thank you to terry, steven, the seventh graders from our lady of the hampton school in new york, patrick, tyrus and the studio audience. i'm greg .-dot felt and i love you, eric: and we start with a fox news alert topping the hour tonight. democratic senator al franken speaking publicly for the first time since he was accused of sexual misconduct. the senator giving several interviews to minnesota media outlets in his state, saying he will return to capitol hill, he says, ashamed and embarrassed, back to work tomorrow. he also says he hopes to regain the trust of his constituents. hello, everyone, ask welcome to a brand new hour of "america's news headquarters," i'm eric shawn. arthel: and i'm arthel neville. senator franken apologized to his his accusers and says he will focus on helping other victims of sexual harassment. >> i believe it will pass, chris.

i think that in the end we have members who are expressing what are legitimate concerns, who have ideas about how to make the bill stronger and better, and we're certainly open to those, and we're going to have an open process on the floor of the united states senate where people can offer amendments. those amendments can get debated and voted upon. plenty of opportunities to change in the bill in the direcn that some of our senators want to see. arthel: we have complete team coverage on this continuing story. let's start with molly henneberg live in washington. molly, senator franken is taking responsibility, he says, for what these four women are saying, but is he admitting what some of them are accusing him of, which is that they, he groped them? >> reporter: well, arthel, he said he would never, quote, intentionally do that. senator franken says he will come back to work tomorrow and says this has been a, quote, shock to him, that women have accused him of groping them. >> i'm someone who, you know, hugs people, and i, you know,

and i've learned from these stories that some of, in some of these encounters i have crossed a line for some women. >> reporter: franken says he will cooperate fully with an ethics investigation but will not step down from his senate seat. arthel: and then congressman conyers, he didn't want to step down from his leadership role, so talk about why he made the decision to do so. >> reporter: right. michigan democratic congressman john conyers said he didn't want to be a distraction to his colleagues. this also gives house democrats some political coverage as allegations by members of his staff that he sexually harassed them and may have used taxpayer dollars to keep the allegations quiet. he's reluctantly stepping down as the top democrat on the powerful i judiciary committee. in a statement he said, quote:

>> r eporter: before conyers announced he was stemming down, house minority leader nancy pelosi called him a, quote, icon who has, quote, done a great deal to protect women. but she also believed that he would, quote, do the right thing in this situation. arthel? arthel: molly henneberg, thank you very much. eric: senator franken, of course, not the only political figure who's been embroiled in accusations of sexual misconduct. alabama senate republican candidate roy moore is vowing to stay in the race despite calls from some of his fellow republicans on the national stage to drop out. but president trump is not one of those. he's not urging him to leave the race. the president, in fact, taking to twitter to attack moore's democratic opponent further. that man, of course, doug jones.

marianne rafferty live in los angeles with the latest on this contest. >> reporter: hi, eric. just before auburn pulled off a big win against the crimson tide, doug jones was campaigning tailgate style reminding voters he needs their support to pull off his own win against roy moore. >> i think we're going to win, that's all i know. we've got a really great -- i mean, there are just thousands of supporters that have come out to work for this campaign. we've been talking about all the issues that matter to people from day one. you get sidetracked on other things, but we've been talking about the economy, we've been talking about health care. those are the issues that people care about the most, and it's resonating with us. >> reporter: president trump also weighing in on the important senate race which could have an impact on the gop's plan for tax reform. the tax cut and jobs act. the president tweeting earlier today, quote: i endorsed luther strange in the alabama primary. he shot way up in the polls, but

it wasn't enough. can't let schumer-pelosi win the race. liberal jones would be bad. by bad, he could be referring to the fact that a jones win would mean an even narrower margin for republicans in the senate which currently stands at 51-49. despite the possible loss of a senate seat in alabama, republicans are forging on, hoping to push through the tax reform bill before the end of the year. meanwhile, we haven't seen much of roy moore the past couple of days in the wake of sexual harassment allegations, but he does have plans the hold a rally tomorrow in fort payne, alabama. this is going to be the first one since november 16th when he didn't allow any questions from the media about the allegations against him. we'll see if he addresses those tomorrow. eric? everything, yeah -- eric: yeah, should be interesting. thank you. arthel: for more on this, we're joined by lauren cooley, red alert politics section editor of the washington examiner. lauren, hi. so let's start with congressman conyers. what are we hearing about it?

talk about more about how this unfolded and perhaps maybe it's still too quiet in d.c. tonight to get any reaction there. >> right. so we just have another member, an elected official coming out and basically saying there are accusations of sexual assault, sexual harassment, but he didn't do it. but at the same time, what we're seeing is that he's stepping down from his leadership position but not stepping down from serving in office. and so the real question here is it's, to me, stepping down from your leadership position but not stepping down from office is like when your kid says, oh, take away my xbox for a week, but don't ground me from going to that big party on the weekend, right? either you deserve to step down completely, or you didn't do anything at all, and you shouldn't be punished. we're going to see the wake of that, but it's a quiet weekend. we're trying to figure out what exactly does that mean. arthel: well, we still have to see how this all plays out. it's rocking congress now, and

you have the house ethics committee, they're going to investigate allegations against congressman john conyers, and the senate is doing the same in the senator franken case. how might this new crisis tie up an already clogged congress even more? >> yeah. so, obviously, congress has been slow to act this legislative season, and i think that now it's just going to put more hysteria on the drama of politics and not necessarily the policy making. it definitely is also going to play into the elections in 2018 and special elections with roy moore. but i think at the end of the day it really comes down to voters deciding when you're electing someone, are you electing them to represent you on policy issues, or are you electing someone to represent you on personal values and the way they live out their life? it's something your seeing may not always be compatible between your personal values living it out in your life and your policy values, the way a representative may vote on the floor.

arthel: you're right. these allegations are very personal, they are going to get very political very fast with an eye on november 2018. how will lawmakers punish when and where warranted and excuse in cases of valid vimed case? vindication? >> right. so some would argue that there already is a way to punish them, it's the ethics commission. it's, you know, by paying off, essentially, women or men who have come forward and alleged harassment. but i think what we're seeing now in public discourse is that that's not enough. you know, ethics commissions take a long time, it gets tied up, swept under the rug -- arthel: yeah, but i think now we're in a new day and new time, and i think they are going to be thorough but work expeditiously. listen, before we go in alabama we've got the senate candidate there, roy moore, with a different set of allegations involving sexual misconduct with teenage girls. moore is still in the race, president trump supporting him as recently as this morning. there's mixed feelings inside

the republican party about trump, mr. trump supporting moore. talk about that for us. >> yeah. so the interesting thing here is i want to make a comparison between in 2016 during the election the access hollywood tapes came out, and basically voters had to look and say am i going to look past those tapes to, you know, vote for someone who represents maybe my policy values, or am i going to stay home or vote for hillary clinton? and in general, we saw people went ahead e and voted for donald trump. that's why he's our president today. arthel: yeah, and, again, you know, listen, everybody is innocent until proven otherwise. but, you know, it is a separate case. mr. trump at the time -- >> yeah, that's correct. arthel: those tapes came out involving women, you know, certainly any sort of unwanted advances sexually are unacceptable. but, you know, the moore case is alleged to have involved teenage girls. >> sure. and so, i mean, again, it's not a comparison between president trump and roy moore, but i think the voter reaction may be very similar where we see people who

completely disagree with the allegations against roy moore, they're going to go and vote for him anyway because they believe that, you know, he's the one that holds their value in policy whether that's pro-life or religious liberty. and i think it's a difficult thing for alabama voters to have to deal with, but that's the place we're in right now because he wasn't vetted well enough, i guess, in the primary process. arthel: lauren cooley, we leave it there. thank you very much for your time. eric: well, it's coming down to the wire for republican lawmakers and president trump when they look to complete their unfinished business with just about one month to go in the year. you know, most of the focus and the work is going to be on tax reform. the senate gearing up for a vote likely this week, senate finance committee member john thune of south dakota, he told chris wallace this morning on "fox news sunday" that he does have faith in the bill. >> i believe it will pass, chris. i think that in the end -- and we have members who are expressing what are legitimate concerns, who are, have ideas

about how to make the bill stronger and better, and we're certainly open to those. we're going to have an open process on the floor of the united states senate where people can offer amendments, get debated and voting upon. there'll be plenty of opportunities to change the bill in the direction that some of our senators want to see. eric: take a look at marine one at joint base andrews waiting for the arrival of the president as they fly on air force one from florida. and that is where phil keating is in west palm beach near the president's mar-a-lago estate, of course, where the president and the first family spent this thanksgiving weekend. and now he's going to face, you know, taxes, controversy and everything else once he gets back to the white house, phil. >> reporter: it's back to the grind in the beltway. at about 4:30 eastern time, that is when the president, his family and staff all aboard air force one lifted off from west palm beach international airport after spending what appears to have been just simply a great extended thanksgiving holiday weekend here at palm beach.

every day the president was active. he made a couple of phone calls internationally to some other presidents, he also tweetedded every day, and he also golfed every day. and the weather was, of course, absolutely spectacular. his last tweet from palm beach county came, actually, aboard air force one on the tarmac. quote: since the first day i took office, all you hear is the phony democrat excuse for losing the election, russia, russia, russia. despite this, i have the economy booming and have possibly done more than any ten month president. make america great again. and then it was wheels up, departing palm beach, florida, and flying back to washington with and what should be a big week ahead for his top legislative priority right now, signing a tax cut and tax reform package into law. politico reporting that tomorrow trump will launch with the senate finance committee talking about the tax package, and on tuesday president trump will, for the very first time, attend

the weekly gop policy luncheon working with senators on getting them to pass their version of the tax cut bill. also tuesday the big four legislative leaders will meet with trump at the white house to army out a way to, hopefully, avoid a december government shutdown. but as the president told the troops on thanksgiving day, his top priority is this -- >> now we're working on tax cuts. big, fat, beautiful tax cuts. and, hopefully, we'll get that, and then you're going to really see things happen. >> it has to get done for the american people. it's less about the politics and the timing, it's more about this president's begun to turn this economy around. >> reporter: now, this was the first time the president trump and the first family spent the weekend at mar-a-lago down here on palm beach. it had been seven months since they were last here, but over the winter months just as he did last year, president trump is expected to spend several times, several weekends at mar-a-lago at his winter white house.

the most pressing one or urgent one or soonest one we can think of right now would be perhaps the christmas/new year's big week right in palm beach where the weather should be spectacular. and, again, air force one should be landing at joint base andrews really in a matter of minutes. eric? eric: phil, thanks. we'll take a look at that when the president arrives. he had a full plate on thanksgiving, he's got a full plate of issues facing him in the oval office tomorrow morning. phil keating tonight in west palm. thanks. arthel: new developments in the special come's russia -- counsel's russia probe. why is former national security adviser michael flynn cutting off contact with the white house? plus, the former joint chiefs of staff now sounding the alarm about the threat from north korea. national security expert christopher swift joins us to discuss the potential for a nuclear conflict. ♪ ♪ it's what this country is made of. but right now,

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♪ ♪ arthel: president trump's former national security adviser is cutting off contact with the white house. lawyers for michael flynn recently notifying trump's legal team they can no longer discuss the special counsel probe into russian election meddling. that could be a sign that flynn is cooperating with federal prosecutors or negotiating a

deal. garrett tenney is live in washington with more. hey, garrett. >> reporter: hey, arthel. it's important to remember at this point michael flynn has not been formally charged with any crimes, but he remains one of the primary persons of interest in the special counsel's investigation. for months now flynn's lawyers have had an information-sharing agreement with president trump's legal team, and that's to help both sides stay abreast of special counsel robert mueller's investigation. that agreement ended earlier this week when general flynn's attorneys informed their count parts they can no longer -- counterparts, they can no longer participate. flynn is now likely cooperating with the investigation or trying to cut a deal for his cooperation or possibly preparing to plead guilty to forthcoming charges in order to protect his son who's also under investigation by mueller's team. if, in fact, flynn is cooperating, legal experts say there are all kinds of questions that he may be able to answer. >> the kinds of things that michael flynn can talk about include conversations he had

with the president not only about turkey, but also about his -- the president's interactions with jim comey, the firing of jim comey and, by the way, all sorts of things we may not know about, and they could include other cabinet officials. >> reporter: the president's legal team have been expecting flynn would be facing charges. however, they argue any charges that he may be facing will likely stem from his work with turkey and are not related to his contacts with russia or with the trump campaign. arthel? arthel: yeah. and, garrett, as you were discussing right now, we're looking at live pictures at joint base andrews, the president touching down officially ending his thanksgiving weekend in florida. this is one of the many things on the president's plate as he's back in d.c. or heads back to the white house. garrett tenney? you still there? >> reporter: hey, arthel, i got you. arthel: you know, are you hearing anything in terms of -- we already see that trump's legal team is saying, listen,

we're going to stay the course, we are expecting this thing to wrap up quickly. there's no hysteria here, business as usual. >> reporter: yeah. essentially, this is nothing -- no surprises here for the president's legal team. we know this is one facet of the special counsel's investigation. we also know that amongst the white house team, amongst his advisers that his attorney, ty cobb, has said he believes the special counsel will end up -- wrap up interviews with the white house team shortly after thanksgiving. so that is expected to happen either this week or in the coming weeks ahead. and they said that shortly after that he believes the special counsel should be coming to a close with this investigation. as we've seen with michael flynn, possibly cooperating with special counsel robert mueller's team, it shows no sign that the investigation is anywhere coming to a close. in fact, expanding. we know the investigators there with the fbi are now looking into michael flynn's work for turkey, specifically a project work on an unfinished documentary that was targeting one of turkey's president's

political rivals that is here in the u.s. and over $500,000 he got paid for that that was undisclosed until march of this year. that is one facet they are looking at to see who it is that he worked with on this project, were these payments undisclosed, what other connections does he are to foreign national governments and all of this after he started working with the trump campaign and announced at national security adviser. arthel: yeah. so many big issues facing the president week as we are waiting for the president to get off air force one and head back to the white house. we'll toss it over to you in the meantime, eric. eric: for more on what this means, let's bring in christopher swift, professor of national security studies at georgetown university and national security attorney in washington. so, chris, you know, flynn as we know sat with putin at that dipper in moscow, he had those secret contacts with ambassador kislyak. now as we just heard his foreign lobbying for turkey is apparently under the microscope.

so as a national security lawyer, do you see any laws broken? >> well, there's certainly some difficulties with the foreign agents registration act which basically requires anybody -- regardless of whether they're a lawyer or a lobbyist or a media outlet or even a professor -- to register with the attorney general and identify the fact that they're taking money from a foreign government and advocating on behalf of a foreign government. eric: but is that small potatoes compared to, you know, collusion are or espionage or the allegations that we've heard like selling out your country? >> you know, so if you look at those allegations and you look at the way things are actually charged in court, fara violations are one of the ways that the u.s. government will pursue espionage-like charges against somebody without having to disclose the secret information that would be necessary in order to bring a true espionage charge.

so fara is sort of like a lesser violation that's easier to prove without having to go to secret evidence. eric: a lesser violation, as you say, could potentially be money from turkey and not reporting that -- >> that's right. eric: -- as alleged. look at what "the wall street journal" reported recently, pretty astounding about the turkish cleric who was opposed to the president there. they said, quote: mr. flynn and his son, michael flynn jr., were to be paid as much as $15 million for delivering gulan to the turkish government. according to people with knowledge of the discussions they had. they had a dinner at the 21 club supposedly. that sounds like they would, what, kidnap the guy? there were allegations of a private jet that were involved. i mean, is that even potentially true? his lawyer denies it, calls it outrageous, and we see the first family, the first couple descend from the steps of air force one. >> look, let's focus on the

facts that we know. we know lieutenant general flynn at one point was representing the government of turkey in various capacities on various projects. we know that he had a legal duty to register with the attorney general as a foreign agent because he was working for the turkish government, and we know that he failed to do so. if you put those three things together, you have a violation of law, and that's something that director mueller could use as leverage against the former national security adviser flynn to get him to testify about things he might know or might not know about what the trump campaign was doing with respect to russia. eric: and if they squeeze him on that, could he then flip and turn and testify for the prosecution on something else? >> yes, definitely. and that's the way it usually works this these cases. look, whenever you're a defendant or potential target in an investigation, you like to communicate with all the other defendants and potential targets to be able to figure out what's going on, where the government might be going with their case, what issues are likely to implicate you and what issues you don't need to worry about.

the minute somebody stops collaborating or cooperating under that umbrella of common interest, that's a sign that they're heading for trouble, they might be heading for an indictment, and that's the point at which a skilled prosecutor will try to flip that person over and turn them from being a target in one investigation to being a witness going -- in an investigation targeting an even bigger fish. eric: and you think that's happening now? >> i think it's likely that that's happening now. eric: you talked about the foreign agent and registering as a foreign agent. there's been a big tit for tat between moscow and us. putin now calling american media companies and others in moscow foreign agents, this in response to the department of justice, labeling r.t., you know, the russian television network as a foreign agent. is there any equivalence between r.t. and news organizations? >> well, look, r.t. is a news organization that is both funded by and directed by the russian government. if you compare that kind of an

entity with an entity like fox news which is not part of a government and not direct by a government, you can't draw any kind of equivalency. to the extent that the russian government has been using this new law that they've passed to target american media, it's been u.s. government funded media that is still independent, still has independent editorial policy. that's very different from r.t. which is, essentially, the english language mouth piece for vladimir putin's regime. and, look, if you look at the other russian media that, you know, operates in the united states and reports from the eyes, they haven't been asked by the justice department to register as foreign agents because even though they might be state-funded, you know, by the russian government, they have independent editorial policy. that independent element is the crucial one, and that's what we need to look at here. eric: the english language mouthpiece for vladimir putin and the kremlin and his policy, i mean, they're here. let me show you some photos. last night i'm walking home, and there's ed schultz.

he's a liberal talk show host, had his own program on msnbc. now he's on r.t., and they say is this american enough for you? that's what it says. they are americans, obviously, but they're working for r.t.. so earlier on "america's news headquarters" i asked former ambassador john bolton if r.t. is slammed as a foreign agent, should the people who work there -- even if they're americans -- should they be held responsible too, and this is what ambassador bolton said. >> if you're working for a registered foreign agent and as he is active on air, it may well be under the new expansive interpretation he should register as a foreign agent. [laughter] eric: ed schultz and others there, should they register as a foreign agent? how far does this go? >> look, if it was a law firm or a lobbying shop, each individual that's carrying water on behalf of a foreign government would be required under the law to register or as a foreign agent. soyou or i were suddenly to

take, i don't know, a consulting contract from the queen of ending gland, you and i club -- england, you and i would be required to register. so the question isn't what they are or who they're representing, the question is what are they doing. if they're representing a foreign government, they need to disclose that fact so it's apparent to not just the u.s. government, but to anybody that may be receiving, on the receiving end of any advocacy that they're doing. eric: well, that channel's on your tv screen, there on your box, you know? you can click right over and see what they're saying. christopher swift, as we watch marine one get ready to take off from joint base andrews to then land softly on the lawn of the white house as the president returns to his work, we thank you. we thank you for your insight tonight. >> god to be with you. eric: of course. arthel: and we'll keep watching. when we come back, we're going to talk about a factory explosion in china. this video showing the aftermath. what we know about the deadly blast and the latest on the mosque massacre in egypt.

today americans and worshipers around the world condemning the attack. ♪ >> there is no point you can make by killing people, especially when people are worshiping in their religious places. it can connects back to the texas shooting we had like recently. people were worshiping. killing them doesn't make any point. >> it's really sad. [inaudible] doesn't represent any part of islamic principles or islamic faith. islam doesn't allow anyone to kill, anyone to harm. ♪ ♪

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arthel: a deadly factory explosion today in a port city south of shanghai. the blast leveling vacant buildings nearby and damaging cars. at least two people killed, more than 30 others hurt. police are investigating. pakistani islamists holding protests in the capital islamabad today demanding the law minister resign because he left out the name of the rough fete muhammad in a new law, the minister apologizing calling it a clerical error. and a volcano erupting in indonesia last night sending thick smoke and steam more than four miles into the air.

as a result, many flights have been canceled. eric: the latest on that horrible mosque attack in egypt during friday prayers which killed 305 people. those terrorists, we're totaling wearing military uniforms and carrying the isis flag. security officials now saying that isis did warn the community months ago not to collaborate with egyptian security forces. conor powell tonight has the latest from jerusalem. >> reporter: eric, as egyptians mark a weekend of mourning for the 305 people kill on friday, egyptian authorities now getting a better picture of what exactly happened in the small village. according to locals, isis militants have regularly threatened the moderate sufi muslim community, warning them not to cooperate with egyptian security forces. sufi muslims are despised by extremists and viewed by groups like al-qaeda and isis as apostates. around noon on friday, more than

two dozen well-armed militants wave waving isis flags attacked the mosque, first setting off a bomb and then gunning down many of the 500 or so worshipers who were trying to flee to safety. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: the assailants were targeting anybody and everybody. anybody who was breathing. >> reporter: the egyptian president el sisi vowed this weekend that the attack would not go unpunished. and the egyptian military launched airstrikes in the mountains of the sinai desert. for three years president sisi has promised to end the wave of violence unleashed by isis. this attack shows just how easily isis, though, is able to operate in the sinai desert and just how ineffective egyptian security forces are. eric? eric: all right, conor thanks so much. for more go to foxnews.com, check out the fox news rundown

podcast. they've got a link on foxnews.com. i guess tomorrow will be ambassador dennis ross, that's available tomorrow morning, the new fox news rundown podcast. arthel? arthel: michael flynn's legal team no longer sharing information with the president's lawyers about special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. what could have caused the sudden separation? we'll talk about that ahead. and the navy confirming the deaths of an officer and two sailors after a plane crash in the philippines sea. what we're learning about those men and about that crash.

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ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. ♪ ♪ arthel: lawmakers are getting back to work tomorrow, now lipping to chip away at a -- looking to chip away at a major to do list. caroline shively in washington with more on congress' end of the year agenda. >> reporter: sometimes

congress just creeps along at a slow pace, and sometimes they ram things through at lightning speed. judging by their agenda, republican leaders are planning on some lightning. in the next few weeks, they may vote on taxes, the individual mandate, health care for kids, sexual harassment and, oh, yeah, the entire federal government will shut down if they don't pass a spending resolution. the senate votes on tax reform this week. the house has already passed its version. >> i predict we will have a new tax cold for the new year -- code for the new year. we deserve it, americans deserve a new tax code. >> they are doing something that's going to increase the debt enormously -- >> i've been covering it a lot. >> it's a job killer, and it's going to raise taxes on the middle class, and that is, has a big impact on individual lives of all americans. >> reporter: democrats are pushing to amend the spending bill, allowing dreamers to stay. those are illegal immigrants who came here as minors. republicans want it handled

separately. >> we have a fixable priority in the dream act, a bipartisan solution to this problem to make sure that these young people have a chance to earn their way into citizenship. we can do this, and we can get it done before the end of the year. >> but it shouldn't be dealt with in the context of a year-end spending bill, and the democrats using it, trying to use leverage as, you know, to shut down the government. that's not how this ought to be resolved. >> reporter: republican leaders aren't afraid to keep members here past their scheduled holiday break to finish their work. arthel: caroline shively in washington, thank you. eric: well, austin flake is the son of arizona senator jeff flake, and he's filing a lawsuit against former arizona sheriff joe arpaio. the suit claims arpaio tried to ruin his power's political career when the controversial sheriff pursued animal cruelty charges against austin and his ex-wife. joining us is an attorney who's a member of the republican

lawyers association and a former prosecutor. bear with me guys. you've got austin and his ex-wife logan, her parents run kennel. the air-conditioning breaks one night, right? and 21 dogs die of heat exhaustion, and sheriff joe then charges them with animal cruelty charges. austin says it's politically motivated. what do you think? >> initially, the charges were filed against the flakes, the grand jury said no bill, no bill here -- eric k meaning no not charged. >> no charges. and it's very common to see based upon sheriff arpaio's behavior that he has been accused and and also found in violation meaning that money damages that were attributed to the county of going after his political enemies before. so that, you know, what's interesting about this case is that sheriff arpaio entered this case as a criminal because he was convicted of a misdemeanor. that's going to come up as part of his credibility, and these other cases in which he went

after his other foes is going to come up. i think that's going to help this particular case. eric: the prosecutor denies sheriff joe had anything to do with this. >> right, and i disagree. if you look at the facts, 21 dogs died. the the air-conditioning unit failed. this could be criminal culpability here, and i think it make sense he would go after the people who were in charge of the dogs. so although it ultimately resulted in them not being convicted or the charges were dismissed, there was probable cause, exactly. eric: still have a plea agreement dealing with that. is it legitimate? because other people could start questioning arpaio's motivation in a variety of cases. >> right. i would say no because he's not the prosecutor. in order to president -- percent charges, they have to present it to the grand jury. you can indict a ham sandwich, it's very easy to indict someone. but he doesn't have that much control to tell a prosecutor who then puts his or her career on the line to say go after these

people with trumped-up charges. >> he does have control over the police officers who made the arrest without probable cause, and that's what's at issue here. the jury's going to hear did the police have probable cause to make arrest, and if they did, they have qualified immunity and it's not guilty in a civil charge. the question is was there probable cause or political retribution. eric: what do you think's going to happen? >> i based on the history of arpaio, i think the jury -- and the plaintiff's attorney can bring out that history, i think the jury is going to come back and say -- eric: keisha, i see you shaking your head. >> i disagree. i don't think they're going to prevail if their civil case against arpaio. eric: indicting a ham sandwich came from the chief judge of the state of new jersey -- of new york and he got indicted. meanwhile, michael flynn, we've

been reporting that flynn could be potentially cooperating with prosecutors or seeking a plea deal. richard, if you're in a case and you're dealing with another lawyer, there's some other potential defendants and you're all in it together and suddenly the guy calls you up and says i can't talk to you anymore, good-bye. >> yeah. this happened before where i've handled federal cases against the u.s. attorney's office. look, the point -- you stop cooperating with other defendants at the point in time which it's a conflict of interest. and if flip, which is very likely -- if flynn, which is very likely that he's cooperating with the robert mueller -- eric: cooperating already? >> absolutely. that's my thought -- >> the earlier the better. the earlier the better. >> they are going to cooperate if they're not already cooperating with robert mueller because, look, flynn's son is involved in this case too. there's many reasons why he would want to cooperate. eric: yeah. there were reports when they confronted flynn supposedly he was very emotional about that dealing with his son and,

keisha, we've seen this before. some say it's a hardball prosecution trick. they go after the wife, the family to try to get you to flip. >> and normally what happens as a part of that plea deal in agreeing to cooperate, they will not go after the family members. and it's very common that someone will cooperate as early as possible because then it brings less likely that they'll have to do prison time or that they may work up a really good deal, and he's in a great position to cooperate right now. eric: all right. quickly, how long until we find out about this? >> very soon. and flynn is going to be able to tell robert mueller what was happening early in the campaign between -- if there was any collusion between the russians. eric: all right. and maybe the turkish situation, lobbying, you know, could be a lot of different -- >> failure to register as a foreign agent. eric: thank you so much. arthel? arthel: a military plane crash and a days-long search for survivors ending in tragedy. what we're learning about the navy officer and two sailors lost at sea and what we still

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♪ ♪ eric: the cause of that military transport plane crash in the philippine sea off japan is still under investigation as the u.s. navy has identified the

officer and two sailors who were killed in that crash. all three were onboard the aircraft that was bound for the uss ronald reagan. bryan llenas here in new york city with the very latest. >> reporter: good evening, eric. the families of the three service members have been notified as the investigation continues. the three men presumed dead are lieutenant steven combs, aviation bite swain's mate aaron matthew and aviation ordinance man airman apprentice brian grosso. admiral john richardson tweeting about the men, quote: our navy team sticks together, we have each other's backs. together our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, friends and shipmates of these three great americans. the c2a greyhound crashes enroute to the uss ronald reagan on wednesday in the philippine sea. the plane was carrying 11 crew and passengers, 8 were saved at the scene of the crash. now, for two days the uss ronald reagan led a search and rescue effort with help from the japan

maritime self-defense force surgerying nearly a thousand -- searching nearly a thousand square nautical miles. this is the third fatal incident for the navy's japan-based seventh fleet this year. two collisions killed 17 sailors prompting the removal of eight top naval officers from their posts. there have been22 non-combat aviation crashes this year, up 38% from last year. thoughts and prayers are with the family as this investigation continues into how happened and perhaps even more questions into the seventh fleet. eric: that is very true. it shows that they are in harm's way. bryan, thank you. arthel: a holocaust survivor is embracing the giving spirit this holiday season. we will tell you how much this man is donating to help u.s. veterans. ♪ ♪

eric: hesurvived the holocaust and is now saying thanks to american troops. he's donating $1 million to the wounded warrior project and the american red cross to help u.s. veterans. daughtry says since the war seven decades ago he's felt a deep connection to the troops for saving his life and hopes his donation will inspire

others. arthel: a wonderful, wonderful story. eric: absolutely. mr. daughtry -- arthel: thank you. that does it for us. thanks for joining us. eric everybody eric we'll see you next weekend. rick leventhal up next on the fox news channel. take care. rick: al franken in his first interviews after allegations of sexual harassment says he's embarrassed and ashamed but will not resign from the senate. good evening, i'm rick leventhal. you're watching "the fox report." ♪ ♪ rick: the minnesota democrat talking to local news outlets more than a week after the first accuser came forward. several other women have spoken out since then saying senator franken inappropriately grand or groped them while -- grabbed or groped them while taking photos. here's how the senator responded. >> did you put your hand on someone during a photo shoot. >> >> i would never intentionally do that. and so, but that does not negate