thought he *. lou: good evening, everybody. this is the day millions americans have been waiting for. i'm not referring to what was yet another deadly impeachment farce of a hearing. i'm referring to a long dayed justice department inspector general report on the investigation of the fbi's fraudulent applications for fisa court warrants on which they spied on the presidential campaign of donald trump, his transition team and his very presidency. long delayed and hardly worth the wait. after 621 days investigating

some of the clearest abuses of power by the obama era intelligence agency, the department of justice inspector general michael horowitz declared he was unable to find any political bias behind the surveillance of the 2016 trump campaign. all this more evidence of the radical dimms and the deep state's awesome control of our permanent bureaucracy in our federal government. horowitz reveals the phoney steele dossier played a central role in ordering the surveillance of former trump campaign aide carter page. horowitz acknowledges that the fbi fell far short as he put it to vet the accuracy of statements in the fisa warrants, finding, quote, numerous serious fact you'll errors and omissions

in the applications that undercut certain allegations and a continuous failure to reassess the fact you'll assertions supporting probable cause in the fisa applications as the investigation proceed. and information was obtained raising significant questions about the steele dossier. president reacted to i o d stoically. president trump: it's a disgrace with respect to a happened to our country. it should never happen to another president. it is incredible. far worse than i ever would have thought possible. it's an embarrassment to our country. this was an attempted overthrow. and a lot of people were in on it, and they got caught.

lou: attorney general william barr for his part reacted to the horowitz report within minutes of its release. the attorney general declaring quote, the fbi launched an indriewlsive investigation of a u.s. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that were in my view insufficient to justify the steps take. inspector general horowitz doesn't have the power to press charges, but one man who does is u.s. attorney john durham. in a rare public statement durham wrote, we do not agree with some of the report's conclusions as to presented case and how the d conclusions as to predicatations. the horowitz report potentially laying the foundation for durham on page four of his report.

we learn christopher steele, the former mi6 agent informed his fbi handling agent that quote fusion gps had been retained by a law firm to conduct this research, according to the handling agent. it was obvious to him the request for the research was politically motivated. horowitz finds the likes of james clapper and peter stroke did not investigate who ultimately paid for steele's reporting. in march 2017 it was widely known between fbi officials that glenn simpson who hired christopher steele had himself been hired by someone related to the democratic party. they knew that much. three renew applications to spy on carter page didn't reflect

that general knowledge. joining us tonight is tom fitton, the president of the judicial watch. tom, i want to start with you. you were foremost as a skeptic of what we would hear today and what we would learn and you were right. you were early and often correct in your assessments of this inspector general and what he would conclude. >> i warned anyone that would listen that i.g. reports are exposes' and cover-ups at the the same time. of course the i. gssments takes at face value in my view a dishonest way their bureaucratic excuses for targeting the president of the united states and a presidential candidate. to pretend all these accidents happened and it was a bureaucratic snafu and they said

they don't remember why the rules weren't followed or the courts were lied to is beggars' belief. i hope durham does his job but i'm not seeing any evidence the justice department is separately conducting a investigation of the tip of the iceberg which is a massive operation by the obama administration. it wasn't just the doj and the fbi. the pentagon paid' halper, the spy operator on the trump campaign. you had the cia involved, you had the nsa involved. what's going on today? the coup cabal that was perpetrating these criminal activities to try to remove the president for asking questions about the ukraine's involvement in the nightmare we are talking about. lou: we have an inspector

general who should be a countervailing influence within the justice department and the fbi who should be bringing accountability to this corrupt cabal of agents and officials of both the fbi and the justice department instead what we have got here in 434 pages without exception, is a white wash. >> what's troubling is how he gives an out and protects the leadership of the fbi and doj, those who signed on for both the obama and trump administrations suggesting they weren't told all the full details or didn't know about the corruption behind the application. the applications on their face werface -- were were def were.

the dossier is garbage. there is no excuse -- the i.g. provides the excuse. i hope barr sees through this. but past is prologue and i don't expect much. >> the attorney general offered a rebuke and if you will, an acceptance of the i.g. report and at least his intentions here. but john durham' as he assessed this matter a few days ago made it clear of what he thought of horowitz and his concluding report on the investigation into fisa abuse. tom, west appreciate you being with us. we'll close with words that i think echo what you just said and which resonate i think with

most americans as we assess what the i.g.'s report is to reality. this from the public record of text between lisa page and peter strzok. if we can put this up, please. it reads, referring to president obama, if we could turn to that, please, the second text. there it is. potus wants to know everything we are doing. and it's straightforward. we'll take that and much more throughout this broadcast. what did potus know and when did he know it. if he knew anything at all? tom fitton, thanks for being with us, and i'm sorry to saying with you were right. the fbi and defense secretary mark esper won't call last week's deadly attack at the naval base at pensacola, florida

an act of terrorism. the shooter a pilot from saudi arabia. the saudi pilot acted alone we are told when he opened fire saturday morning killing three people. but there is evidence to suggest others made it have been complicit. law enforcement authorities say the saudi pilot hosted a dinner party the night before his attack and they watched videos much mass shootings. a number of saudi nationals have been detained. including one who was videotaping the shooting. why is the united states department of defense secretary so reluctant to call what is obviously on its face terrorism. and another question we'll examine here tonight. why are saudi arabians a protected class in this country.

and why won't the u.s. government freeze all weapons sales to saudi arabia until investigators can get answer to the important questions surrounding this study terrorist attack. up next, awol adam. house republicans question why adam schiff failed' to make an appearance at the impeachment farce. attorneys victoria toensing and joe digenova with their insight into the horowitz i.g. report and the fisa abuses. [ electrical buzzing ]

[ dramatic music ] ahhhh! -ahhhh! elliott. you came back! some people say that's ridiculous. i dress how i feel. yesterday i felt bold with boundless energy.

this morning i woke up calm and unbreakable. tomorrow? who knows. age is just an illusion. how you show up for the world, that's what's real. what's your idea? i put it out there with a godaddy website. make the world you want. lou: the dow down 105 points, the nasdaq dropping 35. crude oil down to $59 a barrel. gold finished flat. we could soon have a usmca deal according to our sources. speaker pelosi expected to meet with lawmakers tonight. they are holding talks about the proposal and whether there will be any changes. the u.s. trade representative,

robert light here is and jarrod kushner are set to go to mexico city tomorrow to sign the deal. conspicuously absent from today's house impeachment farce was adam schiff. congressman doug collins blasted schiff by refusing to come to the committee and present his own report. >> today i guess is the movie version of the schiff report. except one thing, the star witness failed to show up. the author of the schiff report is not here. instead he's sending his staff to do his job for him. i guess that's what you get when you are making up impeachment as you go. lou: my next guest says the fisa abuse report vindicates president trump. joining me, mark meadows.

great to have you with us. your reaction to what tom fitton calls straight up a lamentable exercise on the part of the inspector general. >> i think tom is right in the conclusions that the i.g. drew. i don't agree with on a number of fronts. but the facts he has in the reports, i was part of a two-hour briefing. i get to see these i.g. reports from various agencies. and i can tell you it doesn't get any more damning than this. when you look at the facts that are there. when they were doing a defensive briefing with the president of the united states, they were doing one for hillary and one for candidate donald trump, they were actually surveilling on the president of the united states at that time, at that critical time. we got more than a dozen times where they actually secretly recorded conversations with

trump campaign officials, some of which were not even subject of the investigation. it's very damning. i think the next 24 hours will tell as we go through this. director wray would not be making 40 didn't steps to correct what they were doing if everything was like the rose garden and it was perfect. lou: it's far from perfect. it's a corrupt enterprise and has been for four years. and likely a very long period before that, congressman. this is not a report that suggests to me that i peck tore horowitz thinks there must be accountability. john durham, the u.s. attorney who is the -- if you will, the pegs counsel investigating the origin of all of this, he makes it clear he disagrees with the inspector general's finding on predicate and the steps needed

to be taken. that's what i'm clinging to here tonight. >> i'm agreeing john durham. i can tell you there was a narrow set of what inspector horowitz and his team were to look at. that was the fisa abuse process. there was a fraud perpetrated on the fisa court. not on were there omissions, but there were fact you'll errors as it went to the court. they knew it not once, not twice, but three didn't times. john durham is right to point that aught. lou: once might have been an accident. twice might have been a coincidence. three times you are a damn liar committing fraud against the fisa courts and getting away with it. where is the chief justice. what's being done with the fisa reports. and why did congress reauthorize fisa in march instead of waiting for this damn report.

it's about time both parties understand one thing. the american people have had a belly full of what made this fbi and this justice department under the previous president operate the way they did. this is infuriating. every american has been outraged. what's been done to this president and the american people, my god. if we are going to survive this we better stand up on our hahn muchs and demand respect. >> when the left went crazy because attorney general barr said there was spying going on. when you secretly record a phone call or conversation, when you are secretly doing that without the knowledge of anyone else, i don't know what else you call it but pieing. when we start to see the evidence that cops out of this 435-page plus report, that will provide a good foundation for

the work john durham is already doing as he expand it beyond where we are today. lou: i look at this justice department, particularly this attorneyien. we are seeing a number of advances that are important and sometimes lost from public view. but this is, for example, an attorney general that has declared huawei to be critically a national security threat. he also made it clear in his assessment of that threat that he's incorporating the conduct of the assessment of the conduct of the state of the people's republic of china. we have right now a government and a president who demand trance transparency, and never has it been more critical than now to not only be transparent, but to act accordingly. >> you talked about adam schiff not showing up today. you may remember not too long

ago, you were covering this. devin nunes put out a report. today's i.g. report supports devin nunes, not adapt schiff. we are seeing the same kind of smoke and mirrors in this impeachment process than we saw

lou: congressman, you get the last word. >> this is nothing more than a partisan event we have seen today and over the previous weeks. they want to say it's not political. but you don't have focus groups to figure out what you are going to charge a president with unless it has a political foundation. so it's time that we call it for what it is, and that is it's all about their 2020 election and hoping to get a democrat in the white house.

it's not working here on capitol hill and it's not working with your big viewers and the american people. lou: i think our viewers understand it's more than political, it's existential. if we allow this to stand there is no stopping any kind of conduct on the part of the democratic party. congressman, great to have you with us. congressman mark meadows. we would like to hear your thoughts on this. follow me on twitter @loudobbs, follow me on instagram @loudobbstonight. general michael flynn's attorney sydney ball and victor david hanson among your guests tomorrow evening. more on the out-of-control fbi under president obama and james comey. out of control and corrupt as he can be. power attorneys victoria

toensing and joe digenova join us.

president trump: they fabricated evidence and lied to the courts. they did all sorts of things to have it go their way. this was something we can never allow to happen again. the report actually and especially when you look into it in the details of the report are far worse than anything i even would have imagined. lou: do you ever wonder what goes through the president's mind when he assesses the first three years of his presidency. what he has gone through. then have an inspector general report that was supposed to reveal the basis for accountability and the findings that were to go so far beyond more than no comment. it didn't in my pinch more than

that. president trump was responding to with the bombshell whose business of the fisa abuse report and its disappointing replacement for that explosiveness. the president went on to condemn the deep state's efforts, joining us, victoria toensing, and joe digenova, former u.s. attorney for the district of columbia, founding partners of digenova and toensing law firm. great to have you both with us. your reaction to what we have been waiting for. how many times has it been delayed? >> many months, many moons, lou. lou: your thoughts. >> he delivered facts we already knew. there is tort law that says you don't have to prove negligence

when there are scissors in the patient's stomach after he's sewn up. with carter page, if they thought he was a russian asset, they should have been -- the fbi should have been briefing the trump campaign. they did not do so. lou: why didn't somebody ask that in this report? >> i was saying to joe earlier. is that question going to be asked wednesday when we have the hearing? lou: there are so many questions not being asked, and clearly in this report not answered. >> 434 pages of facts, interesting facts. but the resolution is pretty bad. michael horowitz does once again what he did with strzok and page and the email server investigation of hillary clinton. he will not pull the trigger on the fbi and senior doj

officials. he said with a straight face that there was a legitimate predicate to run a counter intelligence investigation against the trump campaign and donald trump. that's based oning a conversation between george papadopoulos and a former as you trail ofian ambassador. the information papadopoulos gave downer was information fed to papadopoulos by a cia spy, joseph mifsud. to conclude as horowitz does that there was a legitimate basis for the counter-intelligence investigation, i don't know how horowitz can hold his head high. >> talking about the conduct speaks for itself. we overlooked investigations like this.

you know what the fbi was supposed to do? they are supposed to go knock on george papadopoulos' door and say where did you get this information? how did you come about it? that's how a counter-intelligence investigation goes. not starting to investigate the american citizen. lou: attorney said gent inspector general's report, the inspector general's report makes clear the fbi launches an incruisive investigation of a u.s. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that in my view are insufficient to justify the steps taken. that is in attorney general speak, that's condemnation by any standard. what is to follow on here? we waited for this. we are now -- we want world war ii in under four years, right?

we won a world war in less time than four years. and it's approaching very near that. four years in this absurd investigation with continuing white washing, delays, and rationalizations. are we to expect more of this. >> i.g. horowitz has does a disservice. john durham basically said horowitz doesn't know what he's talking about. i think we are looking at rough stuffed by mr. durham coming down the pike. that's what that was today. lou: we'll take that rough stuff

with victoria and joe after these words. stay with us.

lou: we are back with two of the country's leading attorneys, victoria toensing and joe digenova. i want to turn to john durham. his statement today on the i.g. report, quote, based on the evidence collected to date, and

while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the inspector general that we do not agree with some of the report's conclusion as to predication and how the fbi case was opened. it goes to the beginning and the fisa abuse. your thoughts. >> pretty state forward. god bless mr. durham. he told it like it was. there must have been heated conversations between him and the i.g. the last few months. lou: the purpose of making that statement? >> i think he had to get the message out. this could not be allowed to just go out there in the atmosphere. lou: like millions of others i appreciate john durham giving us hope here. >> what happened is horowitz had no access to people at the cia, joseph mifsud to reach the conclusion he did about the

basis for the investigation, without knowing about mifsud and all those people which durham does. durham felt he had to slap horowitz across the face publicly. that is a rebuke like i have never seen of an inspector general by a united states attorney. southern well deserved may i say. i think horowitz' conclusions are outrageous. >> mifsud is not an fbi agent. he's cia for western intelligence. lou: there is plenty of embarrassment here. the fisa courts, despite all of this, the judges themselves, the chief justice of the supreme court -- >> these are federal judges already confirmed and they are appointed by the chief justice. i would like to know he called them in and sat them down and asked how this happened. but i haven't heard any rumor to

that effect. it seems to me the chief justice should do something. >> there should not be a tree authorization of the fisa court until these judges and the chief justice testify in open hear beings what went wrong. lou: we watched both parties combine the fisa authority through to march. instead they wanted to get it out through this period, and both parties should be held accountable for that. i don't want to hear more nonsense about surveillance at any cost. the democrats are a party that say we can't do this. they would bro text the right to privacy. they are cheering on this madness. >> we got surveillance at any cost in 2016. look what they did, they are trying to destroy a sitting president, and it all started with illegal unconstitutional surveillance. lou: the hearings today, very

quickly, the democrats talking earlier with mark meadows, this is just -- it is a damn war on the part of the radical difficulties trying to overthrow him. i keep talking to republican after republican who thinks it's just another partisan brouhaha. >> it's unconstitutional and it's frightening. and people need to get more serious about this. i think no, another hearing today on impeachment, this is bad. >> the democrats are subverting the constitution, and in an illegitimate set of proceedings that does not bode well for the future of our country. >> in a party like the republican party seems to be so

innovative and directionless on capitol hill. it really makes you wonder what is next. >> they have been better fighters than i have seen before. but they have not got and theme. they have to have a theme. lou: a theme. lou: it's called unity. in the senate, the theme is, we'll have to wait and see. >> we appreciate you for doing so. joe, thank you very much. joe digenova. i will say it another 10 times. new documents reveal the extent top pentagon officials took to repeatedly mislead the public about the still ongoing 18-year war in afghanistan. the government report is entitled lessons learned.

it examined the root failures of the war, the expenditure of drills of american dollars. only thanks to "the washington post" is this report available to the american public. most of the names omitted in separate reports. with the same name, "the washington post" obtained the interviews with a three-year legal battle. able to point to comments from top military officials. we'll go blow by blow to this report because everyone is paying attention to impeachment farces and all of the nonsense. what is really interesting about all of this, those trillions of dollars are still hiding every one of those mistakes from the american public. and it's about time people figured out what's going none their pentagon. is war too important to lead the

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lou: an important decision on abortion. the supreme court left in place a lower court ruling on a

kentucky abortion law. the kentucky law requires all doctors to perform and describe an ultrasound examination before any abortion can be performed, even if the patient objects. the supreme court refusing to hear an appeal of that law leaving intact the court's ruling that the law does not violate doctors' first amendment rights. president trump holding and designating mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. mexican president obrador asked that he do so until he can act on cartel violence. the president said he will wait and focus on the criminal organizations. the cartels control about 80% of

mexico. joining us, congressman scott perry. i want to take up mexico and the president's delay on that order. but first i want to deal with the impeachment farce under way in washington. >> as you watched today, america was treated to some very partisan liberal left-wing democrats that were supporters of liberal left-wing democrats come in and talk about what they determined were the facts. it's effort and obvious this is an outcome they planned for years, and now they are just getting around to make it fate a fait accompli. understanding these can't your average donors.

most americans scrape together $25 for their chose be candidate. these are 10,000, 100,000 dollar donors coming in under the guise of impartiality trying to have us believe they would treat the president fairly. you can see this is a completely one-sided event. not allowed to call witnesses. where they accuse the president of obstructing justice because he's not providing information. they refuse to answer questions from republican members about how they got phone records, who authorized it. another kangaroo court date. >> at this point, is the republican party somewhat concerned about looking absolutely impotent here? you stood together, defended the president in the house. we are about to watch it go to the senate.

we heard from the judiciary, chairman lindsey graham. one day he's with the president the next day you don't know who he's with. ways your sense about where he's head. >> it's frustrating saying we are in a knife fight, could you help out preserving the presidency and the constitution. and in' cases they sit over there mum, not saying a thing. we understand they are going to act as the jury and they don't want to taint that. but the constitution is at stake. the votes and the legitimacy of 60 million americans who voted for this presidency are at stake. especially today with the inspector general report. if you read that. if you are into three pages into the introduction you will realize they opened up the investigation on the trump campaign without knowing who they were investigating.

they literally say that. we done know who the people were. but they opened an investigation. lou: that's a bald faced lie. does anyone seriously think the characters involved in this thing, it was just -- it's a contrivance at the very least, and a purposeful presented case for a counterinsurgency operation. counter surveillance. >> they use that to go then brief would-be president trump. and they say right in there they used it to spy on president trump and his team, including michael flynn. meanwhile they also admitted to not spying on the campaign. lou: can't you stand up and demand this be right and full accountability? nothing else will solve the problem of the great corruption

within the justice department and the fbi, and bring about accountability. congressman, we are out of time. we appreciate it. thanks for being with us. stay with us. we are coming right back.

lou: judicial watch president tom fitton has been sceptical of the inspector general for some time. the now deliver report from the

inspector general michael horowitz brought tom fitton to this point. >> the applications on their face were deficient. you read the dossier. it's self-evidentiary garbage. there is no excuse -- the i.g. provides the excuse. i am hoping barr sees through this. lou: it's clear william barr a u.s. attorney john durham do see through all that and perhaps a great deal more. we'll find out more in the next iteration of this. the inspector general report landing with a thud, and that's putting it nicely. tomorrow night we'll be talking with michael flynn's attorney,

sidney powell. a reminder to follow me on facebook and instagram. good lauren: it is 5:00 a.m. here are your top stories at this hour. a big day in washington as the justice department's watchdog report on fisa abuse is drawing different reactions but it's not slowing down democrats who the in hours are expected to unveil two articles of impeachment against president trump. cheryl: today u.s. and canadian officials descend on mexico to finalize the usmca trade deal as a top trump official says the december 15th