys and said that they think they are great and so forth.so here we are with the final minutes on the clock and -- james comey will finally come and testify but i have no hope that anything will come out of that worthwhile. >> are republicans learning anything? >> you know, certainly i am on , we will have to have better people running in the next circle. but we also have the whole mishap with the nrc hacking and so forth. it is crazy. it is not our best and brightest hour unfortunately. >> harmeet dhillo, gregg jarrett, -- >> he is clever and cunning and slippery as aneil . -- slippery as an eel.>> you never hear those accolades a better republican. thank you for being with us, we appreciate it. up next, the shameless left-wing media. you probably will not be surprised that they are taking the day to attack president trump. >> this is the embodiment of just how different it can be. and that is a message to trump. >> he signed into law the clean air act of 1991. one of the most sweeping envir