charles: thank you very much, here's lou dobbs. keep it right here on fox business. lou: good evening, everybody. and breaking tonight -- this has been a week which america has regrettably learned that our worst fears about broken trust and political corruption among officials at the top of the fbi and the justice department are real, and the worst of those officials remain in office. fox news today obtained an early draft of james comey's statement exonerating hillary clinton long before the investigation into her conduct had been completed. two months, in fact, before the fbi interviewed her. the draft shows that the term grossly negligence was removed

not once, but at least twice. even stronger evidence that the fbi's peter strzok's edits were a clear effort to protect the former secretary of state from prosecution. we will add to the knowledge of that evidence here tonight. we'll also discuss the shocking corruption at the highest levels of the justice department with former attorney general michael mcasy and alan dershowitz. judicial watch obtained documents that hillary clinton and top aide huma abedin cut an unprecedented deal with the state department which permitted them to keep their call logs and their schedules private and hidden, of course, from all investigators. and president trump remains tonight upbeat about the prospects for tax cuts even as the health of two gop senators

and the contankrousness of two other senators have gop senate leaders more than a little anxious. republican rhinos marco rubio and mike lee are now threatening to block the tax reform bill, unless the child tax credit is expanded. we take up all of the important developments of the day here next. our top story tonight -- as president trump was inaugurated almost 11 months ago, most americans very likely thought the swamp would be at least draining, draining only a little but draining by now. we're learning, however, the swamp is much bigger, the corruption it breeds far more entrenched than we ever imagined and the most recent hearings, investigations and new documents show political corruption at the highest levels of the fbi and the justice department. fox news has obtained then-fbi director james comey's draft statement on the hillary

clinton e-mail probe. a statement that was heavily edited for the purpose of protecting the former secretary of state. here now discuss all of this, the troubling corruption at the d.o.j. and the fbi, the politically motivated attacks on president trump by special counsel robert mueller and his team. a former federal judge who served as attorney general under president george w. bush. judge, great to have you here. >> great to be here. lou: i want to say to you, i knew things were bad. but when we see a deputy attorney general as rod rosenstein is. the effective head of the department of justice, say that there is nothing to see here, let's move along, thank you very much, congress. i was sickened by thmoment. i want your thoughts.

>> not a bad choice. >> well, i have day job. lou: i understand. >> i didn't watch the hearing. i did see some segments and in fairness, i don't know they read what i saw as nothing to see here, he did express concern with some things that were disclosed, particularly about stock, and that's an appropriate concern. i should say just parenthetically. lou: surely. >> that it seems to be a little odd notwithstanding that the messages, the texts and the e-mails and so forth between he and his girlfriend. lou: 10,000 of them. >> that those were disclosed, when they were private communications. he got thrown under the bus. maybe he deserves to be under the bus. lou: are you talking about strzok? >> talking about strzok. lou: he was thrown under the bus? >> in the sense of disclosing his communications with his girlfriend. absolutely. and if i were working at the

bureau and the justice department, i would be nervous about whether my bosses were going to do that to me. the disclosure that you touched on involving the meeting in mccabe's office, and another disclosure where i think she says to him, it's a good thing you're around at this time. lou: to save the republic. >> to save the republic. those are extremely disturbing, and congress has the power to subpoena anything relating to that and to look into it, and they should. lou: it's interesting, i hadn't for even a moment concerned myself, and it's -- i think it commends you and your integrity that you would worry about strzok's constitutional rights, and i'm impressed by that. i'm serious. i am so disappointed in the conduct of everyone in the top of the fbi and the justice department tonight, i cannot -- there are not words to convey

my anger and how deplorable i think the situation is that we face today. and it goes to the issue that judiciary committee, trying talk with the head of the fbi, the effective had,ed and he is talking about deferring to the inspector general, he is saying it's under investigation. i want the president now to say to the deputy attorney general of the united states, release all of that information, damn it! i do want him to say damn it. >> he doesn't need encouragement to say that. lou: nonetheless. >> using the inspector general's investigation as an excuse for not producing documents to congress is completely bogus, and i was, there i know about ig investigations and so on. lou: right. >> and it's one thing to say you don't want to talk about it or make an valuation of it because the ig is investigating, that's one

thing, but withholding documents from congress is inexcusable. and they ought to use their contempt power if they're so disposed to get those documents. lou: my question is what good is contempt? we've seen what it did with eric holder in the fast and furious scandal, which was then compounded by a list of a half dozen other scandals and he was never -- there was never any consequence to him. >> it's possible that there can be consequences from contempt, and i don't think that any high-ranking official wants to be held in contempt. i know i didn't. lou: i don't think that eric holder personally was bothered one wit. he was serving a president who he served a directly, loyally and to great effect. we have here an instance which an attorney general jeff sessions can't even be found, who is not honoring his constitutional duties, and whose replacement is in point

of fact blocking, blocking the oversight committee from completing its constitutional duties. >> as i said, the documents ought to be produced and deferring to -- not producing them because of an ig investigation is not a sound position. lou: the two documents that the e-mails that strzok sent to his girlfriend, his mistress, whatever you want to call her, within the department of justice, both went to intent, intent to subvert, intent to alter the outcome of the constitutional election, a constitutionally elected president. this is outrageous and i don't see a single person in the justice department behaving in any way to suggest they are offended. >> well, i don't know, in fairness i don't know what they're doing behind the curtain, but when somebody refers to a meeting in the

office of the deputy director of the fbi as having been the venue for discussion of ways, apparently of ways in which to frustrate the election of donald trump, if it came about, that's something that a bright light ought to be shined on pronto. lou: yeah, and the irony. the weight of it all is crushing us as it falls down upon us, as we learned. because we're talking about russian meddling as the basis of this collusion nonsense that led to the creation of a special counsel, when we're watching our own fbi, our own justice department meddle, interfere in, a constitutional election. a presidential election! why isn't that suddenly the interest of robert mueller? why isn't that suddenly the interest of both parties? not a partisan divide.

>> i understand. in fairness, the mandate of robert mueller is something we ought to explore. lou: let's do. >> it's indefinite, and i think that was set up in a way that was not consistent with the regulations that provide for. but he was told to investigate connections between the trump campaign and the russians. now, there's nothing criminal about their having had connections, if there were connections or links or collusion, if you look at the criminal code, you will look in vane for the word collusion, so that he was never being asked to investigate a crime. he was told to pursue, according to the letter that appointed him, to pursue the investigation that james comey referred to in his testimony in front of the house intelligence committee. that was not a criminal investigation, it was a national security investigation. lou: and we have been saying just that from almost day one on this broadcast. so let me ask you: what is it

in washington where we have such weak-minded men and women in congress, in the senate, where we have such unprincipled people as the heads of the senate intelligence committee, the house and the senate committees, that are working here, they see there is no evidence. richard burr, senator of north carolina, the head of the senate intelligence committee tells -- acknowledges, a scintilla of evidence, so we're going to skip that part where we're going to show you early findings because we have none, we'll just expand the investigation. we have a congress and a senate that are being lead by some of the most duplicitous and weak-minded people i've ever seen in my life. >> that's a pretty harsh -- lou: i am -- it is harsh and i can support it, i think with

considerable evidence. >> to quote a famous legal philosopher and former new york yankees catcher named yogi berra, it ain't over till its over. lou: he also said by the way, judge, the future ain't what it once was, and it ain't what it once was because of weak-minded, unprincipled people leading in washington, d.c. on capitol hill. >> i agree that we've got -- lou: no one thought we would be using yogi berra as our philosophical foundation, but go ahead. >> look, i agree we got a lot of people there who are not portraits and courage. i hope we have some people who are reasonably tough-minded enough to see this through and see what actually happened. lou: name one? >> i'm hoping mueller turns out to be that one. lou: my god, man, andrew wiseman. >> no, that's -- that is a

person, by the way, who ought not to be in a position where he's got control over anybody's life. lou: i just got started. >> you mention the name. lou: exactly. and put there by robert mueller. >> well, everybody makes mistakes, that's why they have erasers on the ends of pencils. lou: why is there such a low standard for a special counsel and his human-like ways and such an attack on the president of the united states. >> strzok is working in the human resources department. lou: great, now he's deciding who's going to be hired. >> i'm not sure if he's make anything decisions at all. lou: i'm not sure of anything. >> may very well that andrew wiseman ought to be similarly situated. his problem is, as you know, that he not only went to hillary clinton victory party or what was supposed to be a hillary clinton victory party, not only wrote a ferociously

fawning e-mail to then acting attorney general when she committed, as far as i'm concerned, a laws act refusing to enforce the travel ban, but a person who has a long history of abuse of the obstruction statute, in which he brought down a big 8 accounting firm only to be told by the supreme court that it was overreaching. >> at the time it was a big 5 accounting firm, arthur andersen, and the only time in my knowledge and researched it to some degree that any firm was accused of a crime rather than its executives, and the result was 85,000 people losing their jobs. these are the kinds of people for whom i have nothing but harsh judgment and likely to get harsher as we find out. >> he may deserve a harsh judgment but he ought to be -- if he's -- lou: a man of integrity if robert mueller is that man,

should he not say this has gone too far and too far afield, and we're going to turn to what we see to the united states because it is corruption in the justice department and the top of the fbi. >> in fairness, not the mandate, the mandate is to explore what he was -- lou: integrity is always within the mandate of anyone serving this government. >> not a freestanding notion of integrity. i don't want anybody whether it's robert mueller or anybody else told to investigate lack of integrity, as a mandate. lou: why not? they've been told to investigate collusion and there's no such thing. >> two wrongs don't make a right. he ought to be told to investigate a crime. if there is no crime, he ought to be held -- lou: i'm told to stop by our producers, we've gone way over. i had the great honor in

talking to you for the past few minutes, i hope you come back and we'll do more of it. >> i hope so. lou: thank you. we're coming right back, much more straight ahead. stay with us. >> tax cuts in doubt as florida's marco rubio threatens to vote no. president trump, however, remains upbeat. >> i think we'll be there, really been a great guy, really supportive. i think that senator rubio will be there for sure. lou: a full report on the chance of passing the historic legislation here next. and president trump cutting the red tape literally. president trump followed through on yet another campaign promise to cut regulations. we'll have more on the president's efforts to reignite our economy next. stay with us.

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. lou: president trump today touting progress on tax reform even as congress moves towards votes next week, the president saying congress will, quote, get there as a pair of senators withheld support for the bill over the child tax credit, they would more of it. fox news chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel with our report. >> i'm so excited that we're on the cusp of this great accomplishment. reporter: late today senator marco rubio said not so fast on

the issue of the child tax credit. >> to add to the 1100 figure, i won't support the bill. reporter: and senator mike lee is undecided about tax reform pushing for more with rubio. a senate democrat saluted that effort. >> good some of the debate is about enhancing a child tax credit. our side of it actually go a lot higher than senator rubio but good he's making the effort. reporter: despite rubio and lee's reservations, some of the key points according to congressional sources, 37% is the top individual rate to help people in high-tax states. corporate tax rate dropped from the current 35% to 21% in 2018. state and local tax deduction known as salt capped at $10,000. repeal obamacare individual mandate. ryan was asked today why the tax plan isn't more popular. >> if you look at the polling

that was done in ronald reagan's signature 1986 tax reform like a month before it passed, 18% of the people polled thought they were going benefit from it. so this is the nature of the debate on things this big like tax reform. reporter: the associated press reports this package would benefit big corporations and upper income americans and top democrats have jumped on that analysis. >> daylight robbery and every iteration the gop tax scam becomes more cowardly, outrageous, dishonest, brazen threat, sad for middle-class families. reporter: the tax reform battle comes as reports ryan has told those close to him he intends to retire after the 2018 midterm elections. there is buzz on the hill ryan could leave even sooner. today he brushed off a question about his future? >> i'm not, no. reporter: tax reform would be a dream come true for speaker ryan and face more tough fiscal

votes particularly here at the end of the year, not likely to get better than that moment. lou? lou: thank you very much, mike emanuel reporting from capitol hill. a busy day for president trump who brought out the props to show he's literally cutting through red tape and business killing government regulations. >> this is what we have now. this is where we were in 1960. and when we're finished, which won't be in too long a period of time, we will be less than where we were in 1960. lou: the trump administration has cut 22 regulations for every new one added which the president says will prove especially helpful for small business and the process is going on. on wall street today stocks closed lower. the dow fell 77 points, the s&p lost 11, the nasdaq down 19. volume on the big board holding steady at 3.4 billion shares.

disney announcing it will buy the assets of twenty-first century fox in a $52 billion deal, but not all of them. the deal doesn't include fox news, fox business, fox sports or the broadcast networks. shares of both companies closing higher, about two bucks higher, on the deal. good news for the economy, retail sales climbing 8/10 percent last month, jobless claims hitting the lowest level in nearly two months. a reminder to listen to my reports three times a day on the salem radio network, and up next, hear the biggest rhino of all. is he going extinct? new reports that speaker ryan, he wants to retire from congress after the 2018 midterm elections or perhaps sooner. we take up that with charlie hurt and much more straight ahead. stay with us. you want to hear every moment.

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lou: joining ni now, charlie hurt, great to see you, a lot of development today, important among them, document that we knew had been altered by peter strzok the fbi agent, there were two references to gross negligence, there were other edits beyond that. this is far worse, i believe, than most americans ever imagined. >> if this were the case that was being pursued investigated and prosecuted, a prosecutor would have a lead pipe lock convict on this. you have intent, you have action. you have result. and there is no question, that there was conspiracy to.

let's call it what it was to rig the election. they intended to do it, they did it. in the end they failed but they succeed to pull off the scheme they were aiming to. you know, whether donald trump talks about how this, he feared that election would be rigged he would be is the shoes about the outcome -- suspicious about the outcome, people accused him of being reckless and they attacked him on that, and low and behold, a year later, the more wefine out about it the more and more we learn he was correct at every turn. lou: they have put him under investigation. it has been a successful year for the president, i believe, it would have been more successful.

and we have a justice department, that is ran ran. and fbi riddled with clubtion, this is -- with corruption, this is not going away, this has to be rooted out, people have to go to jail. we've seen a number before congress, this disgusting. >> most sinister and corrupt deep state anyone could have imagined. republicans, democrats, then hillary clinton campaign, all peddling this nonsenseical kremlin investigation, about denying don't don't the donald e presidency, that assault they wanted. if high level people don't go to prison for this, then there is no justice. >> president has a way forward here that i believe leads to

truth. and may lead to justice. that is by ordering his attorney general, his deputy attorney general, to turnover every damn document that judiciary committees have asked for to every overnight someitty let the -- committee. >> how frustrating to listen to republicans in control of congress, republican in white house, and they are badgering the members of the fbi before the house committee who work for a republican administration, they still won't turnover the information, they are still white washing and blockading the investigation to all of the crimes that happened here. and when you look at that, if you don't see the proof of a criminal deep state, and i know that a lot of people get uncomfortable. if you don't see evidence of that, when you watch a hearing

like yesterday with rod rosenstein, then you are blind. lou: yeah. i want people to be uncomfortable about the deep state. it is a reality, it clear and present danger to this administration. and this republic. >> it is no longer a conspiracy theory, it has been proved. lou: charlie hurt, thank you. >> thank you. lou: republicans demand answers from department of just bis clear anti-trump and pro-clinton bias on the staff of mueller appreciate counsel, one of country's leading legal finds professor allen -- is joining us next this dare devil about to take wing walking to the next level, you have to muster your

courage for this insane stunt.

lou: only sitting cabinet member to be held in contempt of congress is trying to play as if he suddenly landed on moral high ground, i am talking about eric holder. he tweeted this, quote speaking

on behalf of the visit majority of the american people, wow -- that is a pretty amazing statement. president obama are not only narcissist in the joint -- republicans he say, be forewarned, attempt to remove bob mueller will not be tolerated, these are de bs attas on him, and his staff. wow. joining me now. renowned harvard law school. he is a tho author of trumped-u. great to you have professor, your assessment of that rich tweet from eric holder.

>> i think most americans don't want to see the justice system infected with bias or perceptions of bias. this is not just whether a person is democrat or republican. i am a liberal democrat who voted for and contributed to hillary clinton. but i could be fair, i never expressed publicly any views of hatred toward donald trump or anyone e else who is being investgalitied. when you have people tweeting, sending e-mails expresses rate rihatredand prejudice against te potential subject of investigation, there is a problem of bias. mueller has to do something about it. he should bring on his team, a consultant on ethics. a former judge, someone who has respect of everyone, a

nonpartisan person, li -- let hr her go through investigators and prosecutors and see if there is bias among any of the people who remain on task force, and make sure this you have to be -- i cannot give the other side weapons and ammunition to attack the integrity of your prosecution, mueller has given them ammunition. lou: your recommendations are terrific, i would hope there would be within the justice department of those including the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, who would say to mueller, you just violated every ethical standard imaginable when you took 9 out of 17 spots, and turned it over to anti-trump, pro-hillary

activists, for crying out loud. a very lawyery, solution, i prefer a direct managerial and leadership oriented result, which is, you peter strzok, have written 10,000 e-mails to your mistress, where you declare your intend to subvert the president, and subvert the republic, maybe time for reprisal and confences for such -- consequences for such conduct. >> for me, his biggest sin, he should have recused hi himself,e knew about these messages before anyone element the law, picking people prohibited, that is not enough. lou: if i may, i said law

prohibits using common sense and common decency to assure impartiality, that cannot be right. >> it does not allow you to ask. lou: i'm if the going to and i'm going to tell. >> take for example, justice ruth, he has expressed this view, she said donald trump is a fakeer, she did not know if country could survive him, she has to sit on cases involving the president, when you are in positions, to affect people's lives whether a justice or an fbi agent or a prosecutor, you have to be beyond reproach, you have to show the world that you are unbias and you are prepared to go after the person you voted for, or to support the person you voted against the. and i worry about, these

messages, create at least impression that among some people, certainly among this fbi agent, that perception are not there. lou: and not only that agent, number two in the agency itself. andrew mccabe, his wife, the beneficiary of political largess of governor terry mccauliffe of virginia, the list goes on. there is no exception, there no fbi agent, there is no team member of mueller special counsel that is republican. >> we don't know that. lou: i do know that. >> woe -- >> let he be clear, i know that this point, we do know there are 9 out of 17 who are democratic donors, we know 5 of them are donors to hillary clinton. we know that there is no

apparent republican on there. we have combed the national media has keeped every resource to find them. they are unavailable to us. >> let me ask you a direct question, i may be embare bassed by answer. >> i waso -- i may may be embary the answer, i d donated to her campaign, if i was asked to serve on this group, i would have been fair, i don't think just being a i supporter of hillary clinton makes you unfit to sit in a investigating grouchgroup.lou: this is not a o be a partisan. >> i don't think that there

should be parents at all. he wanted never to be seen as partisan. prosecutors, have to stop being partisan that is key. >> i wish that judgment had been he wished never to be a partisan. >> i agree. lou: your last word. >> i said that madison wrote federalist 51, if men were angels we wouldn't need laws, we know people have basis and prejudices it is essence of being a fair prosecutor to make that you are that those biases are not manifested. lou: i want those s.o.b. at top

of fbi and justice department to be prosecuted. >> i don't believe we should use justice system to settle political scores. lou: this is not abtrac track at this a criminal. >> we disagree. >> thank you. lou: vote in our poll, do you believe krup corrupt forces. cast your so the on twitter. roll video. video time here we go. watch as athlete stands atop a bybiplane before he walks along the wing then jumps.

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. . hemingway. and vince. >> thank you. lou: mollie. i love corker can't support tax reform, he does not want to give back a dime to american people of their money, how do you explain these g.o.p.ars? >> being concerns about debt is important but it is a convenient time. lou: why the hell didn't they do something during the obama years? >> republicans need to demonstrate they can govern, so many people in this caucus are motivated to show failure as opposed to a success.

there no reason they should not be able to work together. but they are not just corker but rubio holding up over this child tax credit that is extra payment. lou: and god knows why. >> they like the idea you give money back to people who den pay taxes -- who don't pay taxes, they have children. they incentivize child bearing. kennedybearing.>> in general yot getting everything you want. this is not ruled by one person this is say collaborative process. lou: i'm writing that down. >> it has gone through the match nation. lou: it say mess. >> that means everyone has to give up something, every senator

who votes for this, should do so with that in mind, idea is to keep more money in american's pockets, if it accomplishes, that then it is worth voting for. lou: amen. coming up, james comey -- next.

lou: in our on-line poll we

asked do you believe by defending robert fueler and fbi investigator deputy attorney general rod rosenstein has demonstrated a lack of awareness of depths of corruption that has insnared upper echelons of the bureau and the deputy of justice? 86 percent of you with the affirmative. >> mollie, we go to mueller. a stunning thing that mueller would have andrew weisman and others 9 democrat on his team and also be ignoring so much obvious evidence that says there is no collusion. >> right. it is is not just there are these people that are compromised and sends mash notes to sally yates or partying with hillary clinton or sending text that schoec show, extreme hostiy

toward the president. and his wife was working for fusion gps. then also in context of more than a year into russia investigation, we don't have evidence of trump campaign illegally colluding with russia. at some point you have to wonder, why did we spend this time on this, were we not ours being subjective to information campaign about russia which has no basis. lou: the great intervention is not by the russians in terms of evidence but by the justice department itself. >> i'm confused by a couple things, peter strzok, he was removed for appearance of impro priority related to text-messages he sent that seems lower on the scale. >> how about.

collusion thing started because they were worried that general flynn meeting vulnerable to blackmail by the russians but not concerned about 10,000 e-mails and their top counter intelligence agent, peter strzok sending 10,000 e-mails over the clear, to his lover. >> right, you have -- and really curiousty, to why the justice department doesn't know that one of its top officials had secret conversations with fusion gps and his wife worked for gps, how is it possible to go this long without knowing this. the problem is rod rosenstein and bob fuel ar mueller they dot understand that public faith in these institutions is shaken that is not a good thing. lou: sad thing that american people, it has take up this long it get aware negligence that our fbi a -- aware negligence awarer

numbefbiat top. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> figure out a way to add to 1100 figure. i won't support the bill. lauren: breaking this morning, several republican senators, you just heard one of them, is tax reform in rejerdy? cheryl: investors responding. right now futures barely pointing up. stocks in asia lower. shanghai composite down almost 1%. lauren: fcc rolls back net neutrality rules but analysts predict that the