rohan virginkar, thank you for being here. karl rove in austin and general jack keane thank you for joining us on a business day. next up, shepard smith. >> shepard: rudy throws a wrench in the president's stories. from the hush money payment, to the porn star, stormy daniels, the firing of james comey and the possible sit-down interview with president trump and the special counsel, robert mueller, new explanations and new concerns by a white house staff said to have been floored by what rudy guliani revealed. details ahead. first, the story of the president and the porn star. this is not about an affair. it's about whether money paid amounted to a crime under campaign finance laws. that's the question. remember,president trump said he

knew nothing about any payments. counselor guliani revealed to hannity that he paid michael cohen for giving $130,000 in hush money to stormy daniels. in a series of tweets this morning, president trump wrote that he paid michael cohen through a monthly retainer adding the money didn't come from campaign funds. the president went on to call nondisclosure agreements like the one that stormy daniels signed among those of people with wealth. and stormy daniels said the agreement was used to stop the false accusations made by her about an affair. despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting there was no affair. again, just last month, the president said he knew nothing about the payment. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels?

then why did michael cohen make it? >> you have to ask michael cohen. he's my attorney. you have to ask him. >> do you know where he got the money to make the payment? >> shepard: well, i don't know. president trump's tweets confirm what rudy guliani told hannity that he reimbursed his attorney. rudy guliani said it's no big deal. >> he didn't know the details until we knew the details a couple weeks ago, maybe ten days ago. remember when this came up? october 2016. i was with him day in and day out then. i can't remember the details of what happened. i know 135,000 and i don't want to demean anyone, but that sounds like a lot of money. it's not when you're putting $130 million in your campaign. >> shepard: the problem is they admitted the reason for the campaign is to keep the porn star's story away from the

public so the campaign was not negatively impacted by it. guliani said so this morning on "fox and friends.." >> imagine if that came out in the last debate with hillary clinton. >> so to make it go away, they made this -- >> didn't even ask. cohen made it go away. he did his job. >> and then the president repaid him. if that's true, it could be a crime. in-kind contributions to federal campaigns must be disclosed. when the disclosure is intentionally withheld, that can be criminal. meantime, stormy daniels and her attorney are suing president trump and his personal lawyer. they say that the agreement that she did sign days before the 2016 election is not valid. because the president, the other party to the agreement did not sign it. this is president trump's personal attorney, michael cohen, faces another legal battle over his businesses. the feds raided his home, office

in new york. prosecutors say he's under investigation for his personal business dealings. the associated press and others report the fbi agents were looking for information on that payment to stormy daniels. cohen claims the $130,000 came out of his own pocket and denies he did anything wrong. intent is what matters. if the money was spent to keep information from the public as rudy guliani is saying and the payment was intentionally not reporting, that would be a crime. john roberts is live on the north lawn. hi, john. >> one of the big questions people have, why did rudy guliani say what he said and say it now? there's been no evidence that has been developed by prosecutors as far as we know that would indicate that they have records of the payments that president trump made to michael cohen for legal work and for expenses or whether this was

simply the president's legal team wanted to change the narrative knowing an fdc violation might be at the tip of the spear for the district attorney's case and they wanted to get that off the table. it's possible it could be any one of a number of things. one thing it does illuminate, the statement that michael cohen made after acknowledging the payment is now problematic. at that time put it up on the screen for you, cohen said northeaster trump organization or the trump campaign was a part of the payment. he never mentioned the president specifically. the trump organization would go to the president. so that statement that michael cohen swore to, although not on a stack of bibles has come into question. played the sound from rudy guliani saying that the president didn't know anything

about that. even though the white house was left completely out of the loop on what he was going to say. sarah sanders, the press secretary, picked up that drum beat this morning. listen here. >> mayor guliani stated, this was information that the president didn't know at the time but eventually learned. the president has denied and continues to deny the underlying claim. >> again, the white house staff was blindsided by this. this was something that was cooked up by the president, rudy guliani and jay sekulow, the other member of the president's outside counsel. don mcgann didn't know about this. the chief of staff didn't know about this. nobody from the com shop knew about it and they were left this morning scratching their heads to go with this. there's something to be said, shep, for this idea that the president and his outside counsel have walled off this investigation from the white house which allows people like

press secretary sarah huckabee sanders to say i don't know. you have to talk to the president's outside counsel. >> shepard: guliani talking about a possible sit-down with robert mueller. more details. >> yeah. he gave me a lot of the detail yesterday in the conversation i had with him. the text of which we shared with you yesterday afternoon, shep. he's not yet sold on the idea of it happening. he wants to know whether or not robert mueller can have an open and objective mind, whether mueller is willing to consider that it's james comey who is lying about it and that the president is telling the truth as opposed to the other way around. he would want to severely limit the scope of any line of inquiry to the issues that rudy guliani align with the case. he told me yesterday that everything else that mueller wants to know about in the 52 questions is tangential and he said he would limit the time period that mueller was allowed

to sit down with the president to somewhere between 2 and 3 hours. listen to what rudy guliani said this morning. >> that's the amount of time that we would allow only because that's what clinton got. he got 2 1/2 hours. he fought with them over discovery. we've given them 1.2 million documents. didn't fight with them. could have. we could have raised presidential privileges. we gave them a complete picture. they should do this if they have a case in 2 1/2 hours or they want to dispose of it. >> guliani told me yesterday he believes robert mueller will be open and objective that he would be inclined for him to sit for the interview. guliani said with the potential for a north korean summit in the works here at the white house, there's no time to get the president adequately briefed up to do a deposition as important as the one with special counsel would be. it would likely be early summer he told me yesterday before the president could sit down. he would also want to guarantee

from mueller that it would happen before the end of the summer. clearly guliani doesn't want this to drag on, shep. >> shepard: john, guliani upended the narrative on the firing of james comey. there's three separate and distinct explanation. first, it was comey -- i should say because comey released to the public derogatory information about hillary clinton during the campaign. that was from the rosenstein letter. a position which the president supported. and then the russia on my mind admission to lester holt of nbc news. the president told two russians that the firing of the nut job, as president trump called comey, relieved great pressure on him. now a new story. guliani says the president fired james comey because he wouldn't say that the president was not a target of the investigation. because he wouldn't publicly clear the president. john, this new version of the comey firing goes to allegation of obstruction of justice. this came up in the briefing.

>> we do know through james comey's memos that the president asked him on several occasions, if i'm not a target of the investigation, can you please let the american public know about that. james comey deferred. he said he wasn't going to do that, which led rudy guliani last night to really illuminate that as one of the prime reasons why comey no longer is the director of the fbi. listen here. >> comey would not, among other things, say he wasn't a target of the investigation. he's entitled to that. hillary clinton got that. he couldn't get that. so he fired him and he said i'm free of this guy. lester holt asked him why you did it. he said because i feel like i had to explain to the american people that the president was not the target of the investigation. >> sarah huckabee sanders was asked about that reasoning this afternoon at the press briefing. she said, shep, there's a landry list of reasons that you can

pick from why comey is no longer the head of the fbi. listen here. >> there's several reasons. the bottom line is he doesn't have to justify his decision. the president has the authority to fire and hire, and i think every single day we've seen that he made the right decision in firing james comey. >> there's a long paper trail as to why the president fired james comey. again, the reasons kind of differ around shift as time goes by. that's one reason why robert mueller wants to sit down with the president, to ask him directly, what was on your mind when you fired james comey. >> shepard: john, guliani called the fbi agents storm troopers that raided cohen's apartments. storm troopers from nazi germany before the elimination of six million just. >> there's no question that rudy guliani looks at that raid as something that was bordering on

unconstitutional. even though it was signed off on by the deputy attorney general at the department of justice and had been approved all the way up and down the chain of command before the time that the fbi agents went in and searched, not raided according to the fbi, michael cohen's office and his apartment and hotel room that didn't stop rudy guliani from going i think out on a shaky limb in describing the fbi agents. listen here. >> i was talking about the $130,000 payment, the settlement payment, which is a very regular thing for lawyers to do. the question there was, only possible violation would be there was it a campaign finance violation. usually results in a fine, not this big storm troopers coming in and breaking down his apartment and breaking down his office. that was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way i would do out of his law firm funds, doesn't matter. the president reimbursed that over several months.

>> michael cohen has said that the fbi was very polite when they came to his hotel room. they did have to break into his office. this idea of them breaking down the door, michael cohen has disputed. james comey hitting back at rudy guliani saying i know the new york fbi. there's no storm troopers there, just a group of people devoted to the rule of law and truth, which pricked up the hairs on the back of rudy guliani's neck. he said in a statement to robert costa of "the washington post" of comey, he's a sensitive little baby, shep. >> shepard: john, rudy guliani has just spoken to the daily beast on this matter. he said, and i quote "anybody that says i'm exaggerating when i say that about storm troopers is an -- that it's an out of control investigation and they're acting like storm troopers. give me a break, baby. they prove it every day." rudy guliani. john? i got to get to a break, john.

thanks so much. appreciate it. wiretaps have allegedly been put on the president's fixer's phones. it was a story first reported by nbc news that the president's then fixer, michael cohen, his personal attorney, the feds had wiretapped him prior to the raiding of his home and his office and his hotel room. prior to that, there was a wiretap. and there's other reporting to go with it. we'll have what we've now confirmed for you after this on a very busy day from the white house and we'll have white house reaction too. that's coming up. rence. at some point, we are going to be able to beat als. because life is amazing. so i am hoping for a cure. i want this, to uh, to be a reality. um, yeah.

you might or joints.hing for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. with the right steps, 80%of recurrent ischemicide. strokes could be prevented. a bayer aspirin regimen is one step to help prevent another stroke. so, i'm doing all i can to stay in his life. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. before you begin an aspirin regimen. hesumatra reserve told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's go to sumatra. where's sumatra? good question. this is win. and that's win's goat, adi. the coffee here is amazing. because the volcanic soil is amazing. making the coffee erupt with flavor. so we give farmers like win more plants. to grow more delicious coffee. that erupts with even more flavor. which helps provide for win's family. and adi the goat's family too.

because his kids eat a lot. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee roasters. packed with goodness.

>> shepard: the white house is now facing questions about a bomb shell report from nbc news that federal investigators wiretapped michael cohen's phone and intercepted at least one phone call from a number associated with the white house. fox news has not confirmed this. the press secretary, sarah sanders, wouldn't comment referring reporters to the president's outside counsel. the nbc news report does not specify with whom cohen may have been talking in the phone call. according to the reporting of nbc news and msnbc, the phone tap was already in place in the weeks before the fbi's raid on cohen's home, his office and hotel room. john roberts is at the white house. there's a lot to unpack from

this. part of it is, that could have been a way they got probable cause. would have required probable cause for this raid. >> if you pick up a conversation between two parties and it crosses the line of the law, you go to the deputy attorney general and you say, we need to intervene here. we need to go see an attorney who has materials that are privileged and that has to go to the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york and down to the fbi. needs to have checks and balances along the chain of command there. i checked with attorneys for president trump, attorneys for michael cohen. none of them have confirmed whether or not there was a wiretap. the report did include that one of the calls was picked up, originated from the white house. legal sources close to the white house say if that is indeed the case, that would be a very, very serious issue. we do know that the president spoke to michael cohen after the raid kind of a little bit of a pep talk telling him to buck up

and weather the storm. sarah sanders was asked this afternoon at the press briefing if she knew the last time the president spoke to michael cohen and what she thought of these reports of the wiretap. listen here. >> when was the last time that the president talked to michael cohen and is michael cohen still his attorney, and also is the white house concerned or is the president concerned that any conversations that he would have had with michael cohen would have been picked up by the wiretap? >> i'm not sure when the last conversation took place. on the second part, i'm not aware of specific places where he's representing the president and on the last one, i would refer you to the president's outside counsel about any concerns of wiretapping. >> again, none of the attorneys that i was able to contact associated with this case were able to confirm whether or not there was a wiretap. i don't think that they knew. shep, i was told by one attorney if the president was caught up

in a wiretapped conversation, he would likely have to be notified. though he likely would not have to be notified right away. i don't know what the time frame would be. the fbi would be able to, i'm told, hold on to that information for a period of time, shep. >> shepard: new developments on this story in the last few minutes. we learned there's no comment from the fbi or the southern district of new york's office on this wiretap matter. guliani's comments and the white house response -- no, no. i need to read what we just put in. this is new information. if you can back up. as i mentioned, this has just come in. i put the new statements in so i could read them to you. begins -- here we go. here's the new information. guliani just spoke on this matter to betsy from the daily

beast and i quote "look at all the bad faith we're seeing here. it's bad faith leaking it. we should find out about this with a notification from the justice department. they're wiretapping the president of the united states", no, they were not. and then he says they're wiretap ago man that is talking to his lawyer and they want us to cooperate? rudy guliani called for jeff sessions to intervene in the michael cohen case and put the people behind the probe under investigation. if a phone call with the hill he said that moments ago. he said i'm waiting for the attorney general to step in as a defender of justice and put these people under investigation. investigating the investigators. there's historic significance to that. we'll speak with a lawyer in just a moment who will work through the regalities of this.

what it means in the big picture of the case of russian meddling. mr. elliot, what's your wifi password?

wifi? wifi's ordinary. basic. do i look basic? nope! which is why i have xfinity xfi. it's super fast and you can control every device in the house.

[ child offscreen ] hey! let's basement. and thanks to these xfi pods, the signal reaches down here, too. so sophie, i have an xfi password, and it's "daditude". simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome. >> shepard: well, two angles on today's developments. briefing wrap. there's another curious statement out buried in the flood of headlines from the president's lawyer. we have reporting -- we have no reporting at fox news to suggest that the first daughter and presidential adviser ivanka trump is any subject or target of any investigation at all. but one statement from counselor guliani raises questions. listen. >> ivanka trump? i think i would get on my charger and go right into their offices with a lancer if they go after ivanka.

>> at this point, i agree with you. i fear for the country. >> if they do do ivanka, which i doubt they will, the whole country will turn. they're going after his daughter? >> what about his son? law? >> jared is a fine man. >> shepard: if they go after her, the whole country will turn on them. who said they were going after her? let's bring in nicholas johnson. that was the most curious to me. i never heard any reporting of any kind or any target of ivanka being anything. that was that. i'm afraid for the country moment. what was that? >> i think what we're seeing here is a new legal strategy that the trump team is bringing to bear. that's why i've been in this chair. rudy guliani has called half

dozen reporters. >> shepard: we invited him here, too. he goes on they are programs but we have not been so fortunate. >> and it's them taking the offense on these things. guliani hitting some television shows, calling reporters. remember the legal team shakeup. emmett flood is known as somebody that is combative. if you look at donald trump's history, he relishes a fight legally. most people involved in lawsuits, this is the worst thing that we could imagine. we talked to trump associates that says he loves it. this could be a legal strategy of bringing the fight to the public. >> shepard: i'll have a lawyer in a moment. but politically speaking, what is the advantage? what is it that the public paid back the lawyer that paid the porn star rather than his narrative that he didn't know anything about the payment?

>> a really great question. i don't have an answer for that. i don't think sarah huckabee sanders had an answer. a lot of it is trying to understand or get in front of the possible crime that could have been committed. i think one thing a bottom line as we say at axios on this is all of these things swirling around michael cohen. this is the president's person attorney, this is someone who has been described as the man that knew secrets no one else knew. so as the investigators get closer to him, there's a lot they'll learn about that. some of the response could be driven by what michael cohen could know. >> shepard: if nbc is reporting it to be believed, it's not been denied, that there was a wiretap, they had to have probable cause for the wiretap. then they had to have an enormous amount of probable cause to raid michael cohen. now michael cohen faces -- a lot of prison time or he could flip, a lot of suggestion that he

flipped. what is your reporting on that? >> we don't have reporting on that. two points you make are very good. there's no way that the justice department undertook a wiretap of michael cohen or a raid on his offices lightly. that would have been approved at the highest levels. that speaks to what these investigators are might know and what they're bringing to bear on michael cohen to learn more. >> shepard: nicholas johnson, busy times. thanks very much. >> thank you. >> shepard: now for a look at the legal side, let's turn to emily compano. good to see you. >> thanks, shep. >> shepard: this is not about an affair. if the intention about what rudy guliani says to keep negative information from a porn star from getting out into the open during a campaign so that it's not negatively affecting the campaign and you withhold that information, that could be a thing that could be fixed.

if you do so intentionally, if you deceive intentionally, that can be a crime, right? >> yes. it triggers a whole host of campaign election laws. i've heard, if it's his own money, if it's the president's own money, candidates own money, there's no limits to that. that's true. the law specifically accounts for borrowing that money and paying it back. i think two issues of the level of the payment structure, it has to do with the intent. if trump paid it back immediately upon learning of the loan, that bodes towards an argument that it wasn't a campaign purpose. as guliani stated, he paid it monthly in the form of a reta retainer which triggers federal officership. that means -- it argues more towards the campaign. it's being paid back at the time. in terms of who paid it, that goes to the specific liability

of cohen or the then candidate and now president trump. so it triggers so many different potential violations. the bottom line is, the purpose of the payment was to not hurt the campaign, doesn't have to help, just not hurt it, then yes, it must have been reported. >> shepard: then the matter of the firing of james comey. his people say he can fire whoever he wants. you can't fire someone in an attempt to obstruct justice. that is the case. i mean, that is the question now. guliani said last night, the reason -- said to hannity, the reason that he fired comey is because comey refused to say to the public that trump is not a target of the investigation. that could be an attempt of obstruction of justice. what is your point? >> that it raises tremendous red flagses for that reason. in an obstruction of justice charge, what matters the intent at the moment coupled with a

step taken with it. right there with guliani's comments, one can help deduce that there's a strong argument for that charge. >> shepard: it is. a lot of new avenues. are you surprised by all of the utterances that we've heard the last day? >> not anymore, i think. it seems like every minute we're hearing new things. i'd like to comment on rudy guliani's comments about the storm trooper situation exactly. that yes, the power of the federal government when it turns its eyes on you can be absolutely crushing. with this man now in place, they're sending a symbol that they are not backing down lightly. >> shepard: no. clearly aren't. thanks, emily. >> thank you. >> shepard: the legal and the political. up next we'll talk about the messenger. the white house press secretary, sarah sanders. we'll get inside into the potential fallout over her answers with a person that held that role. our very own dana perino is here next to talk about the presidential spokesperson and the perils.

stay with us. if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, or psoriatic arthritis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these occur. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. other side effects include upper respiratory tract infection and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ♪ otezla. show more of you.

i had a very minor fender bender tonight! in an unreasonably narrow fast food drive thru lane. but what a powerful life lesson. and don't worry i have everything handled. i already spoke to our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. which is so smart on your guy's part. like fact that they'll just... forgive you... four weeks without the car. okay, yup. good night. with accident forgiveness your rates won't go up just because of an accident. switching to allstate is worth it.

>> i'm lea gabrielle with a fox report. nine police officers hurt after a barn exploded during a standoff. happened in north haven, connecticut. north and west of new york city. police were negotiating with a man about a domestic violence call when the barn blew up. cops found a body but have no identified it. an airline employee stabbed his co-worker to death at philadelphia international airport. that's according to police who say a fight broke out between three contractors for frontier airlines. cops say it happened in a secure area near the gate. both are in custody. officials in india say rain and dust storms kill 91 people. officials say the worst damage was in the city of agra. we'll be right back.

my day starts well before i'm even in the kitchen. i need my blood sugar to stay in control. so i asked about tresiba®. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ tresiba® is a once-daily, long-acting insulin that lasts even longer than 24 hours. i need to shave my a1c. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ tresiba® works like my body's insulin. releases slow and steady. providing powerful a1c reduction. my week? hectic. my weekends? my time. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ i can take tresiba® any time of day. so if i sleep in, and delay my dose, i take it as soon as i can, as long as there's at least eight hours between doses. (renee) once in use, it lasts eight weeks with or without refrigeration, twice as long as the lantus® pen. (announcer) tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. don't share needles or insulin pens. don't reuse needles. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness,

sweating, confusion, and headache. check your blood sugar. low blood sugar can be serious and may be life-threatening. injection site reactions may occur. tell your prescriber about all medicines you take and all your medical conditions. taking tzds with insulins, like tresiba®, may cause serious side effects like heart failure. your insulin dose shouldn't be changed without asking your prescriber. get medical help right away if you have trouble breathing, fast heartbeat, extreme drowsiness, swelling of your face, tongue or throat, dizziness, or confusion. ask your health care provider if you're tresiba® ready. covered by most insurance and medicare plans. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪

>> shepard: imagine you handle the press for a very important person. or you handle all of the press for the president of the united states. his lawyer goes on tv and says things that you didn't know anything about. everyone in the country starts asking you about it. how would you handle that? well, dana perino has been in that job. maybe not in that situation. you never were in that situation, were you? >> no, i don't think so. >> shepard: sarah sanders found herself in that situation today. >> i don't think i ever found myself in that situation. other press secretaries have. i thought today she acquitted herself very well. she was calm. she's telling them, i give you the best information that i have at a time that i have it and i continue to do my best every day. she repeated that several times. >> shepard: let's listen to her. >> why didn't you talk to the white house press office about

his impacting stellar statement about what was happening? >> the white house press office wouldn't coordinate with the president's outside legal team on legal strategy. >> you said yourself you were blindsided -- >> i didn't use that term. >> i said it. you were blindsided. >> well, with all due report, you don't know much about me in terms of what i feel and what i don't. >> how do you understand this operates -- >> shepard: she made the point. i didn't know. >> again, i also think she's saying i'm up here, i'm doing my best. they all know. they talk to her regularly. she's trying to provide the information that she has at the time. she was surprised last night. i do think that there is -- might be a way for them to figure out a way to coordinate that would be appropriate and not stepping over the line. that is through the white house counsel's office. so there's an outside legal team for the president. they can do what they're going to do. but in order to not catch her off guard or get her in a position where she said wade,

that's not what i said last week so she has to answer those questions. you can funnel that through the white house office and have that be ethical and fine. >> shepard: here's what i didn't know about this and still don't. did rudy guliani go off script and say things he didn't mean to say because he was in a friendly environment on television with a good friend or was that part of a new strategy that nobody else knew anything about? i don't know. >> that's part of the mystery and part of the fun they have with us every day. i think it was planned. because it wasn't -- sean hannity didn't even ask the question. >> he said didn't know that. he said i'm telling you something you don't know. >> shepard: well, i mean, they communicate a lot is a known known. if sean didn't know, i don't know. if sean didn't know, maybe only a very small group knew. >> i said from the beginning and they made a different decision, but i think that a good model for this situation, what has been what the clinton administration did with lanny

davis, when he was over in the old executive office building and the press secretary, mike mccurry handled the press questions, all the economics good news that they had at the time, any sort of foreign policy, they asked one thing about the ken starr investigation. he said you know you have to call over there. >> shepard: he never answered. >> he never had to do it. they didn't do that from the beginning here. sarah sanders has handled it. and if rudy guliani decides to do something different, she'll have to handle the briefing room. i think she did a really good job of being herself and saying i'm doing my best here. they let her off. i think it was wrong to ask if she was in any sort of legal jeopardy. no, she's not. nobody should worry about that. >> shepard: yeah. you miss that job? >> no. >> shepard: those people? >> i think that hindsight is 20/20. i look back with a lot of affection for the job. but i don't want to do it again. >> shepard: i'm glad you have this job. >> thank you. >> shepard: on before me at 2:00 eastern, 1:00 central and again

at "the five." and unless you're my mom it's on at 3:00. >> shepard: and my dad it's at 4:00. >> does he watch? >> shepard: hopefully he's watching the rebels win baseball games. thanks for coming. >> thank you. >> shepard: three americans in north korea. there were reports that they were released. that was premature. stay tuned. we'll talk with bill richardson about negotiating with the north koreans.

( ♪ ) it's the details that make the difference. only botox® cosmetic is fda approved to temporarily make frown lines, crow's feet and forehead lines look better. it's a quick 10 minute treatment given by a doctor to reduce those lines. ask your doctor about botox® cosmetic by name.

the effects of botox® cosmetic, may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be a sign of a life-threatening condition. do not receive botox® cosmetic if you have a skin infection. side effects may include allergic reactions, injection site pain, headache, eyelid and eyebrow drooping and eyelid swelling. tell your doctor about your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, and medications including botulinum toxins as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. the details make a difference. the man makes them matter. see real results at botoxcosmetic.com/men.

>> shepard: two united states military pilots are hurt after chinese nationals shot high-powered lasers at them as they flew over eastern africa. lasers! that's the word from a pentagon spokesperson that said defense

officials have asked china to investigate. the pentagon confirmed whoever used the military grade lasers shot them from a chinese base there. the spokes woman said the injuries are minor but the situation is serious. our national security correspondent jennifer griffin at the pentagon. jennifer? >> dana white said there had been more than two but fewer than ten incidents involving chinese military personnel pointing high powered lasers into the cockpits of u.s. military planes flying missions in south africa. >> there's been two minor injuries. this activity poses a true threat to our airmen. we have formally talked to the chinese government and requested that the chinese investigate these incidents. >> the chinese opened their first overseas military base in

djibouti last summer. the pentagon felt confident that the lasers that damaged the eyes of the airmen came from the base in djibouti. >> shepard: there's been a lot of concern, jennifer, over the disputed islands in the south china sea, whether the chinese were trying to militarize them and now we get words about missiles. >> the white house says there's a lot of consequences for militarizing the south china sea. they have positioned anti-cruiseship missiles and surface to air missiles in 3 to four of the outposts in these disputed islands, islands claimed by six pacific nations. this follows china adding radar jamming equipment.

>> we've been very vocal about our concerns about them militarizing on these artificial islands. china has to realize that they have benefitted from the free navigation of the sea and the u.s. navy has been the guarantor of that. >> 3.4 billion in trade passed through the strip every day. and now any china ship can hit any sea bearing ship traveling through the sea. >> shepard: rudy guliani said three americans held prisoner in north korea would be released today. the white house says we can't confirm anything about today. coming up, i'll talk with a former u.s. ambassador to the united nations, bill richardson who has negotiated with the north koreans in the past. reti? then we found out how many years that money would last them.

how long do you think we'll keep -- oooooohhh! you stopped! you're gonna leave me back here at year 9? how did this happen? it turned out, a lot of people fell short, of even the average length of retirement. we have to think about not when we expect to live to, but when we could live to. let's plan for income that lasts all our years in retirement. prudential. bring your challenges. your society was led by a woman, who governed thousands... commanded armies... yielded to no one. when i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. my name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. now with 5 times more detail than other dna tests. order your kit at ancestrydna.com

now with 5 times more detail than other dna tests. we need to help more tocalifornians get ahead.d, that's why antonio villaraigosa brought republicans and democrats together to balance the state budget with a budget reserve, while investing in local schools and career training. as mayor of la, he put more police on the streets and reduced violent crime by nearly fifty percent. that's antonio villaraigosa. a governor for all of california.

>> shepard: military cargo plane that crashed into a highway in georgia killed all nine passengers on board. now we know it was likely on its final flight. that's according to the puerto rican air national guard that operated the plane. military investigators have arrived at the scene outside savannah. they're using a white sheet to some of their investigation from the cameras. the plane went down moments after it took off. military officials in georgia say the plane was at least 40 years old. according to a spokesman for the puerto rican air national guard, it was about to retire this week but it was in good mechanical condition. president trump hinting that north korea might release three american prisoners. the white house saying they cannot confirm the validity of

any reports coming out of there about the americans' release. two of the americans had been working as professors at a university in pyongyang until the north korean regime arrested them last year and accused them of hostile acts. the third hostage is a businessman accused of being a spy and accused of stealing military secrets. the regime arrested him in 2015, sentenced him to a decade of hard labor. let's turn to bill richardson, negotiated the release of an american prisoner in north korea in 1996. not easy, is it, sir? >> no, it's not easy. this is typical of the north koreans. they drum up a lot of interest. i suspect they will release the three but then they use them as bargaining chips. in the past, you send a big former president, carter or clinton, in exchange for the prisoners. in this case, what they get in return is a summit with the president of the united states. something that they have always

wanted. >> shepard: the president says the one reason for that summit is to do away with their nuclear program, to end their nuclearization. are there signs that north korea will be willing to do that? >> i think it's going to be an interesting summit. we have a different definition from the north koreans on what denuclearization is. for the president, for us, it's -- they're going to dismantle their weapons. for the north koreans, it's a freeze. we're going to stop development of missiles, nuclear. so that has to be narrowed down in the summit. i think the release of this prisoner, you set a good tone releasing them on humanitarian reasons. the north koreans, that i were trumped up charges. you mentioned them. they were americans teaching there, doing business, hostile acts. you know, the north koreans always do that. one of the things that the

president has to do is say to north korea, stop detaining americans. stop detaining people that come in and leave them alone and stop using them as bargaining chips. that's another accomplishment that might make the summit a success. >> shepard: the president has talked about possibly holding this summit around the peace house around the denuclearized zone there between north and south korea. he said it would be great to have a celebration of things there. in reality, wouldn't there be a lot of negotiating after the summit? >> yes. i think one of the things, shep, with the north koreans, you negotiate not across the table. that's not when they make concessions. they do it in informal gatherings. either dining or walking together and making deals. i think what is very important is that the two presidents develop some kind of a personal relationship. i worry that at the peace house, i've been there many times, the

facility is not conducive to meeting outside of just the formal table. so you know, i saw that singapore is a possibility. kim jong-un doesn't like to travel by airplane. he likes to travel by rail. so maybe a russian island. i don't know what they're going to decide. what is important is the section of the summit for informal settings. that's when you negotiate deals with the north koreans. that's when i got some prisoners out. you don't do it in the formal meeting. >> shepard: i'm out of time, bill. good to talk to you. thanks. in just a moment, top of the hour headlines, neil cavuto and the closing of the market day. a busy afternoon. glad you're in. liberty mutual saved us

almost $800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. with liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. >>hey. oh, that's my robe. >>is it? when you switch to liberty mutual, you could save $782 on auto and home insurance and still get great coverage for you and your family. call for a free quote today. you could save $782 when liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance. >> shepard: lots ahead on fox news channel. "your world" is coming up in just a minute. the final bell will ring in five seconds. at this moment, we're just barely up. the markets mostly flat on the

session of the dow. 18 in the red today. i'm shepard smith in new york. should news break out, we'll break in. breaking news changes everything on fox news channel. this is america's choice for news and information on cable. >> neil: all right. we're just getting news into our newsroom right now concerning a shooting at a nashville mall. this is in nashville, tennessee at the opry mills mall. one person has been taken to the hospital. we're keeping an eye on that. this just in to the newsroom. if we get anything more, we'll keep you posted. meantime, there's this. >> did the justice department authorize the wiretap with the president and his personal attorney, michael cohen? >> i'm not sure of the comments of the report or the claims in the report. that's something that you'd have to talk with the department of justice and the