♪ ♪ arthel: the intelligence committee reportedly rejecting a request for immunity from general michael flynn, president trump's former national or security adviser seeking that condition in exchange for his testimony on russia and the 2016 election. welcome to a brand new hour inside "america's news headquarters," i'm arthel neville. eric: hello, everyone, i'm eric shawn. the investigations into russia have been ramping up as the ranking democrat on the committee, congressman adam schiff, gets his first look at those key documents first revealed by the republican

committee chairman, devin nuñes. garrett tenney has the latest on this growing controversy from washington. >> reporter: hey, eric. even after reviewing those documents at the white house yesterday, congressman adam schiff says he still has a hot of questions both about the information and how it's been handled. we know now two staffers provided chairman devin nuñes with the intelligence reports last week, and he's received a lot of criticism for not sharing that information with the rest of the house intelligence committee. after seeing the intelligence reports for himself, the committee's top democrat says now he is still not sure why that happened. in a statement, schiff said in part: nothing i could see today warranted a departure from the normal review procedures, and these materials should now be provided to the full membership of both committees. the white house has yet to explain why senior white house staff apparently shared these materials with but one member of either committee, only for their contents to be briefed back to the white house. notably missing from his statement though is if the

reports convinced him that the president and his aides were, in fact, picked up during surveillance operations after the election and then illegal lie included reports that were spread across the intelligence committee. that's the conclusion devin nuñes reached last week after he viewed those took units -- documents, and it remains a top concern for members of the senate intelligence committee as well. >> those are classified documents. when you deal with sources and methods and how we gather information, that hurts us long term in our intelligence, and if anyone has done, for political p gain, something that affects us and our national security long term, that is an absolute criminal offense. >> reporter: and as for the president's former national security adviser michael flynn, both the house and senate intelligence committees have said they are very interested in speaking to him, but at this point it is far too early in their investigations to decide if any immunity deal would even be worth making. eric and arthel? eric: garrett, in ten minutes we'll have more on the allegations against nuñes, and

at the bottom of the hour we'll also have a former cia military analyst weigh in on all this. arthel? arthel: meanwhile, financial disclosure reports have been released by the white house for nearly 200 top staffers, among them, two close advisers of the president, his daughter vanning a ca and her husband, jared kushner. the couple's assets reportedly worth as much as $700 million. kristin fisher is live at the white house with more and, kristin, do we know why the white house is releasing these records now? >> reporter: well, arthel, it's because they're tried to by law -- required to by law. you're not going to see an exact dollar amount, it's going to be a range, but it's fascinating because these are all the assets of the white house senior staff, and none are more complicated than those of president trump's own family. take a look at this. his daughter, ivanka trump, and her husband, jared kushner, they hold anywhere between $240 and $70 million in assets.

then there's gary cohn, director of the national economic council and the former number two exec at goldman sachs. he's worth somewhere between $252-611 million, his income last year alone was as high as $77 million. steve bannon's assets, they're somewhere in the range of $11.8-53 million, and kellyanne conway's about the same, 11 million and 44.3 million. no surprise that the billionaire president has surrounded himself with wealthy people, although it's safe to say they are making a lot less money now that they're working here at the white house. arkansas arkansas that's for sure. and meanwhile, president trump is spending the weekend at that house behind you, the white house, but the vice president is in ohio. so, kristin, tell us about the message that mr. pence is taking to the people. >> reporter: yeah. this is the second saturday in a row that the vice president has visited a state that they won in november. last week he was in west virginia, this week he's in

ohio. he was touring an electronics manufacturing facility and meeting with small business owners, and he told them that the president's top three priorities are creating jobs, jobs and more jobs, and he ran through what the white house has done just this week to help achieve that goal. he pointed to president trump signing two executive orders this week, one to put america on the path to energy independence and another to try the help level the playing field with all those international trade deals. listen to this. >> people of this country haven't been this confident about our economy since the year 2000. and they should be excited, because president trump knows what all of you know, that when manufacturing is strong, america is strong. and he's fighting every day to bring american manufacturing back. >> reporter: now today the vice president also talked about the ongoing efforts to repeal and replace obamacare. he said that despite that first failed attempt, it ain't over yet, and that's a direct quote. arthel?

arthel: yep, i heard it myself. kristin fisher, thank you so much. eric? eric: arthel, senate republicans are continuing to clash over democrats over president trump's supreme court nominee, judge neil gorsuch. this as that showdown looms in the coming week. some wondering if the republicans will invoke the so-called nuclear option on this nomination. doug mckelway has more from washington. doug? >> reporter: with the senate vote on supreme court nominee neil gorsuch looming this week, there is a lot of 11th hour jockeying as senate democrats near that 60-vote threshold to filibuster his nomination. joe manchin and heidi heitkamp have declared they will vote for gorsuch. they're both for states that trump won and both are up for re-election in 2018. democrat claire mccaskill just yesterday from a state that trump won added herself to the no list and plans to filibuster the nomination, yet she told a private gathering last sunday that gorsuch was, quote, one of the better ones.

>> we hope that her praise leads to additional support and her support. it's hard to the find any reason except for obstructionism to see why fellow democrats in her caucus have not been able to join them. >> reporter: but mccaskill offered this warning should justice kennedy or ginsburg or breyer leave the high court in the next couple of years. >> so they pick another one off the list and they bring it over to the senate and we say, no, no, no, this is worse, and there's not enough votes to confirm it. they're not going to let us do that too long. >> reporter: the so-called nuclear option will change senate rules to allow confirmation of a supreme court justice with a simple majority vote. >> if it comes to a rules change, and i sincere orally hope it does not for the sake of the advise and consent clause of the constitution, but if it does, it'll be squarely on the shoulders of the republican party and the republican leader. >> reporter: many republicans say that's hypocritical of schumer, it was his party under senate majority leader reid

which invoked the nuclear option for executive branch nominees below the su leader mcconnell, who is protective of the senate's traditions, has not said whether he will pull the nuclear trigger, but he has guaranteed gorsuch will be confirmed by friday. eric? eric: doug mcel --way reporting in washington. arthel: the fire that caused an elevated section of interstate 85 in atlanta to collapse, this man seen here charged with first-degree arson and criminal damage to property. bryan llenas is following the story from our new york city newsroom. what more do we know about the suspect? >> reporter: bay sill el by was in court this morning, and authorities believe he started the fire on interstate 85 thursday afternoon. his bond is set at $200,000. this is not eleby's first run-in with the law either. he has an extensive criminal record, arrested more than a dozen times since 1995.

in fact, the atlanta journal constitution is reporting the arrest warrant suggests eleby was smoking crack before starting the fire. two others were also arrested in connection charged with criminal trespassing, they were with him when he allegedly started the fire. now, the inferno started in a section of interstate 85 just a few miles north of downtown atlanta. the flames erupting underneath the highway where construction equipment is stored. dozens of firefighters battled the flames and thick black smoke came up, but the fire's temperatures were to hot the northbound portion of the highway collapsed. this instagram video was shot by a driver. amazingly, no one was injured in this whole ordeal. the "atlanta journal-constitution" is also reporting today the arrest warrant says one of the other two people he was with told police eleby placed a chair on top of a shopping cart, igniting it, causing the fire. >> i know there are still a lot of lingering questions around what caused this fire and what

was stored under the bridge. the area of the fire, where the fire originated is part of the right-of-way, and it is part of where we have stored construction materials. what causes this fire is we do not know at this time. >> reporter: now the repairs begin, and an important stretch of highway in atlanta. the commissioner of the georgia department of transportation says repairs will take at least several months. look at that drone footage from our atlanta station down there. in the meantime, atlanta's commuters -- already used tonight marish traffic woes -- will have to figure out alternate routes to and from work and home. as it stands, 350 feet of highway in each direction are being removed and replaced. arthel? arthel: yeah. and i know next week it's spring break there, so that's going to relieve some of the congestion, but a traffic nightmare -- >> reporter: turn on fox news radio, listen to us while you're stuck in traffic. [laughter] arthel: good idea. thank you very much.

>> reporter: take care. eric: new developments in the tragic texas mini bus crash that killed 13 people. they were returning from a church retreat. a witness says that the driver of that pickup truck that collided with the mini bus you see there, well, the driver supposedly acknowledged that he had been texting behind the wheel just before that deadly crash. the witness telling the associated press that he reported the truck to authorities after he noticed it was weaving in and out of traffic. the driver remains hospitalized, reportedly told one witness, quote: i'm sorry, i'm sorry, after that fatal collision. so far there have been no charges filed against that driver. authorities say they are waiting for the results of the investigation. an example of why authorities say do not text and drive. arthel: it ain't that deep. seriously, it can be deadly. now to the battle against isis. iraqi forces targeting a neighborhood in southwest mosul where isis militants respond with sniper fire. this as civilian casualties

continue to rise in the country's second largest city. people there say isis is using them as human shields. kitty logan has more now. kitty? >> reporter: hi, arthel. well, iraqi forces now control around three-quarters of the city, but they're still fighting some very tough battles in areas still held by isis. iraqi troops are pushing closer into western mosul. they already control the eastern side, but despite recent gains, it's still a tough battle with an estimated 2,000 isis fighters holding out. these militants are using snipers and suicide attacks against iraqi positions. hundreds of thousands of residents have been forced to flee their homes because of this intense fighting. yesterday u.n. secretary-general antonio gutierrez visited displaced families in a camp near mosul. with so many people seeking shelter, camps are overcrowded, and conditions are poor. the u.n. is appealing for more aid and resources to help those

forced to flee. some emergency supplies are getting in to mosul, but the u.n. says it's not nearly enough. only 8% of its aid program for this conflict is funded. and around 400,000 civilians are still trapped in residential areas of the city. because of these limited resources and temporary camps, some families are already returning home, but the fighting is likely to continue for some time and the city is far from safe. there are also unconfirmed reports that a senior isis commander may have been killed in an iraqi airstrike. the iraqi government says it killed around a hundred militants trying to cross from syria into iraq. arthel? arthel: thanks, kitty. eric? eric: the united nations security council must focus on the fight against isis and other threats, so says nikki haley, and she will now have a chance to do just that. it is april 1st, and that means the united states now holds the presidency of the security

council for this month. so i sat down with our new u.s. ambassador to talk about all this and what she found at the u.n. during her first two months on the job. you know, the former governor of south carolina delivered a blunt message to the world body on issues such as human rights, the u.n. budget and the u.n.'s culture n. the next hour, we will show you some of our interview. she has harsh words for syrian president bashar al assad, branding him a war criminal. she told him the war in syria could have possibly been prevented had the security council acted and says assad must be wrought to justice. >> -- brought to justice. >> first of all, assad, he's a war criminal. he's used chemical weapons on his own people. he's not allowing aid to come in. he is very much a deterrent to peace. but then you look at the fact that the security council has to acknowledge when the chemical weapons -- we have proof that he used it three times on his own people.

why aren't we dealing with that? then you have to look at the iranian influence and the fact that we've got to get that out. syria is in such sad shape, but it doesn't have to be that way. if you look back, so many things could have been done to prevent where we are today, and that's what we need to focus on now. eric: and that's u.s. ambassador nikki haley. in our next hour here on "america's news headquarters," by the way, part two will be tomorrow night at 6 p.m. eastern, and she told me what surprised her the most at the u.n. was the constant criticism about israel. she'll speak about that tomorrow night. arthel: we look forward to the interview. eric: a little more than 45 minutes from now. arthel: good job. meanwhile, chairman devin nuñes refusing to recuse himself from the russia investigation. how he's responding to calls for him to step down. eric: and there's a potential breakthrough, have you heard about this, in treating cancer. genetically altering your own immune system to fight off the disease. could this finally change the

way we treat cancer and beat it? arthel: and, unfortunately, this is not an april fool's joke. there is really a ton of snow on the way. seriously? as another late season storm heads for the northeast. ♪ ♪ (avo) did you know two areas of your brain can make it hard to lose weight? contrave is an fda-approved weight-loss medicine that may help adults who are overweight or struggle with obesity lose weight and keep it off. contrave is believed to work on two areas of the brain: your hunger center... (woman) i'm so hungry. (avo) to reduce hunger. and your reward system... (woman) ice cream. french fries. (avo) to help control cravings. across three long-term studies, contrave patients lost approximately 2-4x more weight than with diet and exercise alone. contrave is not for everyone. one ingredient in contrave may increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some children, teens, and young adults within the first few months.

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♪ ♪ >> not a better person in the house of representatives to do this investigation than me because i've been the one who's been warning about russia for a long, long time. >> you're not going to recuse yourself? >> no, or i'm not. eric: that's republican devin nuñes standing firm against calls to recuse himself, critics accusing the california republican who served as a member of president trump's transition team of stalling the panel's investigation into the possible collusion or coordination between top trump campaign officials and russia. nuñes pushing back on all fronts. >> there is no evidence of collusion with the president of the united states and the russians. >> there's certainly a lot of circumstantial evidence, and that's why we have these investigations, and that's what people want to know. >> that's correct, and we'll continue to investigate that. >> when will your committee get back in business?

>> we haven't stopped. that's what i'm saying, this is not -- that is not a true statement. we've had investigators working every single day on this issue. eric: can the house committee investigation be trusted? the national security reporter for the hill, katie williams, joins us. >> nice to see you. eric: nuñes says he's the best person. is that true? the democrats and critics accuse him of being in the tank with the president and some think he's trying to throw the investigation. >> well, the big question right now is, is what devin newspaper yes, sir saw at the white house -- nuñes saw at the white house, does that information justify his decision to effectively bypass his own committee and take the information apparently back to the white house to brief the president. now, if you ask the committee's ranking member, adam schiff, he's not satisfied. he says that having now seen the documents, that there is nothing in there to him that justifies that pretty unusual move. so i don't think this is an

issue that you're going to see go away at any point. i mean, democrats are very, very frustrated about this, and they're going to continue to raise these questions. eric: i mean, nuñes says it shows potentially this alleged surveillance by the obama administration of president trump and/or top officials with that incidental collection. but, you know, with incidental collection, is it just maybe, let's say, flynn talking to the russian ambassador, also potentially could be when almost anybody mentions a name that's also under the definition of incidental collection. do we know what the facts are in terms of what nuñes and now schiff have seen? >> we know very, very little about what nuñes has actually seen. nuñes himself has said that this surveillance was completely legal incidental collection. well, that could include everything from, you know, ambassador to a friendly country that we get along with talking to his counterpart in another country that we get along with saying, hey, you know, what

about this, what about this donald trump guy. that would still qualify as donald trump's name being caught up in incidental collection. so it's very unclear whether there has been anything that actually is problematic in what nuñes has seen. now, he says that it was something that alarmed him. he says it has to do with the unmasking of names, the public identifying of individuals associated with the transition team of which he was one. but also given that, there is some question about whether or not that was even inappropriate because intelligence officials unmask names all the time for perfectly legitimate reasons. eric, although they're not, the names aren't made public. >> the names aren't made public, no, so certainly there is some question about how did those names end up in newspapers, and that is exactly what republicans say they are most concerned with. if these names are being disseminated amongst the intelligence community, who is doing that unmaasinging, and

could -- unmasking, and could those people be potentially leaking information to the press. eric: and here's what "the washington post" says about that. they're saying, quote: nuñes reviewed the material during a surreptitious to the white house grounds next week, he then returned the next day so that he could brief trump on what nuñes depicted as potential abuses by u.s. spy agencies brought to his attention by an unnamed source. although nuñes at one point said his source was not a member of the white house staff. that assertion is under scrutiny, and it's under scrutiny now because of the revelations that members of the national security council. are they members of the white house staff or at least work at the white house on the grounds in terms of who he met with? >> well, that's exactly the big question. national security council staffers have a level of access to the president. they are part of the white house. so if this was information that nuñes was briefed on by national security council staff members, why wouldn't they then just go directly to the president?

why would nuñes then need to return to the white house the next day to brief president trump? eric: they could walk in the oval office, can't they, and have a meeting with the president? >> well, walk-in access varies, obviously d. eric: have an appointment. >> in theory, there is a direct pathway for that information to get from this staffer to the president without it needing to go through the chairman of the intelligence committee, and that's where you're seeing these claims from adam schiff and other democrats come from that the white house is somehow trying to launder intelligence through that committee. eric: is there any other evidence that that is so from anywhere else? >> that's, at this point it is totally speculation based on, based on devin nuñes' actions which still raise a lot of questions about, you know, what his motivations were. now, he himself has said that he felt that he had a duty to brief the president on what he saw, but i think there are still quite a few people on capitol hill who are dissatisfied with

that extra nays. -- explanation. eric: and meanwhile, senate intelligence leaders pledge to conduct bipartisan negotiations into russia, the senate intelligence committee is going to start interviewing maybe monday 20 people privately including, we're told, jared kushner at some point. here republican -- richard burr, republican senator of north carolina, on their investigation. >> so mark and i work hand in hand on this and contrary to maybe popular belief, we're partners to see that this is completed and that we've got a product at the end of the day that we can have bipart anship in supporting -- bipartisanship supporting. eric: he's talking about mark warner, the democratic senator. do we see more professionalism over on the senate side than we've seen in the house? >> you're certainly seeing a much better relationship between warner and burr than nuñes and schiff right now. they are quietly going about their work behind closed doors, but in that particular press

conference that you just segmented there, they were sending a very clear message, i think, that we got this, there is no need for an independent commission or a select committee. they were certainly making an effort to highlight the bipartisan nature of that probe to kind of push back against some of the momentum that this meltdown in the house has given to proponents of either an independent commission or a select committee to look into russian interference. eric: and as i said, their work privately behind closed doors -- they had that hearing, but it begins on monday. we'll see what coming out of that. katie bo williams, thank you for joining us. >> good to be here. arthel: here's the question people are asking, should president trump's former national security adviser, michael flynn, be given immunity to testify before congress? we're going to ask a former cia military analyst on what the president has labeled a witch hunt. plus, the v.a. back in the headlines for the wrong reasons amid accusations that the agency

is lashing out against whistleblowers. we're going to hear from one lawmaker who's trying to help. ♪ ♪ a heart attack doesn't care what you eat or how healthy you look. no matter who you are, a heart attack can happen without warning. a bayer aspirin regimen can help prevent another heart attack. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. bayer aspirin. as america's #1 professional lawn care company,ing. trugreen can tailor a plan that turns your ordinary lawn into an extraordinary one. so start your trugreen lawn plan today for only $29.95.

♪ ♪ arthel: michael flynn's request for immunity in exchange for testimony about the trump campaign and potential links with russia reportedly denied by the senate intelligence committee. congressman jason chaffetz, chairman of the house oversight committee, agrees with that decision. let's take a listen why. >> it's very mysterious to me, though, why all of a sudden general flynn is suddenly out there saying he wants immunity. a, i don't think congress should give him immunity. if there's an open investigation by the fbi, that should not happen. i also don't believe that, actually, the president should be weighing in on this. they're the ones that actually would prosecute something. arthel: okay. joining me now is tara mahler,

smokes person and senior policy adviser for the counterextremism project, also a former cia military analyst. so, tara, why is flynn offering immunity? why is his offer not being accepted at this time, and what more information or discovery would the senate intelligence committee need before accepting general flynn's immunity offer, if ever? >> sure. well, i'm not a lawyer, but it seems like if he's asking for immunity, there's something for which he's asking to be immune from prosecution for. that's not necessarily 100% the case, it could be a precautionary measure, but likely there might be information about his involvement either in the campaign or the course of the administration that was problematic or, perhaps, criminal and he's worried about prosecution. i do think it's interesting that they have declined his offer of immunity. that suggests the me whatever he may have the tell, they might already believe they will get through other means or channels whether that's through the fbi information or through the testimony of other individuals like james comey himself or like

yates. so i think it will be interesting to see how this plays out. there are still a lot of questions, and i think we're going to get more answers in the upcoming weeks. arthel: i know you say you not a lawyer -- you're not a lawyer, tara, but having worked with cia, i want to ask you from that perspective, perhaps you could give us system insight. what do flynn's attorneys do now? do they just wait? and what kind of a defense might his lawyers be trying to shore up in the event that flynn's immunity is never granted? >> well, what's going to need to happen here is there's going to be, perhaps, documentation, classified and unclassified information that congress, the intelligence committee, is going to have access to, and there's going to be information that the fbi has access to. some of that might already implicate flynn, so he might be trying to protect against that by offering to testify, you know, to testify and perhaps turn against other individuals who are involved. again, it's unclear exactly what might be being covered up here, that's what everyone really wants to know, that's the million dollar question. is there criminal activity,

financial dealings or conflicts of interest, perhaps? is there potential blackmail scenarios? is there collusioning? so there's a wide spectrum from minor, you know, wrong misdoings to more major are, orchestrated criminal activity and/or collusion with the russians, and that's why you see them focused on flynn and also jared kushner going to be testifying for his meetings with the ambassador of russia and for sanctioning russian banks. lots of moving parts here, let alone the visit by chairman nuñes to the white house which has set north another sequence of events over intelligence sort of coming out the white house itself. arthel: regarding jared kushner, is there any there there? >> well, he did have some meetings with the russian ambassador, unclear exactly what those meetings were about. so it's par for the course that would be part of the investigation as they look into the trump campaign's contacts with russia. the second question about the

meeting with the russian bank, that on its face is not illegal to meet with a sanctioned russian bank. doing business with that bank would be illegal, but it's still unclear why he was meeting with that bank during the campaign. and the problematic part of it is there are conflicting stories about the nature of the meeting. if it was straightforward, there shouldn't be conflicting stories. some people, i think kushner himself and the campaign, have said it was a standard meeting to meet with a potential incoming administration. the bank has said that it was meeting with jared kushner in his real estate capacity. so, again, the conflicts in stories don't help the optics on this, and i think the administration really needs to pay attention to some of the optics. because when you're under an fbi investigation, the optics do matter, and when you have conflicting stories, that's going to raise a few red flags. arthel: so, tara, with a full scope look at all this and without prosecuting anyone prematurely because we don't know who, if anyone, will ultimately face criminal

charges. from what you can tell now, who might be shaking in their boots most out of concern for what evidence or information that could ultimately be uncovered? >> sure. well, i think we know that flynn was national security adviser, and he was fired or he chose to resign. we still don't know the specifics on that. clearly, there was something going on there. he lied to vice president pence, that's been made public. so my attention would be focused on flynn and perhaps other campaign associates, some of whom are not still with the administration, i might add. there could be a reason for that, and i think those individuals should be concerned. there have been a lot of coincidences, a lot of meetings that have had misinformation surrounding them and a lot of strange things in the timing, and i don't think it helps when you have the chairman of the investigation doing a sort of covert meeting at the white house without including the rest of the committee or making them aware of it at the time. so there, again, this plot keeps thickening, and it keeps sort of getting added to with different

side stories. but i think the real attention needs to be focused on the individuals during the campaign who were meeting with the russians, why were they meeting with russians and why was the trump administration so friendly in terms of its rhetoric and policies? arthel: yes or no, do you think americans will ever get final answers on this case? >> well, i like to think that the law enforcement, the fbi, the intelligence community, i think they have, you know, devoted, committed public servants, and i think when they see the intelligence, i think we're going to have more answers, but we're still at the beginning of this, the prestages to what is a public trial, and to expect we'd have a verdict in all the ed at this juncture is unreasonable. i think we need to give it time and let the investigation play out, hopefully in a bipartisan fashion. arthel: tara mahler, thank you so much. >> thank you. eric: the department of veterans affairs is accused of retaliating against whistleblowers who warped us

about abuses -- warned us about abuses. now the alleged actions drawing the attention of a key republican senator. will carr is in our west coast newsroom with the details. will, how bad is that supposed retaliation? >> reporter: well, eric, some of the whistleblowers we've spoken with say it's pretty bad. they say their v.a.s have tried to fire them, others are put in what they call solitary confinement within their hospitals. that includes dr. dale kline who may be the highest paid government employee who quite literally does nothing every day. dr. kline makes $250,000 a year as a double board-certified yale fellow who specializes in pain management at the v.a. in poplar bluff, missouri. but after becoming a whistleblower and reporting alleged secret wait lists, wait time manipulation and more to the inspector general in washington, d.c., court documents show the missouri v.a. stripped kline of his duties, his clinic was shut down, and he now has to sit in an empty office every day with nothing to do.

>> let's take a strong shot of honesty here. whistle blowing -- retaliation is alive and well in the v.a. system. >> reporter: dr. kline says he can't get a private sector job right now because he hasn't seen a patient in almost a year and could potentially lose his certifications. eric? eric: and, will, who's trying to help the whistleblowers who have these allegations? >> reporter: well, republican senator ron johnson has really stepped up. he's heard many of the same horror stories we've been hearing, and he's pushing a bill to further protect whistleblowers. >> i wish i could say i was shocked. it's disappointing to the point of depressing. but the fact of the matter is what the v.a. health care system is, it's a government-run, bureaucratic, single-payer health care system, and it has inherent bureaucratic problems. >> reporter: the v.a. declined to talk to us on camera about this story. instead, eric, it offered a statement that says the v.a. does not tolerate any type of retaliation. eric. eric: all right, will, thanks so

much. pretty disturbing, thank you. arthel: well, there is a potential breakthrough in treating a deadly form of cancer. what researchers are finding and whether it will prove effective. a member of our fox news medical a-team will join us on that very important update. eric: and take a look at this famous norman rockwell painting. do you know that was stolen in a burglary over 40 years ago? well, now it's finally been returned to its original owners, can you believe that? it's an incredible stir behind an incredible art theft case. straight ahead on "america's news headquarters." ♪ ♪ i was energetic. then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. my doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. he also prescribed lyrica. fibromyalgia is thought to be the result of overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. for some, lyrica can significantly

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♪ ♪ arthel: after being stolen for some, what, 40 years ago, the famous norman rockwell painting "taking a break" has been found by the fbi. it was returned to relatives of its original owners in

philadelphia. the painting was stolen from a new jersey home back in 1976. check it out, it was purchased for less than $100 in the 1950s, its current value is estimated nearly at $1 million. yeah, another whistle, james. eric: what a great american painter, norman rockwell. meanwhile, in the medical field it could be a breakthrough for cancer. many patients can fight blood cancer cells with their own immune system that's been genetically altered. the food and drug administration planning to approve it by the end of the year, is what is it? dr. manny alvarez is senior managing editor at foxnews.com, so, doctor, are we on the verge of a huge, new breakthrough with this therapy? >> let me tell you, all of these researchers, and we have done many segments about different kinds of cancer therapies, 40 years ago the national cancer institute -- and this is why federal research dollars are so

so important and they have to be protected -- began to look at the immune system, our own police department. those are the cells that basically kill bacteria, viruses and so on and so forth and how do we use our own police department to fight cancer. and this was started 40 years ago with a lot of good research. now we're getting incredible breakthroughs, and this breakthrough basically in certain types of blood cancers like leukemias where everything has failed, chemotherapy, radiation, and there's no more hope, tends the come back, now what they're doing is they're taking these immune cells, the t-cells, these are the sheriffs of our body, they take them out of our body. they're reedge neitherred, in other words -- reengineered, in other words, they are told what to do, what to look for. they get this gps device, if you will, and then they're infused back into our bodies, and they go directly to the cancer. when you look at the outcomes

right now in certain types of cancer, 80% survival rate, 80% cures. eric: wow. >> this is amazing to me, and it's just the beginning. eric: this is called immune know therapy and it's one of the biggest new things, and it can be used for a variety of cancers, tests, for example, on cervical cancer -- >> yeah, look, about 10% of cancers, especially the blood cancers, they, there's nothing that anybody can do. if you look at, you know, patient that is go through the whole panoply of, you know, the chemo, three courses, whatever, it comes back. so there's a subgroup of cancer patients where, you know, let's say 15 years ago the doctor would say to you, sorry, we can't do anymore. now it's a different chapter, and this is just the beginning, this type of -- it's what they call the protocol which is being done here at memorial, cancer

center and many other places, philadelphia, new jersey, you know? this is a new wave, but it's going to be, you know, this is going to be going to other types of cancer -- eric: how much of it is available now, and what do you think is next for people who may be suffering -- >> everything right now is under research protocol, but i have to tell you the fda is probably going to expedite the approval, and i would venture to say probably by the end of next year or the beginning of next, this is going to be available. eric: and so do you foresee a time five years from now that doctors will be able to treat cancer and perhaps cure it through immune yo therapy? >> well, cancer vaccines, you know, again, different modalities. the message is how do we use our own cells, our own police department to really attack those, our own cells that now become criminals. eric: well -- >> and that's, basically, the message. but remember, it began with

basic science research by our federal government, our federal agencies, and this is why it's so important that, you know, that these, you know -- eric: protect the federal dollars. >> protect the federal dollars, protect the federal research because if it wasn't for those men or women in those basic science benches, we would not have the discoveries that we have. eric: that's a message to the president. >> mr. president, if you're listening, you know i love you, but let's protect those dollars. eric: dr. manny, thanks so much. certainly is promising and really important. thank you. arthel? arthel: parts of the northeast hit hard by a massive april fools' day snow so many. i wish i could say april fools, but i can't. it's real. ♪ bare spots that are hard to fix using seed alone. but scotts ez seed changes everything. it's an all-in-one solution. our finest grass seed plus quick-start

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arthel: so nature may be playing an april fools joke on the northeast. a powerful storm dumping heavy snow in parts of if region. meteorologist adam klotz is live in the fox extreme weather center. really, adam? >> reporter: we wish it was a joke. that's -- i know, we wish it was a joke. unfortunately, that's not the case. that snow continuing to fall across portions of the northeast. good news is we're wrapping this one up. it's just been today. let me show you what's still happening out there, at this

point really kind of highlighting on maine, surrounding portland. this was much more widespread just a couple hours ago, that continues to be our winter storm warning. eventually, this is going to shift off to sea and we are going to clear off a little bit. here's an hour by hour forecast, a future forecast, it does show this whole system pushing out through the overnight hours. good news is it's going to be clearing off a bit and maybe we'll eventually see some more spring-like weather. it's really been the northeast that's continued to have winter hanging around. these are showfall totals, really depths at this point, and it's the only spot where we're still looking at snow in the northeast. you start to see some of these deeper purples, we're talking about areas where there's maybe up to 2 feet of snow at the higher elevations, so it continues to be winter across the extreme northeast. now, there are areas across the country where we're looking at more spring-like weather and, actually, even a chance of some severe weather. last 24 hours really beginning to see some storms firing up in central texas.

that's going to be stretching a little farther to the south, and as we wrap up today, there's at least a chance as we head into the overnight hours, at least a chance of seeing some severe weather stretching all the way from the southern border running up into abilene and over towards the dallas area. so that's an area we're going to be paying attention to the rest of the night. arkansas snell. arthel: let's hope that doesn't develop two seriously. i heard you say spring, i'm going to hold you too -- to it. >> reporter: we've got some spring ahead of us, i promise. arkansas a thank you, adam. eric: ahead, we'll have my exclusive interview with united states ambassador to the u.n., nikki haley. she calls north korea, quote, a threat to the world. what she wants china to do to rein in kim jong un. that exclusive interview, coming up.

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hey rick, all good? oh yeah, we're good. we're good. termites never stop trying to get in, we never stop working to keep them out. terminix. defenders of home. eric: hello i'm eric shawn on "america's news headquarters." arthel: and i'm arthel neville. topping the news the ranking democrat on the house until committee adam schiff getting a look at the classified documents viewed by chairman devin nunes a week ago. congressman schiff raising concerns that classified materials may have been mishandled. eric: and we'll have the latest on the arrest in the. raging inferno. one of our country's biggest cities. who authorities say get it and why. arthel: also a frantic search

for survivors underway after an avalanche destroyed a small town in columbia killing more than 150 people and that number is expected to rise. eric: first we start with our top story, the senate intelligence committee reportedly rejecting the request for immunity for retired general michael flynn. president trump former national security adviser of horse seeking that condition in exchange for his testimony on the allegations that russia influenced the 2016 presidential election the fbi continues its investigation about whether top trump campaign officials cooperated with moscow to help the president win. the latest on the investigation garrett tenney. what are they saying on capitol hill about general flynn demanding that immunity? >> to be clear we are being told at this point no decisions have been made regarding immunity

because it's still early in the investigation. both the house and the senate intelligence committees have said that michael flynn is absolutely someone that they would like to hear from but we are told there are a lot of other people that they need to interview first. once the committees have built their case than they can see what information flynn has to offer and decide if it's worth waging immunity. the fact that the adviser is requesting immunity at all is concerning to a lot of folks on the hill of democrats and republicans. >> is very mysterious to me while the sudden general plan is out there suddenly saying he wants immunity. a i don't think congress should give him immunity. if there's an open investigation by the f. the eye that should have saidn. before any immunity deal is made they would first check with the department of justice working with the fbi and the russian meddling as well. eric: meanwhile garrett at the top democrat on the house intelligence committee adam

schiff is finally able to see those intelligence reports that chairman devin nunes went to the white house grounds last week to see and cause such controversy. what does schiff have to say about what he saw? >> before his visit to the white house he was already casting doubt that he had a lot of answers by looking at intelligence and afterwards he didn't seem like that it changed. in a statement shifts that impart nothing i can see today warranted a departure from normal procedures in these materials should now be provided to the full membership of both committees. the white house has yet to explain why senior white house staff apparently shared these cereals with but one member of either committee only to be briefed back to the white house. shifted and share any details nor did he say he is convinced that the president and his asians were in fact conducting surveillance operations after the election and illegally included in the report spread

across the intelligence community but that's being conclusion that chairman devin nunes reached last week after he viewed the same documents but as ricardo medina said in a statement the documents he shared with the entire committee so together they could reach an agreement. neville. arthel: a man suspected of starting a raging fire that collapsed part of an atlanta interstate is making his first appearance in court today the two others have also been arrested. the fire broke out underneath interstate 85 on thursday. the intense heat taking out a stretch of the overpass. bryan llenas is following the story and he joins us live from the newsroom at the latest on this story. >> incredible and images. he faces charges of first-degree arson as well as criminal damage to property. this is not his first run-in with the law.

he has an extensive criminal record. he's been arrested more than a dozen times since 1995 mostly drug charges. in fact the atlanta general constitution is reporting the 39-year-old smoked the force darting the firefight chasing -- placing a chair on top of a shopping cart and igniting it. reports say all three are believed to be homeless. the interstate 85 inferno broke out on thursday afternoon in an area underneath a highway used to store construction materials. authorities still won't say how the fire was started or why but now 30050 feet of highway in both directions now needs to be replaced. >> we expect the demolition of these damaged sections to last throughout this weekend. the big question on everyone's mind is how long will this take to repair.

we are not able to give you a firm estimate this morning but you should know that this will take at least several months to get this rebuilt. >> look at this instagram video from a driver claims in the lack smoke shot into the air dozens of firefighters battled the blaze. the fires temperatures were so high this portion of the highway collapsed. amazingly no one was injured. this incident taking place in a stretch of highway that carries 400,000 cars to atlanta now with city already known for its traffic woes will have nightmares for the foreseeable future. this was traffic in atlanta yesterday. the federal government is pitching in to help the u.s. department of transportation giving $10 million for the initial repair work. eleby will be back in court april 14. arthel: no fatalities or injuries thanks to the quick response of the fire department. bryan llenas, thank you.

eric: meanwhile a missing 15-year-old tennessee girl has been spotted in oklahoma or police say surveillance photos for elizabeth thomas with her alleged kidnapper on the left tad cummins walking into a walmart store that video from oklahoma city. they said tad cummins is the team's former high school teacher. they've been missing since march 15. authorities are offering a 1000-dollar would reward leading to information about their whereabouts. tad cummins wife is asking for him to publicly turn himself in hand is filed for divorce after 31 years of marriage this past friday. arthel: the white house releasing the national disclosure report for more than 100 top officials including the president's daughter ivanka trump and her husband jared kushner as well as adviser steve bannon and white house chief of staff reince priebus. kristin fisher is live at the white house with more on this story.

reporter: what these documents do is they provide a glimpse into the finances of senior white house staffers at the time they entered government do what they do not get is a full account of how those staffers maybe trying to disentangle the many assets that could pose potential conflicts of interest. not a lot of substance here but come on i mean who would not be interested in seeing these numbers. let's take a look. right now you have ivanka trump and jared kushner hold anywhere between 240 and $700 million in assets dari him 252 to 611 million steve bannon about 11,000,002 53.8 million in assets and kellyanne conway 11,000,002 44.2 million reince priebus the chief of staff just over $600 million. the president and vice president were not included in these documents because they didn't release their financial disclosures during the campaign.

the vice president mike pence was in ohio and he was touring in electronics meeting in thatcher where he spoke with small businesses about the administration's push to create jobs and level playing field in trade deals. talk about the administration's failed effort to repeal effort to repeal and replace obamacare. let's listen in. >> with 100% of house democrats, every single one and a handful of republicans congress basically said they weren't ready yet to begin the end of obamacare. it really is a shame but is congressman said to me a few minutes ago it ain't over yet. reporter: you may remember president trump blamed the first failure of the administration's attempt attempt to repeal and replace obamacare largely of members of the conservative house freedom caucus but today it appears that a member of the trump administration took it a step further. dan savino who is the white

house director of social media, look what he posted on twitter. it appears that he is directly targeting a member of the house freedom caucus who is up for re-election senator amash. jeffrey amash is a big liability the best we can tell, this is the first time a member of the trump administration has come out and publicly taken sides in a g.o.p. primary so perhaps arthel this is a taste of things to come for other republican lawmakers if perhaps they don't get on board with the administration's agenda. arthel: kristin fisher thank you so much. eric: the death toll is rising in colombia. that's where an avalanche has left communities absolutely devastated. residents who survived and how they are coping. arthel: chairman devin nunes pushing back against calls for

him to recuse himself from the russian investigation. we will get an insider's take on all of this on the former chairman of that panel. eric: coming up the "fox news" exclusive. i sit down with their new ambassador to the united nations nikki haley for a blunt message to her fellow international diplomats at the u.n. coming up next. >> leadership is letting them know what we are for, what we are against have the backs of our allies and make sure they keep the backs of us and anyone that challenges us, we will call them out. blue the dog here for propane. you know, i'm just a humble dog. i didn't attend the elite boarding kennels, but i do know that nothing beats the freedom of living out here with propane, people can live where they want, and just as cozy as they want. whether it's a hot bath (no thank you), a warm bedroom, or a perfectly grilled steak. drop it, drop it, drop it

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eric: a devastating situation unfolding in south america. three overflowing river sweeping through a small city in colombia killed more than 150 of the residents there. authorities say most of the victims were sleeping at the time of the flood. this comes after a storm dumped intense rain in the area near the countries border with ecuador. arthel: the white house said it is committed to working with the house and senate intelligence committees and the investigation into the potential link between russia and president trump's election campaign. here's white house spokesman

sean spicer. >> we are committed to working with the house and senate committees as we have said multiple times to get to the bottom of what happened here, white happen and who was involved. for this reason the reports the nsc staff discovered in the normal course of business are made available to those committees investigating to ensure that all of the facts come to light. arthel: to shed some light on how this type of investigation my progress i'm joined by former chairman of the house intelligence committee and former michigan congressman pete hoekstra. it's good to have you here. seikh great to be here. arthel: give us a behind-the-scenes walk-through on what they are doing in both committees and is there a difference in the approach between the two? >> there will be a difference in a approach between the two. the senate by the nature of institution the institution is very different than what the house is. obviously they are working in a more bipartisan way by what they

are doing right now is they are scoping it. i think this is really important because we are only seeing part of what needs to happen today, only a part of what really needs to be focused on. let's start with the basic premise. we have created this mythical superspy vladimir putin who is capable of doing superhuman things in the intelligence world. but you know than the investigations and we start talking about we are only going to look at the political side. he is a superspy they will be looking at the political realm and they will be looking at the financial round the economic brown in the military realm. what is putin doing in all of those areas and then they are saying look at what happened during the campaign. if you are looking at putin you have to be looked at what he's been doing for the last three, four, five years. arthel: why do you call him a mythical superspy? >> because we don't know how good he is and at least the way the unformed discussion has been

moving so far says we are only going to look at the political and we are only going to look at the short-term and only looking at donald trump. that's inspector clouseau. that's not the superspy because the final point is you have to take a long-term look and vladimir putin didn't put all the steaks on donald trump. vladimir putin at a minimum would have hedged his bets and taken a look at the clinton campaign in the clinton team over period of years so you also have to take a look at the intelligence operations that he was running at hillary clinton and her team and her supporters over the years, not just donald trump. arthel: sure but to your point i mean that's part of the whole idea. we are trying to figure out at least the folks in congress are trying to figure out what mr. putin's role potentially and actually the intelligence

committee, the agents have already said he did interfere with the 2016 presidential election. >> that's wrong. it wasn't 17. they don't even get involved in this kind of intelligence. i believe it was three agencies the fbi the nsa and one other organization. it wasn't all 17. that's a myth. arthel: okay lets go with three agencies, our right? let's say three intel agencies were looking into if in fact mr. putin or his operatives and russia have anything to do in terms of interfering in the 2016 presidential election. wouldn't it be important to get to the bottom of it regardless of how many agents are in it? >> i agree with that but if you're going to do the right investigation you need to take a look at all of it. you need to look at the scope in the different areas where the russian intelligence community is operating. you have to look at it over period of time and you can't

just focus on donald trump. remember for most of 2016 and he would not like it that i said this but for most of 2016 donald trump looked like he was going to be "the biggest loser". he ended up winning and a great intelligence organization which we believe the russians are they would have hedged their bets. they would have had operations running for years against hillary clinton and her team as well. that also should be investigated. that's all i'm saying. arthel: sure, positive investigation because former secretary of state clinton was also a candidate to become president of the united states. she lost an donald trump did win. he was the biggest -- he wasn't "the biggest loser" and he is the president so that's why the investigation is focused on his campaign. >> it should be focused on a of them because what we want to do is we want to understand the

total capability and the total influence that the russians have tried and alleged to be involved in not only in 2016 but over an extended period of time. vladimir putin was sowing the seed of the influencing whoever the next president was going to be rob oakley two, three, four years ago before we knew who the candidates were. you do not turn intelligence off and on. you build a network, you build a base that you can then move and manipulate and target against whoever the next administration might be. that's how intelligence works. arthel: we are going to move forward here the senate intelligence committee chair richard burr has ensured a thorough investigation free of political favoritism. you know here's the question, could americans trust that these investigations will be carried out in a fair unbiased manner and then what happens with the

information and testimony collected by the two intelligence committees? >> richard and i served in the house together. he is a great guide. i just talked to in the other night. he's firmly committed to running a bipartisan committee, a bipartisan investigation. sure there are going to be political bias in influence. they work at a political institution but you know it has been done in the past when i've chaired the committee. jane harman was my ranking democrat. we worked together very well. we passed the intelligence reform act. we didn't always disagree but we were both committed to making sure that we tried to do the right thing for the country, recognizing our political roles that we play and i think we did that very well and i think the leadership that you are seeing now in the senate appears to be happening right now and i'm hoping devon nunes and adam schiff can reach the same kind

of working relationship with the intelligence community, there's just very few people that answer to this information and you are absolutely right the american people have the trust and the resolve when it comes out. arthel: i will go with this one. what do you say to those who say the investigation surrounding russia is bogus, unnecessary or a waste of time? >> well it's never a waste of time, okay? investigating russia's intelligence capabilities in an effort to get to the united states investigation that our intelligence community has going on all the time. i think some of the allegations and some of the charges going around right now, they are bogus. keeping our finger on the pulse of what russia, china, iran and others are doing with their intelligence community, that's intelligence 101.

we are doing that all the time and if there needs to be a special in-depth focus right now that's okay. that's not a big deal but make sure that it is a fair and comprehensive investigation and that's okay. arthel: we thank you for all of your points made here today with us and we will have you on again. thank you congressman hoekstra, thank you very much. eric: it seems president donald trump in the white house and the united nations could be in for a bit of a change. ambassador nikki haley today -- he has been on the job for just over two months and says the administration has the world body. her goal she she says is to try to reform the u.n. to face the threats we all now face. i sat down with the ambassador for our exclusive interview. we talked about the united states mission to the u.n. about her new role.

she went from the south carolina governor's desk to a seat on the u.n. security council. >> would the to be concerned about chemical weapons used in syria. eric: nikki haley the new ambassador to the united nations brings up one passage to the u.n. from the trump administration. >> what we are trying to say is it's a new day at the u.n.. eric: that new day she says will focus on human rights u.n. peacekeeping the budget in working to correct the wrongs that have plagued the world body. >> would the snead the united states only began. think about that, lead again so that's what i'm trying to do and leadership is letting them know what we are for, what we are against, have the backs of our allies and make sure they keep the backs of us and anyone that challenges us let them know what we think. that's all this is, just making sure we are changing the culture to show strength to the united

states again, action and making sure we show value in the united nations. i think it's important for the american people. eric: she points to the tragedy in syria as a prime example of what the u.n. could have done more. the u.n. catastrophe continues on unimaginable horrifying scale. more than half a million killed, nearly 14 million refugees and haley says the work -- the war could have been avoided had the security council taken action. since the start of the war russia has vetoed six resolutions in order to protect its ally syrian president bashar al-assad. the war and this horrendous carnage could have been prevented. >> i think you know the previous administration needs to take responsibility for that as well. look at syria and is has just gone so far off. first of all assad is a war criminal. he's used him at the weapons on his own people. he is not allowing aid to come in.

he is very much a deterrence to peace. if you look back so many things could have been done to prevent where we are today and that's what we need to focus on now. eric: do you blame russia and the russian people protecting assad? >> the russians and the iranians have been part of why he has been able to basically hurt his people in the process. eric: their report said the administration will give a quote pass to assad. what's your view of that? >> i don't think the administration have given up past to assad. assad is a problem but the bigger problem is isis so we ever going to give a pass to s..? absolutely not. are we ever going to hope we can bring him to justice for the people of syria? yes, that's something we have to do but isis we have got to start dealing with that so we can bring peace back to the area and we have to do it by getting the iranian influence out of moving aside out of the way. eric: you also talk about the

security council and its ability to face some issues north korea for example continues its nuclear program, continues ballistic missile firing in launching. >> it all comes down to china and this is what's going to happen. this administration is no longer going to take the conversations with china that they are worried too and they think something has to be done. they have to do something. eric: what type of action would you like to see? >> i think china has the ability to put sanctions on north korea. north korea is dependent financially militarily in every way with china so if china really wanted to get the attention of north korea they have plenty of tools in the toolbox to do that. eric: were you surprised that way you can't hear? you know how to operate bureaucracies and agencies. were you shocked? >> i was really shocked because i had heard what it was like to actually be here and see kind of

just you know i guess i saw it at just that same mentality and doing things a certain way because they have always been done that way in the fact that actions have slowed down. it's gotten stale so now to look at it and say oh there are a lot of changes we can make that's what i have done. eric: tomorrow in this hour 6:00 p.m. eastern we will have part two. she will address the white house efforts to trim the white house budget and look at what ambassador haley says was the biggest surprise she encountered when she arrived at the u.n.. she said they didn't talk about isis or radical islamic terrorism or iran but they criticize israel. part two tomorrow night right here on the "fox news" channel. arthel: eric nice work thank you for the senate intelligence committee hearing into possible links between the trump campaign and russia is heating up. what to expect in the days ahead as the investigation continues.

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>> to date we have made 20 requests for individual to be interviewed by the committee. as we stand here today five are alrady scheduled on the books and probably within the next 10 days the remaining 15 will have a scheduled debate. eric: it seems as full speed ahead for the senate intelligence committee's investigation into russia and the 2016 election. this is the british broadcasting corporation is reporting that u.s. officials have confirmed part of that explosive dossier by the former mi-6 agent specifically the claim that a kremlin spy had been masquerading as a russian diplomat in washington d.c. so what does this mean for the russian probe? let's bring in the senior vice president of the american foreign policy counsel. elon, a russian spy masquerading

as a diplomat, newsflash. isn't this fairly common and some on the defense of the trump club have said maybe i was in touch with some russians but how do we know there were intelligence operatives? >> to step back a little bit what we need to figure out here is what is news and what isn't. as you said it's a newsflash that the russians have spies who are masquerading as diplomats, as politicians. this is old hat. this is not news and its also i think as congressman hoekstra mentioned before the commercial break you can't turn on and off intelligence like a faucet. this is a long-standing operation that the russians have been running not just in the united states but also in other western countries to penetrate into influence political systems not just a single election but in a larger sense. the realm news is when we find out, how do we find out whether or not they were successful how

significant the penetration was, who they talk to and that they actually manage to influence people to do things they wouldn't otherwise do? eric: in terms of long-standing operations you said that would predate donald trump. >> absolutely and frankly it should. good tradecraft dictates that they russians build on this capability over time. the idea that the russians became interested in influencing the outcome of american politics only during the run-up to the 2016 election frankly is ludicrous. the real question to me is how did the context go and whether or not the contacts really were improper. it's one thing to talk to russian officials in the course of regular campaign work assuming that they really are who they say they are. it's another thing entirely to do something underhanded and we don't know the full extent of this. eric: talking about something underhanded and the difference

between the two. michael flynn goes to moscow and sits at the table. michael flynn and the general has a conversation with kislyak which he apparently lied about that then jared kushner the present son-in-law apparently meeting with one of the russian officials sergei gorka. where do you draw the line and how do we know if something is inappropriate, legal part of business or at least part of the standard reaching out of a political campaign or an incoming administration and something perhaps nefarious? >> i think that's really the 60,000-dollar question and this is where the role of congress become so important. what we have seen over over the last week the shenanigans over the sources of the information obtained by congressman nunes, this is i think potentially very damaging, damaging to the credibility of the congressional probe as a whole because the

more heat areas about this the more controversy there is about this the more apt to the american public is to to now do not trust the findings of the congressional investigations. those are key. transparency, sunlight is the best disinfectant that we have to be able to trust what congress finds. eric: do think this extends to the senate intelligence committee which hasn't had these issues? >> the probe is going to get a lot more broader for the next couple of weeks. as you know these are the relevant committee chairmen are issuing an invitation sent requests to testify. we are going to learn a lot more about this. the real question to me is what comes next and whether or not, if there is active impropriety, underhanded -- as a result whether there is a consensus moving forward about what should happen. right now there's a lot of heat

but not a lot of light. eric what could come next? there's a report at the server that may have been connected to a russian bank. that was not a wiretap. you have got what has been acknowledged as russian money falling into the trump empire in the trump businesses although the trump organization said there's nothing wrong about that. that's just the russians buying condos in south florida. >> i think that actually has a lot of merit at the problem here is that it's not clear that we can trust with any degree of confidence that any russian money is clean russian money and that's really at the heart of all we are talking about here. if there are contacts with russia they are not per se nefarious. they are not per se illegal but our level of of distress from the russian government, our level of conviction in the russian government attempting to manipulate us is in the entire

discourse. it would behoove congress to set up bright line markers about what the investigation wants to achieve, it is intending to achieve and what the rules of the road are so to speak going forward. eric: finally do you think the contacts with some of the top trump campaign officials paul manafort being paid tens of millions of dollars over a three-year period and this sort of thing, i mean didn't the russians worked to elect donald trump? >> i think there are elements within russia that we are very interested in seeing a certain outcome with regard to the election without a doubt and you can see that reflected in the russian media are what you can also see reflected in the russian media is more and more of this sort of equivocation that the russians are far less convinced now that donald trump is their guide and if that's the case that also is a story in the sense that donald trump is

whatever the outcome of the congressional investigation discovers donald trump is incentivized to take a transparent line tour to russia and also a harder line towards russia. eric: the interview was pretty strong against russia and their fellow diplomats from moscow so this investigation will continue and the policy may be something totally separate. ilan thanks for joining us this saturday night. arthel: new sanctions for north korea, the rogue nation facing even more heat for its recent missile tests. lobster's lobstet any of these 9 lobster dishes could be yours. so don't resist delicious new lobster mix and match or lobsterfest surf and turf because you won't have this chance for long. but first things first- timcall trugreen,ed. america's #1 professional lawn care company.

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control but right now it appears to be going in a very reckless manner in what its conduct is portraying for the future and that's got to be stopped. arthel: that secretary of defense james mattis in london yesterday, freezing the accounts of nearly a dozen government agents for its recent missile test. this coming as they prepare for a sixth nuclear tests. mitch utterback is a retired colonel and a former special forces officer. colonel utterback first of all your analysis of defense secretary mattis is. >> hi arthel. although polite and professional that sounded very serious to me. that's one of the most serious things i've heard a secretary defense say. that's the cold ice in his veins talking about what needs to be

down with north korea and i know that was intentional on his part and i know north korea's paying attention. arthel: do you think the road dictator kim jong-un will hear those words and hear what you refer to as ice in his veins with his delivery and then what? what's their reaction? >> you know it's really hard to make any sense of that. one thing that the secretary of defense at arthel he mentioned in that statement, he also mentioned nato and the nato partnership in article v the mutual aid. nato comes to our defense. what that also was was a threat that there are 27 other nations in nato besides the u.s. the stand ready to defend if you do a preemptive strike on the united states and 16 nations committed combat troops during the korean war arthel to fight north korean aggression. arthel: i beg your pardon. it's going to say you make an

excellent point for us. i wonder kim's reaction specifically is a more propaganda or does he have the military light to his bart? >> he has a diplomat at the united nations just recently mention and threaten a preemptive strike and that's why north korea has to have a nuclear program in case they need to do a strike on the united states first. although that's propaganda for his own people's assumption it was a diplomat in the u.s. threatening the united states with a preemptive strike. that diplomat didn't mention the other nuclear powers russia china great written in france. specifically he directed it to the united states. arthel: let's get back to the sanctions. will the new sanctions work and if so in what way? >> what's important to know is the sanctions show was the granular level details, the finetooth come that we are going through north korea with two

target 11 individuals specifically in the company specifically. it's how the u.s. government is deeply analyzing north korea and finding every possible to apply at the elements of national power. diplomacy military and accountability. the economic attack albeit small but a precision strike against north korea's news program to all these entities and accompanying those guys were there to further north korea's nuke program. arthel: colonel utterback i appreciate your time and the war to talking to again you again with more analyses pray thank you very much. >> thank you arthel. eric: the veterans affairs administration back in the headlines but for the wrong reasons. this time the agency accused of retaliating against whistleblowers. we'll have a live report straight ahead on the saturday evening on "america's newsr-old headquarters" heavily into basketball. wait. data just changed... now she's into disc sports. ah, no she's not.

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eric: the department of veterans affairs accused of retaliating against whistleblowers and alleged actions by agency officials now drawing the attention of a key republican senator. will carr is in the newsroom with the details. first of all what do they whistleblowers allege was wrong

that was going on? >> eric it's really a variety of things and you have to think ever since the va's 24 will stall blowers have come out including the veteran working as a peer support at the denver va where he found 3500 veterans on to an alleged secret wait list at the facilities of denver golden in colorado springs. when he reported the list to the inspector general in washington d.c. he said the denver va retaliated. >> they gave me no work pass to perform so i was supposed to sit in a room across from the people that had done wrong, do nothing and keep my door open so they could keep an eye on me. >> smothers alleges retaliations temper management wanting to make the numbers look better so they could get bonuses. we has to be an on camera commented they directed us to the inspector general who said they did find way time issues at colorado facilities. eric meanwhile who was trying to

help get the whistleblowers? >> republican senator ron johnson has stepped up on their behalf. he's heard many the same stories we are hearing and he is now pushing a bill to further protect whistleblowers like smothers. take a look. >> i wish i could say i was shocked. it's disappointing and depressing but the fact of the matter is with the va health care system the government run single-payer health care system and it has bureaucratic problems senator johnson has written a number of letters to the va and inspector general for whistleblowers just like random smothers and a number of others asking them to stop all retaliatory action. eric: combat is this irving. will thanks so much. arthel: coming closer than it has 150 years the comment known as 41p. it will come within 13 million miles to earth

happening tonight. experts say people in the northern hemisphere should be able to spot it. that's us. they say the comet will be near the handle of the big dipper. this is happening about 9:00 p.m. eastern time. eric: 13 million miles. it's like huge. arthel: we are coming back tomorrow you and i. eric: 12, four and six tomorrow. arthel: that does it for us, arthel neville and eric shawn. stick around for julie banderas. up next "the fox report". with, and i was not happy with the customer service. we have switched back over and we feel like we're back home now. the process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like you're a part of the family. i love that i can pass the membership to my children, and that they can be protected. we're the williams family, and we're usaa members for life. call usaa today to talk about your insurance needs.

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julie: the white house sporting a brand-new financial report and that could raise the questions about possible conflicts of interest and julie banderas and this is "the fox report." the trump administration releasing financial data on nearly 200 top white house aides as required by s. at -- ethics rules and the disclosures revealed the president top -- or well off compared to most americans. at the top of the chart first daughter ivanka trump and for son-in-law jared kushner are both now official white house advisers. together they are worth at least $240 million