"let there be light", you can get it at walmart, amazon. have a great weekend. see you back here. a lot of news we expect for monday. hope you join us. >> laura: good evening from washington. i'm laura ingraham. this is "the ingraham angle." we have breaking news tonight. "the washington post" is now reporting that former fbi director andrew mccabe has been fired. yes, the embattled former fbi director, we know what happened with him. we know that his wife obviously was running for state representative, got help from terry mccullough. his pact donated hundreds of thousands to her campaign. it was not revealed at the time, and that raised a huge problem. he's been embattled for several months. a lot of us thought he would have been fired a long time ago. his pension would have kicked in

on sunday. yet if he's fired today, looks like that pension will not kick in. san francisco attorney harmeed dillon, the national commit woman for the reason national committee for california. breaking news tonight. this really should have happened a long time ago. i don't know why they wait until two days before he would retire and his pension would kick in. nevertheless, this is the news tonight. your reaction. >> i agree with you. this should have been done awhile back. fbi director wray has taken steps to remove mccabe from any positions of authority. the office of professional responsibility. the attorney general didn't want to act until he had the recommendation in hand and make the decision himself. i'm glad this action has been taken. clearly mr. mccabe is at the heart of a number of

controversies and continuing through today. so maybe this is the beginning of some reckoning happening at the fbi. with this head-rolling. there's others, lisa page, peter strzok and others -- >> laura: and we have the peter strzok news that we're also going to get to, his relationship with the judge who has since recused himself. let's go to alan dershowitz. this just broke minutes ago. mccabe is out. your reaction. >> i want to see the evidence. if the evidence concludes that he was less than candidate and misled investigators, then the firing is justified. you have to have a high threshold to retire someone on the eve of his retirement and take a way a pension he's earned over a long, long period of time. >> laura: 20 years. >> good service. yeah. i want to see the evidence. if the evidence justifies it, fine.

as far as strzok is concerned, that's an open and shot case for firing. >> laura: let's go to strzok in a minute. hold that separately. a separate issue involving the judge in the case, which again, this comes out today after investigative reporter sarah carter break the story. we keep saying every day, it can't get but keeps getting worse. joining us now, sarah carter that broke the story about peter strzok's friendship in the case. sarah, we talked just a few minutes ago. you said keep your eye out for the mccabe firing. it happened. tell us what led to this happening two days before he would have gotten his pension. it seems odd that it would be happening this late. why did it take this long for the office of professional responsibility to come to this decision? >> the office of professional responsibility, opr, came to the decision that they wanted him fired after michael horowitz

uncovered a lot of information on andrew mccabe -- >> laura: the inspector general. >> yes, at the doj. that was referred to opr. a lot of extenuating circumstances here. there's more than just misleading the i.t. and the fbi and leaks, which is what have been reported. we only know a little bit. >> laura: give us the two or three things that are the most egregious that are out there that called into question his professionalism in handling his job. >> certainly the leaking to the media, number 1. also the fact that he lied. he basically lied to the fbi, to his own employers and to the i.g. and i think -- >> laura: about? >> about his relationship actually and his friendships with strzok, about what was happening with the hillary clinton e-mail investigation and remember, he gave that information to the "wall street journal."

apparently he authorized that. when they broke that story and he went back and the i.g. said hey, were you responsible for authorizing these leaks? he said no. that's according to sources that i've spoken with. i think this goes far beyond that. they're also looking at possible criminal charges. >> laura: wow! >> that could be serious. >> alan dershowitz. >> laura: criminal charges. this is the second time i've heard this today. the earlier time was 2:00 p.m. from one of my sources in the justice department today that said you all know just a little bit of what has gone on with andrew mccabe. 20-year veteran of the department. very well-respected for years. apparently we don't know what the opr knows and what the inspector general knows. we'll find out. >> i'd have to agree with sarah. it's hard to believe that he would get fired for the leaking, although that is very egregious. the wall street story that came

out, the product of the leaks, was clearly to have paved his role in a different light and a lot of other politicking going on in that story. that was shocking. this seems like turn around is far play. we've seen stories about how general flynn has been indicted and asked to plead guilty on charges of a lie to the fbi. you have the fbi, number 3 in command, temporarily number 1 in command lying himself to other fbi agents. seems appropriately to hold them to the same standards. >> professor dershowitz, a friday night, two days before a man who has served the government for decades and was very well-respected before the hillary clinton e-mail investigation i think took place to be fired in this way, i have to -- i have to take sarah and her reporting to heart here. i don't think they would risk firing him were it not for some

fairly serious information that has come to light and will be reported by the i.g. >> this sounds right to me. this afternoon i said there has to be a high burn before you fire somebody who has performed in a distinguished way for 20 years. i have a lot of experience with the opr, the office of professional responsibility. they don't generally go after their own. they generally white wash their own. when the opr comes to this conclusion, you really have to give it some credibility. i still want to see the evidence. i bet you we'll see evidence that is far more compelling than what we've heard about up till now. when we heard about criminal charges, that sounds very serious. it's distressing. i had a lot of respect for mccabe based on what people that worked in the fbi have told me over the years. but you can't have a double standard. you have to have the same standard for democrat, for

republican, for people that have been in the fbi and for civilians. if that standard has been met for criminal prosecution and fire it, so be it. >> the attorney general says the fbi expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of ente tectec tectech -- integ. our integrity is our brand. based on the report of the inspector general, the findings of the fbi, opr and the recommendation senior career official, i have terminated the employment of andrew mccabe effective immediately. he says the fbi expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty and integrity. he says the office of the inspector general and the opr reports concluded that mccabe

had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor under oath on multiple occasions. in the way it's worded, this seems like an open and shut case. you cannot make exceptions even for someone with a very distinguished career as a civil servant. people make mistakes for a variety of reasons or do things for a variety of reasons. i'm not trying to get to his office. but i don't think the opr with all the media spotlight on them would take this action were it not very serious. sarah, you've reported on the peter strzok situation. his relationship with the presiding judge in this case. when you published this, i said it can be happening. explain. >> it was stunning. what we discovered is through the texts -- actually, it was the house oversight committee. the due diligence. they sent people over and over

again to the doj. they finally pieced together was redacted. so they saw semi redacted documents that showed that peter strzok had a very close friendship with judge contreras. >> laura: not revealed. >> not disclosed. the doj did not disclose this. we were all left wonders, why did he recuse himself? on december 1, 2017, you know, flynn goes before the judge. he pleads guilty. that's judge contreras. on december 7, 2017, judge contreras recuses himself. now we know that he and peter strzok for a long time had been friends. he also sat -- >> laura: crazy. >> he also sat on the fisa court. so he was in the foreign intelligence surveillance court. he take care of the fisa applications. and peter strzok in charge of counter intelligence and russia would go to the fisa court for

these warrants to be signed. >> laura: and presumably -- >> yeah. and what is interesting -- >> but it's -- >> laura: hold on, alan. >> inside the text messages, he specifically states with page -- >> laura: we have some. >> yeah. if you see them, he knows that if he continues this relationship, it could prese present -- >> laura: this is peter strzok's test. he, contreras, super thoughtful and ethics and conflicts thought a setting would be better than a one-on-one meeting. i'm going to have to invite you to a cocktail party. of course you'd be there. have to come up with some other work people cover for action. odd, odd, odd. then it goes on. there's other things as well. professor dershowitz, that's wild. >> that's the smoking gun. the smoking gun is the attempt to meet with him with a cover so

that nobody will be able to say that they met in a way that required recusal. this guy, strzok, seems like he's really a piece of work. he should have recused himself initially from any involvement in this case because of the messages he sent. mueller didn't know about the messages. mueller didn't act improperly. when he found out about the messag messages, he took himself off the case. strzok should be fired. he violated every possible rule of ethics in the fbi. >> laura: unbelievable. >> he has to go. i can't believe he's not been fired. >> laura: he uses the phrase "with some other work people cover." cover for action. it's like -- >> that's the smoking gun. >> cover, harmeet. he needs cover. >> and this type of ex-parte

communication is outrageous. if this is not a conspiracy, i don't know what is. there's a conversation in the texts and a dinner party for six. you have multiple people around strzok and page conspiring -- >> laura: who knows -- >> it's outrageous. >> and how stupid can you be putting everything in writing. >> laura: knowing that texts will live forever. >> and he's a counter intelligence -- this guy is supposed to be -- >> this an unintelligent counter intelligence guy. >> laura: everything happens friday night. that's why we're live. friday night, this is mccabe's statement. the last 1 1/2 years, my family and i have been targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country, articles too numerous to count have level every degrading allegation against us. the president's treats have

exacerbated it all. he called for my firing. he called for me to be stripped of my pension. all along, we have said nothing, never wanting to distract from the mission of the fbi by addressing the lies told and repeated about us. that's pretty clear statement. he thinks it's all unfair, a total witch hunt. sarah? >> here's my question. how can he say that when it's his fbi, it's not the president, it's not the doj. it's opr that is asking for him to be fired. >> laura: office of professional responsibility which is staffed with career professionals. >> fbi. >> laura: that's right. judging andrew mccabe. >> and he had a lot of friends in opr. that should tell you something. >> laura: alan, this statement is defiant, alan. >> if he thought people were after him, he should have been so careful about how he responded. yet, if people were after them, he gave them the ammunition by not being responsive.

by being deceptive. being untruthful. he opened the door to allowing the opr to make the kind of conclusions that they came to. sounds like he doesn't have much of a leg to stand on. i'm sympathetic to him but seems like he made his own bed. >> he will be just fine. we've seen lots of people in the swamp do just fine without their pensions at the age of 49 in washington d.c. you note in his statement, he doesn't deny the charges that the opr levelled against him. that's very telling as well. it's deflection to point to the president. it's very fashionable in washington. i don't think he has answered any of the questions. >> laura: what does this do, sarah, to the integrity, whatever is left of it, of the hillary e-mail investigation? now the guy that was leading the investigation, peter strzok problems, we have mccabe fired. how do the -- >> and comey gone. >> laura: we have a photo of jim comey. we had a sighting of him today.

do you have it, nick? can you -- he looked very concerned at balducci's. we'll get it in a second. he was spotted today. we tried to get him to come on the show. he said he will think about it. what does this say about the integrity of the hillary e-mail investigation before we get into what happened after that? >> this says a lot of the lack of integrity. we're waiting for the inspector general's report. michael horowitz report. it's not just one. it's multiple series of reports. 1.2 million documents that he's obtained. we're going to learn a lot more than just what happened here with andrew mccabe. we're going to learn about comey and the investigation. it's going to be absolutely explosive according to the sources that i've spoken with. >> we're working on a couple of stories which we hope to bring to our viewers next week about moments where comey could have

probably discounted certain sources for the dnc e-mails who hacked them and who didn't hack them and what he did or did not do to get to the bottom of that. we'll bring that to our viewers next week. >> i hope you have -- if you have comey on the show, please ask him why the former head of the fbi had to leak and launder information through a columbia law professor? why he didn't have the courage to stand up in front of the tv cameras and say to the tv cameras what he leaked through a columbia law professor? i can't understand how a former director of the anybody could do that. i hope you ask him that question if he's on. >> i have written it down, alan. it's on my sheet. thanks very much. i'll go for other show prep. love that. now we have fox news justice department producer jake gibson on the phone who has been tracking the story down all

night. jake? >> how are you, laura? we've been following this all day. it's been a thing that, you know, is slow-rolled out throughout the day that we thought was coming. now it finally popped. the attorney general basically said he's terminated the former deputy director of the fbi, andrew mccabe tonight. this all comes back to this i.g. report. specifically on what he said to the inspector general horowitz and whether or not he misled horowitz. that is what we know so far. there could be a lot more when the i.g. report finally comes out. what we know right now is that the inspector general is not -- and the attorney general are not happy with the statements that mccabe made about what his role was in letting a reporter speak

to one of his subordinates at the fbi. that part was fine. it's the questions that happened afterwards and whether or not he told the truth about that. that's what led to this. if you believe what we hear coming out from the department of justice today. >> laura: jake gibson, thanks for that input. this on a friday night, two days before his pension kicked in, it has to be explosive. i think we know about a fourth of what really happened here. i'm hoping this inspector general report comes out soon. do you have any idea of when -- if it's going to come out many multiple stages or just one report, total, all of it? >> i don't have any idea how it's going to be delivered. i do know for a fact that it's going to be multiple reports. so i think that's what's important here. if it's multiple reports, that means he was looking at an array of things that were going on in

this hillary clinton e-mail investigation by the fbi and how they handled it. we know it's going to focus on comey, it's going to focus on somebody cake, peter strzok, lisa page. >> the editing of the nonindictment indictment. >> the editing of the nonindictment indictment. what is very interesting, he may have all the text messages, the sms messages of mccabe. that will be very telling, too. we don't know how far people in the fbi went. did they obstruct? did they obstruct anything in that investigation? that's going to be a really important question. we already know what comey has done. what was mccabe's role in that. who else was involved. >> professor dershowitz, there was a point raised today on a variety of channels and in a variety of print, publications that here we have the republican party, mostly republicans, calling in to question the wonderful patriots public

servants in the intel agencies and how dare you try to call in to question what the intel agencies are doing. i was on the radio this morning responding to that. i said wait a second. they're people. they make mistakes. we made a big mistake on 9-11. we thought we had something that we didn't. we've had history littered with examples of the intel agencies getting things wrong because they're neighboring snapshot judgments with the things they have and sometimes they're biased. they're people. so the idea you can't call into question the judgment of the intel agency flies in the face of liberalism. they have always called into question government actions. >> as a civil libertarian, i'm pleased to see the republicans now coming out and questioning the intel agencies. the democrats that have done

that through the church committee and others are saying oh, no, no, no. intelligence agencies never makes mistake. everything is perfect when it comes to prosecuting. we're seeing a flip here because, you know, we have the criminalization of differences on both sides. when that happens, you see people make hypocritical statements. but i'm thrilled that we're seeing critical analysis being done of the intel agencies. that's very, very important. i think it's important whether you're a republican, whether you're a democrat. we need accountability. who will guard the guardians? the guardians are people today that have access to the intelligence. so i'm so happy that we're seeing a more critical eye being looked at intelligence gathering, being looked at who is doing the investigation. that's very healthy in a democracy. >> laura: we're going to continue this. we're not taking a break. the news is too big. joining us on the phone, retired

fib agent, bobby shicone. one of the more well-respected civil servants in our fbi, andrew mccabe, he had a fantastic reputation until he got mixed up with the clintons or examining the hillary clinton private e-mail server. your reaction to the news of the night. >> well, i'm not surprised and i'm kind of heartened by it. i was a special agent for 27 years at the street level. i was a working agent. i chose not to go for management. if i had done the same transgressions that andrew mccabe had done, i would have been fired before now. so it was done differently. i'm glad to see in this case where you have a lack of candor, which is by the way from day one at quantico in the fbi, they nail in our heads lack of candor is the biggest thing that will get you fired.

it's almost always worse than you have done to lie, the lie itself. day one they said don't lie. take your lumps and take your discipline and don't lie about it. if you lie, you're almost assuredly going to be fired about it. lack of candor is the number 1 reason agents get fired. all of us were expecting it and we would have been -- the morale would have taken a big hit on the street level if this guy was not fired for lack of candor. once the i.g. said we found verified lack of candor, he needed to be fired. a street agent would have been fired. >> harmeet, i want to go back to you. looks like the i.g. report hand the investigation continues. one of the reasons why the report has not been issued, our sources are telling us they keep learning more by the day. they're examining all of the sensitive investigations leading up to the presidential election?

2016. the hillary e-mail investigation, perhaps of course bleeding into the russian meddling investigation. this is not an isolated narrow investigation. seems to be getting broader, which is one of the reasons why this report could be delayed. might not come out when we thought with us going to come out. it has to lead us all to conclude that we are again, just skimming the surface so far of what we know about potential biases in this investigation, harmeet. >> one of the investigations you didn't mention is the hillary clinton foundation investigation. that was the subject of the wall street article that grew out of the leaking from the two fbi agents that was authorized by mccabe. it's not an exaggeration to say it's a web. there's 1.2 million documents the inspector general is looking

at. we have not seen the end of it. this could be the beginning of the end in the reckoning in the fbi. unbridaled powter government has is a deep concern. we saw the michael flynn investigation, it was shocking. we need to republican our government and get back to our tradition. >> i'm so glad you said that, harmeet. >> this is where liberals and conservatives agree. unbridaled power to spy on american citizens for flimsy reasons as they did with this carter page. anybody looking at carter page, talking to him more than five minutes, the idea that carter page working with the russians to throw the election is ridiculous. i'm sorry. i bet my house on it. it's ridiculous. alan, go. >> well, remember there's one

other possibility of how information may be forthcoming. that is mccabe may sue under thinks contract to get his pension. there might be discovery and a trial. that would be a way of getting even more information, information that maybe the opr doesn't want to produce but would have to produce as part of discovery to justify their action because he has a remedy under the law. >> his remedy under law is very limited. fbi does not have the same protections as a merit service production boards as other federal employees. he's very limited. >> let me read more. we have more from andrew mccabe's statement just released. he writes "the oig focused on me and this report. became a part of an unprecedented effort by the administration driven by the president himself to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation and possibly strip me of a pension that i worked 21

years to earn." he's focusing on the president. the fact that he's going back to trump tells you more about andrew mccabe. he's furious at the president. it's directed at the president. he's going to get a lot of attention. >> he believes this is all about the president. this is about his colleagues at opr that found him, the lack of candor -- >> laura: lying. misrepresenting. >> he lied. a lot of former fbi agents that i spoke to say i hope he's going to get fired. that's all i've heard all day. they realize if they had done this, they would have been fired too. this is not just about michael horowitz at the doj. there's a prosecutor looking into the unmasking, the fisa abuse that has been taking place with carter page in particular. so we have a number of investigations and mccabe is worried. he's said over and over again,

if i go down, i'm taking everybody else with me. >> laura: now we have ron kesler, author of the book "the secrets of the fbi on." ron, you're probably not surprised by any of this. i think harmeet's point, sarah made it, bobby made it, this could be the beginning of something really great for the country. namely we clean out the underbrush in our intelligence agencies. that's a big call and a big wish. it's time to clean out the problem people. if andrew mccabe lied and misrepresented as the us a of the inspector general will conclude, supposed to be calling balls and strikes at the fbi, not advocating on behalf of one person because of their political party. ron, your reaction tonight. >> sure. it is absolutely shocking. there has been no case of proven abuse at such a high level of

the fbi since william sessions was fired as fbi director. it's good that we're finally getting some clarity on some of these issues. there's been a lot of smoke and mirrors about some of the allegations involving the fbi. it's clear cut here. and he is being held accountable. and i think it's positive that we're going to try to get some resolution to all of these issues. >> and the idea that this is just mean spirited targeting of the fbi, sarah carter. what might this mean down the line for loretta lynch and perhaps even barack obama? the idea that all of those people, no one had any idea? what could be looking at here? >> we could be an unraveling so

quickly of information and evidence on everyone, this is going to push everything over the edge. comey has got to be worried. loretta lynch has to be worried. and barack obama. susan rice sent that e-mail to herself -- >> laura: remind everybody. >> this january 5 meeting. 2017. where she was there with barack obama and i believe loretta lynch there as well. so she sends herself days after an e-mail basically saying and president obama wanted everything to be done by the book. well, why -- >> laura: who says that? >> that raised questions. so now they're saying why would you do that? why would you send this e-mail to yourself? why were you all meeting about this? another person that needs to be very worried right now is former cia director john brennan and james clapper that we know now has been looked at for leaking.

so he's also somebody that they believe leaked information on the dossier to the media to get that ball rolling. it just really appears on its face that all of the evidence pointed to the fact. i know mccabe is blaming trump but all of these people were ready to take trump out and wanted to. >> let's go back, professor dershowitz, to the strzok and page text that captured the attention of the american people. they were going back and forth, insurance policies. clearly they were worried. not overly worried but look, we have to make sure this doesn't happen. have to make sure that trump doesn't happen. that is clear subtext. seems like the idea that they were doing that in isolation, the two of them, there was no other conversation with others about an insurance policy, that seems to me to be hard to

believe especially after sally yates, her big resignation, marching over to interview mike flynn. now it looks like mike flynn might not have lied. in fact, apparently the fbi agents didn't think he lied after his first interview. all of the pals of mueller at his old law firm and obviously seemed to be partisan. alan, a lot to take in. your final thoughts. well, i think there's too much partisanship in the fbi. the fbi is the one organization that is nonpartisan. has no interest in who wins an election. when you have the kinds of messages that we see going back and forth between strzok and his friend, the prosecutor, it certainly shows that they had a very, very strong bias. you can't put that kind of bias aside when you're a prosecutor. look, there may have been people in the fbi that had a strong bias in favor of trump and

against clinton. but they didn't act on their bias. they didn't send messages to each other on their bias. i think the more we learn, the better it is for america and we have to make sure that the fbi goes back to being a nonpartisan neutral objective investigative agency, not an agency that decides who to prosecute but uncovers the evidence and presents it to prosecutors. we've lost that role of the fbi and we have to regain it. it's one of the most important lessons that we can learn from this tragedy. >> let's go back to jake gibson on the phone now. >> i just wanted to make a point, laura. thanks for coming back. when we talk about the release of the i.g. report and we've been waiting and everybody is trying to figure out when it will be released and inspector general horowitz had hinted it may be in march, but i've been

told by a department of justice official that if there is a criminal referral that is to come out of this report, that would delay the release of the report. in other words, if there was a criminal report that comes out of this, that could go to a grand jury. then if that led to an indictment, then the resolution of that indictment, we might have to wait for the criminal -- for the report. so you can read the tea leaves there, if you know what i mean. >> laura: harmeet, if there's a criminal referral coming out of the investigation that is part of this entire thing that involves president trump and the hillary clinton e-mails, is that not tainting entire investigation? i'm not saying this in a partisan way. if i heard they were sending e-mails and leaking and i was part of an investigation, seems like it all has to be thrown out. i know that sounds extreme. if i were the subject of the

investigation, that's what i'd be arguing in court. the whole thing is the fruit of the poisonous treat. >> that argument is already on the table with the nexts, the lying to the fisa court, withholding evidence from the fisa court, with regard to the hushing up of some of the investigations, the weird way the hillary clinton investigation on the e-mail, the clinton foundation which is ripe with criminal conduct and brushed under the carpet. a lot of -- it's all the same people. the same three or four people at the heart of this so far. so all of that, if i were a defendant, i'd be absolutely jumping up and down an raising those issues already regardless of the criminal investigation. >> remember one thing. it's very important to distinguish between ethical violations, which is what the opr looks at and criminal conduct. again, let's not slip from unethical conduct or bad conduct into crimes. we have to know what crime it is

that was committed. did he, did anybody lie to a law enforcement official. that's a crime. was there obstruction of justice? that's a crime. but simple not being candidate or withholding information from the fisa court, that's unethical. but probably doesn't cross the line into criminal conduct. >> laura: materially misleading the fisa court, however, alan, you said this on the show a few weeks ago, depending on what it is and for what reason and the predicate that precedes that, that could be criminal. if you're materially withholding information because you know that that information could change the outcome of the decision on whether to grant the warrants, that is a -- that -- it's on a line. you're right. we shouldn't just blow to the crime was committed here. joining us on the phone, george washington university professor, jonathan turley who has been watching these events unfold. your reaction to the firing of

andrew mccabe, two days before his 50th birthday where his pension would have kicked in. professor? >> i'm not surprised by the decision. some of us said it would be likely that he would be fired. the reason is that this is an exceedingly rare recommendation coming from the office of professional responsibility. it's virtually unheard of for someone that held the position of mccabe. so it was very unlikely in may view that jeff sessions would not follow that career advice. he followed that advice in his own recusal. he yielded to career officers that had recommended that course. i've said before, i thought he would do what he did tonight. what is a more difficult question that will be presented for the justice department is how they will go from here.

because the suggestion is that the inspector general found that mccabe intentionally mislead their investigators. that's almost indistinguishable from what they charged michael flynn with. >> laura: exactly. a good point. >> so the question on the table here is one of continuity. flynn is accused of lying about not the meeting with the russians. he apparently admitted that. by talking about sanctions. the meeting with the russians was not illegal. in this case, mccabe is accused of misleading investigators on something that was a violation of federal rules. so i think the question will be raised is, well, is this simply a matter of a pension or -- because for flynn, it was a matter of prison. >> laura: can't be. yeah. 18 usc 1001 and looks like

michael flynn might not have had the intent to lie. he's trying to withdraw that guilty plea. we're going to keep this panel going. let's bring in republican congressman from the great state of the wisconsin sean duffy. big breaking news night. we have andrew mccabe, deputy director of the fbi fired before his big pension would kick in. some crying foul, saying this fire is political, but it was done at the behest of the opr office, which is not a political office and there's conclusions about his conduct devastating. congressman duffy. >> yes, i criticized jeff sessions quite a bit that he held back and waits for the office of professional responsibility to give us the recommendation. he handled it correctly. but laura, we have a former head of the fbi that is now fired. i think shows the system

actually can work. i look at the fbi. not the boots on the ground but at the top of the fbi, this place is rotten. thank god donald trump was elected to clean out these rotten officials that are playing partisanship with this agency. think back to lois learner. targeted conservatives and conservative groups. the status quo is you leave them people in and let them get their pensions. under donald trump, you start firing people that violate the ethics within their agency on the law. this is a great thing. >> laura: yeah, frank montoya saying this is a political hit job on mccabe. the fact his wife ran for office as a democrat, the attacks on his competence are way out of line. sarah? >> again, no. this can't be a political hit job if opr, the office of professional responsibility, got

documentation, provable facts that he violated his oath as an fbi agent and lied. who did he lie to? he lied to the inspector general and this could be leading to criminal charges. they want to defend him. it's a tragedy that we see this happen but we need to know the truth and the fbi and other agencies need to be cleaned out. >> laura: was he under investigation before the trump administration? was this predating donald trump? i keep hearing whispers about that. >> there are whispers. part of that is due to the fact that he was under investigation for hat jack violations. he was referred by senator grassly as well for not appropriately disclosing the -- >> laura: terry mcauliffe. >> yeah. issue there's. a sexual harassment lawsuit. there were issues there that he

had to deal with. this investigation spiralled out of the evidence that came ford when we started to realize that mccabe was at the center of this, comey, text messages, the investigation that michael horowitz has done. >> laura: sean, hold that thought. we have congressman mark meadows from the house freedom caucus. congressman meadows, we for months have been saying how did you have the same people who were investigating hillary's private e-mail server also oversee the investigation into donald trump's possible collusion with the russians? we saw that with peter strzok. we found his text messages and now the conclusion by the office of professional responsibility about andrew mccabe leading to his firing tonight. your reaction to this huge breaking news night, congressman

meadows. >> it's unbelievable news. the fact that nobody ever gets fired from the fbi and doj without there being real credible evidence. so the suggestion this is a political hit job is not accurate. when you look at the responsibilities of opr, they have certain guidelines that they go by. but what it does call into question, laura, is this: if you have peter strzok and andy mccabe both having questionable, you know, actions on their part, what does it mean about the whole investigation and what is led up to that? i can tell you there's more information coming. the inspector general is doing a very good job. but this action tonight would not have happened if there was not credible wrong doing on the

part of andrew mccabe. >> laura: what about the morale of the fbi at this point? we've heard for some time that there's been a desperately low morale. credibility of the fbi being questioned the last few years, even going back to 9-11 with the cia and the intelligence there. the intel community have this vaunted reputation. they're there to protect us. what about their morale, congressman duffy? can it begin to recover? is this seen as a shot across the bow? professional career agents. they don't like this cloud hanging over the fib. they just want to do their job. there's good people there. >> they show up, they sign up to do their job. when you have the top of an agency or a bureau rotten like this, it's disheartening. you give them hope when you clear it out and we're going to get back to the basics.

so this is the beginning of a new and fresh start. we've been wondering, how did these leaks happen? how are the stories getting to the press the last 1 1/2 years on donald trump and the investigation? now we see it was coming from andrew mccabe and from james comey himself. the question i have, remember when comey went and briefed donald trump on the dossier? no one reported on the dossier until someone leaked that comey was briefing the president on the -- or the president-elect, donald trump, on the dossier. they leaked that to cnn. every news outlet could report on the dossier. the leaking was advancing their story against donald trump. it appears from the information that we're getting, it was coming from the highest level of the fbi and the doj. >> laura: the leaking continues, by the way. it's not over. it continues. whether mccabe is there for now.

this is the gift that keeps on giving. mccabe says, this attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally but to taint the fbi, law enforcement and intel professionals. it's part of this administration's ongoing war on the fbi and the efforts of the special counsel investigation which continue to this day. their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the special counsel's work. not to say, alan dershowitz, that's he prejudicing the special counsel's work. i think that part of his statement is very revealing. your reaction. >> first of all, the one office that the president cannot influence is the office of professional responsibility. let's assume mccabe is correct. the president wanted to get rid

of him. let's assume the attorney general wanted to get rid of them. there's no way they could influence the office of professional responsibility. they're nonpolitical. nobody ever questioned their credibility. the real fallacy of this whole trying to politicize this thing is he can't get around the fact that the office of professional responsibility is doing this. i want to point that one irony. we're talking about leaking. if one result of this is if we can stop leaking from the government, we'll all be better off. how many of the news reporting came tonight came from leaks? the media loves leaking. the media lives by leaks. yet we condemn leaks. we have to say the justice department and the fbi has to stop leaking. even if that means the media doesn't get the stories they want. >> laura: we can talk about

"american idol." >> it's about the type of leaks. when the dossier was leaked and it went out, remember this? it went out. now we believe it's james clapper. that's the information that i received, james clapper leaked it to cnn and the president was briefed. that gave it legs of its own. this was an unverified and salacious document. this is former comey's own words. that's the difference between a solid leak because somebody tried to get information out there and a false like. >> laura: hold on. i want you to continue this thought but i want to remind our viewers, andrew mccabe, the reason his credibility was called into question is because in 2015 his wife was running for state office in virginia. at the time he was leading up the investigation into hillary

clinton's private e-mail server. why did she have the server? why did we lose all these e-mails? he did not reveal his wife having received several hundred thousand dollars from the pact closely associated with terry mcauliffe who is like this with the clintons. if you're as experienced and credible as andrew mccabe was and you don't reveal this, you do not belong in the position of the director of the fbi. as a first year associate i knew, i knew that you could not do that. you had to reveal a potential conflict of interest, at least the appearance. then people would say, that's okay. thanks for revealing it. you have to reveal it. the fact he didn't tainted the investigation. that in and of itself i'd do it.

>> there's no question when you know you have a conflict, you must reveal it. that was strzok's problem. that was mccabe's problem. we have to always have transparency. let the office of professional responsibility decide whether there's a conflict or not. you can't withhold information that might lead to you being recused based on a conflict. >> laura: absolutely. we just learned, cbs news reporter, paula reed is reporting that mccabe learned of his firing through a press release. at least he wasn't on the toilet like rex tillerson was. he was on the toilet and kelly called him. we didn't even get to that story. >> hard to believe. i find that hard to believe. >> he knew he was on his way out. harmeet, we're learning the details. he's clearly going to be on a mission. i'm sorry.

we're going to learn more ant andrew mccabe's feelings about president trump in the coming weeks and months. that statement that he released tonight is about trump, bake will trump you're guilty. you read between the lines, it's about donald trump wants to deep six this special counsel investigation because he has something to hide. you read between the lines, it's clear. >> i wanted to talk about that for a second. he spent a lot of effort trying to point it at president trump. what he should be looking at and historically the case, the clintons managed to destroy everything they touch. this man's career, he got involved, his wife taking money from clinton sources, that was the beginning of the end for him here. so no one is in this type of situation introspective enough to recognize that. there's some spin machines and the clintons in the next phases

of the story. mr. mccabe is in denial as to his own role in this unfortunate situation. >> laura: we have a former independent deputy on the whitewater investigation, sal wisenburg. we thought they won't get rid of mccabe. your reaction tonight, sol. >> well, we were obviously wrong, laura. my reaction is, it's a very sad day. what was in that oig report that got send to office of professional responsibility is very serious for a.g. sessions to have made the decision he made. i don't agree with a lot of his policy positions, but i have a lot of faith in his integrity. this must have been pretty serious. it's a sad day for the country. i sure wish my old friend professor ron rotunda who died

two days ago -- >> laura: he wrote the textbook on ethics. >> he created the field. yes, he did. >> he was my student, and i'm so proud to have had him as one of my students in my legal ethics class 30 or 40 years ago. he was a great, great man and a great contributor to legal ethics and totally neutral, totally objective. always called it the way it should be called. a great man. >> laura: incredible. his textbooks, law school, i mean -- amazing. congressman duffy, reflecting on that for a moment. setting aside whether donald trump being involved and hillary being involved. we as americans have to have faith in our government, especially with a strong potentially devastating effects of a prosecution and an investigation and surveillance of american citizens that our

investigative bodies are operating with complete and unquestionable integrity. we will say that's not fair. we won't take to heart their ultimate conclusions. i hope sarah is right. this is the beginning i hope of a cleaning out of this underbrush at fbi and maybe beyond. we need it badly. >> you're absolutely right. we give incredible power to the doj and the fbi, special tools to keep us safe from terrorists and bad actors. we expect them to care with great emotion. so i look at what has happened at the fbi. they haven't met that responsibility with the tools that we've given them. either we take them away and the country is less safe or they use the tools more effectively moving forward. what will happen moving forward

with mccabe, i have eight kids, you have kids, this is classic fifth grader stuff. i've done something wrong. it's the other sibling theres the house. it's donald trump, republicans. don't look what's done. look at everybody else. what will happen is, if he goes against president trump, all the networks will join him in trying to use mccabe to attract trump. we gave him power. you abused it. anyone that abuses power should be held to account understood the law. >> laura: they're going after the administration tonight already. they're saying this is all political. even though it's the office of professional responsibility. it's crazy. sarah, why has peter strzok and lisa page not been fired? why are we rearranging the chairs on the titanic here? why have those two not been fired? >> i don't know exactly. i have talked to sources about this. there's a process that needs to

take place. they're still questioning them. this is a huge investigation. don't be surprised that that does not happen in the future. who knows, maybe peter strzok and lisa page are talking. >> laura: cooperating because maybe they can get immunity -- >> and may have evidence that goes higher up the food chain. they may know what was going on all the way -- >> laura: off site meetings. alan, we're sounding like this is a murder mystery. we're going to the top. if indeed strzok and page are looking at dismissal, losing their own pensions, they might have an incentive to talk more about who else in who was involved in setting up an insurance policy that donald trump never get elected or if he was elected to be dogged by an ongoing investigation. that will certainly be interesting. again, we haven't seen much from

them, but there's a lot of people that cooperate that you never hear habit. professor dershowitz. >> i know he has a very sophisticated lawyer who is probably working behind the scenes to try to get the best deal for strzok. i don't think strzok has a future at the fbi. i think at this point he has to be thinking about saving his freedom and his liberty and professional reputation. it won't surprise me if there were ongoing negotiations involving him and his lawyer and whoever is doing the investigation. that's fairly typical. >> laura: and we still have andr andrew weissman in the investigation. he was selling the e-mail to sally yates when she made her big point to resign in the early

stages of the -- >> and bruce ohr still has a job. i did a greer with sol. it's a sad day for mccabe. a good day for the country that we're beginning to see some heads rolling over there. a lot of americans have lost respect for the fbi. that's a terrible thing. we should have respect for law enforcement. when they leak, they like, frame people, try to corrupt judges that is unacceptable. it's great that we're starting to see that be taken -- held responsible for that. >> laura: sol, about 20 seconds. >> and i hope we do it on a nonpano nonpartisan basis. >> and you're right. if somebody did something wrong, you have to be punished. >> thank you for all. what a phenomenal panel. thanks for rolling with the breaks news tonight. you have to love this quiet

friday night on the trump era. ed henry in for shannon bream is up next. fox news will be covering every angle of this story. follow me on twitter at "the ingraham angle." see you monday. >> hello. welcome to fox news at night. i'm ed henry. breaking tonight, on the eve of his retirement, the justice department announcing jeff sessions has fired fbi deputy director andrew mccabe. the former director. he stepped down. the second in command accused of leaking intelligence to the media and misleading investigators over what happened in the hillary clinton investigation. president trump said to be watching this case very closely to see if his attorney general pulled the