Revolution. Notorious lobbyist turned anticorruption campaigner Jake Abramoff here to tell us the dirty secrets of the d. C. Swamp. We meet the man inside corporations literally write the laws the rest of us have to live under. And theres hope, we talk to two congressmen, one republican, one democrat, working together to drain the swamp. Evening everyone and welcome to the next revolution. Im steve hilton and this is the home of positive populism. When we started this show, we promised to keep watch over President Trumps pledge to drain the swamp. Over the past few months, weve brought you swamp watch investigations that exposed everything from the military Industrial Complex to the saudi arabia lobby. In a moment, well bring you highlights from some of your favorite swamp watch segments. First with me kimberly strasel who writes the column for the wall street journal. Kim, im so pleased you could join us to talk about this. There are very few people who know more about the topic than you. Drain the swamp, obviously, was a very effective slogan, and i think its an idea that captured the imagination in terms of generalized sense that washington is run by a bunch of insiders and their own interests. Because of your detailed knowledge, id love for you to break down the elements of the swamp that we should be most concerned about. Yeah, you know, first of all, its great to be here, steve, thanks for having me on. I think when you hear for instance donald trump talk about draining the swamp. A couple of categories come to mind. One would be oldstyle establishment politicians used to doing things behind the scenes in closed doors, smokefilled rooms that arent necessarily accountable to the people. The second category are the lobbyists and were about to get a view of that in the tax reform debate. Every company in the world is going to be descending on d. C. To keep their special tax break and their special thing with government. But the one that i think is the biggest swamp gets overlooked and that i spend a lot of time writing about is the bureaucracy, we live in an Administrative State where so much of peoples lives is controlled by federal bureaucrats. Tens of thousands of them. We know from the irs scandal, et cetera, that the people have immense power and no one is holding them accountable. Steve i completely agree with you. I want to dive into that in detail with you. Just one aside, a personal story, i remember when i was preparing to enter government with David Cameron in the uk and went to talk to tony blake, the former Prime Minister to get his advice and how things worked and he warned me about the Administrative State. He said have you no idea the permanent bureaucrats literally believe theyre the ones who hold the National Interest in their hands and job is to survive the here today gone tomorrow politicians. What can we do about that . What are specific things the Trump Administration can do to attack the Administrative State . The first thing is hold some accountable for those that have committed wrongdoing. A good example right now is we are seven years after the irs, one of the most powerful agency in federal government deliberately isolated and targeted nonprofits because of their political views. And helped to silence them during a crucial midterm and president ial election. To this date, no one is held accountable. We have various Tea Party Groups and other organizations that sued the federal government. The Obama Administration unsurprisingly battled those lawsuits, tried to keep everything quiet. One of the things thats disturbing is nothing seems to have changed under the Trump Administration. The Justice Department is still fighting those lawsuits trying to keep information quiet because the holdover attorneys from the obama erar still there. So i think cleaning house and Holding People accountable that are responsible for past abuses of power would send a powerful lesson to the other bureaucrats that there could be consequences if you overstep your boundaries. Steve what about the sheer scale of it . Physically, the number of agencies and the number of people that work there. Is there anything we can do about that . Well, obviously, the quickest way that you can reduce the power of the state is to reduce the state, and thats why i was cheered when i saw President Trumps budget that did do some pretty big cuts to some agencies because by the way, organizations like the Environmental Protection agency wanted to do a good job but historically role was to work in partnership with the states and a lot of the work it does would be better done at a local level where there is more accountability to local voters, for instance. One other thing that we can do too is weve got to work hard to make sure that the important decisions of government are returned back to the hands of people who are held accountable by voters. You know, for instance, on the irs thing again. The irs, bureaucrats should not be making decisions about whether or not a nonprofit engaged improperly in politics. We have the federal Election Commission with commissioners that had to be appointed and confirmed by the senate, who hold public hearings. Those are the people who ought to be making those decisions. Steve so in terms of moving agenda forward, what should we be looking to within the administration . Whos really running with this agenda, if anyone . What are you picking up . Theres a couple first of all, you need leadership from the president. I think next what youre seeing, if you go from agency to agency, the secretaries that President Trump has installed, one of the things that is encouraging, though its got almost no attention is how each of them are taking very hard looks at their own departments to see ways in which they with return accountability. Guys like the interior secretary zinke engaged in reorganization efforts at the interior department. Jeff sessions, we need to have more accountability of attorneys, et cetera. Those are the people. Also look to congress who are attempting, now that they own both branches to pass legislation that would further require more transparency and accountability for bureaucrats. Steve well, i know that you are certainly keeping an eye on it and well follow that closely, appreciate thank you very much you sharing your insights and hope can you come back and let us know what progress is being made because this is so fundamental to the kind of change people voted for. Kim, thank you for joining us. Id love to. Thank you. Steve now, heres a look at some of your favorite swamp watch moments. Some of the swampiest parts of washington operate in the dark, places you never think about, perhaps have never even heard of. A right with corrupt behavior because they dont face public scrutiny. Places like the Exportimport Bank. What is the Exportimport Bank . The what . I dont know. What . [laughter] i dont know have you heard of it . You should. Its a federal agency dishing out corporate welfare, and its in the cross hairs of tonights swamp watch. Amazingly, then senator barack obama, the candidate for president in 2008 explicitly called out the banks swampy behavior. The Exportimport Bank that is a little more than a fund for corporate welfare. Steve well said, senator. But then what happened after the election when it was time to reauthorize this swampy institution . Youll hear some critics suggest that, well, this is just corporate welfare for big multinationals. Steve excuse me . Some critics, you were one of them obama got swamped real quick. The Exportimport Bank uses our tax dollars to provide subsidized loans and loan insurance to foreign buyers of american goods, if air india wants to buy planes from boeing, exim will loan them the money at below market interest rates. Im not sure if the american taxpayers are fronting the money for it, but the defenders of the bank claim it exists to support american Small Businesses. Really . Over 60 of financing helps 10 giant corporations like boeing, caterpillar, ge and bechtel, the same giant corporations that spend millions in charge of the Exportimport Bank. Every year, a few dozen members of congress set the defense departments budget. A job which practically guarantees huge contractors. They received on average 430,000 from defense contractors. Its more of a jackpot if you chair one of these committees. Come on down dick durbin of illinois, the second highestranking democrat in congress, and someone who is constantly popping up on tv screens pomp usually pratteling on about the Trump Administrations ethics violations. Durbin became chair of the subcommittee which led to a wave of cash that made him the top recipient of that election cycle. Durbin counts northrup grumman, boeing, United Technologies and bae systems among top seven largest contributors. The local hospital with the friendly doctor replaced by vast mega hospitals run by administrators on multimillion dollar packages. Like michael downing, a former government bureaucrat who in 2015 raked in 10 million of north Shore University hospital in long island. 10 million a year . Lets all join a nonprofit. The insanely expensive hospital bills you get are not making wide eyed fresh out of med School Doctors and nurses wealthy. In fact, if youre a gogetting chief executive, health care and pharmaceuticals is the sector to be in. Exploiting sick people through vital but vastly overpriced services that might bankrupt them. Its a great gig. Among the 200 highest paid executives, those in health care and pharmaceuticals are paid on average 37 million. More than telecommunications, real estate, they dont come close. And the tax exempt hospitals are cash cows. The largest nonprofit compensation package went to the ceo of nonprofit hospital ascension, he made a cool 17. 6 million. Dont get me wrong, i have nothing against high pavement i believe in marks and i believe people who create value in the marketplace should be rewarded. Its got to be fair especially in health care where there are vast amounts of taxpayer money slushing around. Its a rigged market. Lobbying in political donation keep the health swamp going. To his credit, republican congressman tom garrett has tried to expose this corruption. Talking about why nothing ever happens to clamp down on the Health Insurance companies he wrote why, hasnt it been done . Lobby and special interests. This is a sitting congressman telling thought Health Insurance industry not our elected officials are driving health policy. One of the reforms the congressman is pushing for would expose the Health Insurance companies to real competition. Right now, thats blocked by mccarranferguson antitrust act of 1945. Yes, the government specifically exempts Health Insurance for most federal antitrust laws. This means that markets are artificially restricted and have what the congressman calls government sanctioned oligopolys in Health Insurance. The House Financial Services committee regulate the banks, guess which industry is the biggest donor . The amount of money slushing around this committee made it highly desirable governor congressman. So much so that its known on capitol hill as the Cash Committee because sitting on it guaranteed our congressman here is nodding. Its true because it guarantees fundraising success. Whats more, Many Committee members, not the one here, have direct and close ties to big banks. Representative Steve Stivers is previously the top lobrift for bank one. Representative kevin yoda got 211,000 from the securities and investment industry and 145,000 from commercial banks in two years. 2015 to 2016. A good deal for the banks. In 2014 yoda introduced legislation to allow banks to carry out the same practices that some argue caused the financial crash. How lovely for the banks they have all the members in congress fighting in their corner . And wouldnt it be great if we could come up with a system to have working americans interests represented in government . Coming up later, my exclusive interview with jack abramoff. Not all d. C. Dwellers are swamp citizens, i talk to one democrat and a republican who are working together to drain the swamp. Unbelievable, i know, dont miss it. [grandma] you misplaced your debit card . You have wells fargo, right . [grandson] yeah. [grandma] open up the app. [grandson] okay. [grandma] and turn off your card. [grandson] grandma, how are you better at this than me . [grandma] you know, you can use that phone to call me. 83 try to eat healthy, yet up to 90 fall short on getting key nutrients. Lets do more. Oneaday 50 plus. Complete with 100 daily value of more than 15 key nutrients. Oneaday 50 plus. If you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis,. Isnt it time to let the real you shine through . Maybe its time for Otezla Apremilast . Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months,. With reduced redness,. Thickness, and scaliness of plaques. 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I sat down with two members of congress, republican Mike Gallagher from wisconsin and california democrat roconner working together to reform american politics. Take a look. Lets start by defining the problem that youre trying to solve. We can use big phrase like drain the swamp, everyone would agree with that. What specifically are some of the problems . Ours started with term limits. We are both of the opinion, correct me if im mischaracterizing your view that congress shouldnt be a career, that career mentality where people wait and wait until they are a subcommittee chairman 12 years from now, that is the fundamental dynamic and result spend all their time raising money as opposed to grappling with complex problems. Exactly, exactly. Steve how do term limits help with that . Steve, weve got a 98 incumbent reelection rate. Steve right. The turnover rate in congress is less than european monarchies, the economist had an article about that. Term limit says you serve six terms twotwoyear terms in the house, two terms in the senate and do something else. People say, well, if someone is not doing a good job, the voter can vote him out. Thats not the case, you have so many advantages in incumbency and we need turnover. Steve what are the elements of the plan . We talked about nonpartisan redistricting. Politicians shouldnt choose and draw their own districts. We also talk about five year lobbying ban. Steve hasnt the president done that or not done that . Where does that stand . It has to Pass Congress in terms of a ban on members of congress. Steve ban on members of congress . From after youve done service, you shouldnt go and work for an industry that you were regulating. So you go, you serve in congress, you cant work for the defense trade association. Steve that is a huge thing, weve been pointing out in swamp watch. That is a classic thing. You did Public Service and you didnt go make tons of money afterwards. Harry truman who won world war ii, afterwards there is a famous story him being invited to speak and he shamefully writes and says can you pay the train ticket for me and my wife. Now you do Public Service and people are making millions of dollars, thats not what there is supposed to be. Steve theres a ban on that . A ban on that. Steve we were talking to someone about lobbying. Very much in line with that, the members themselves, because they dont spend the time on it. The policy work is contracting to start and junior on the stand and the lobbyists come in and hand then the ideas that benefit the corporations because the members arent really engaged enough in that. You talked about flying around the country raising money, whats that . I think that the costs of the campaigns continues to skyrocket. What was spend in the georgia race, 50 million. This is a profitable industry. In the military we used to call absurdities, a selflicking ice cream. Im in a relatively cheap media market and campaigns cost 3 million. Its getting out of hand. Steve that feels like arms race. Anything we can do about that . When you talk about campaign spending, you get into the territory of the constitutional objections to that. Whats your view on what we can do about that . I dont take pac and lobbyist money. Steve this all sounds great, is anything going to happen . How are you going to make it happen . Well, i do think there is a genuine belief among the new members of congress that the system has to change. That its not just a matter of we have to have structural reform. At the same time, congress itself has like an 8 approval rating. Thats lower than cockroaches and colonoscopies and genghis khan. We talk about the lack of bipartisanship in d. C. , i would submit there is a strong bipartisan consensus around continuing the status quo because the status quo actually benefits the people in this town. Steve the term limits has to be legislation. Interesting to check how many different term limits bills have been introduced and who supported them on paper. I feel People Campaign on term limits and dont do anything to get it across the finish line, i think its going to require president ial engagement on the issue. I think President Trump was at the strongest when he gave the gettysburg speech and talked about draining the swamp and laid out some of the things ro and i talked about. If we can get engagement from the white house, we have a chance to force the debate. This is not ideological, when you are for Bernie Sanders or donald trump, people are frustrated. One of the things that surprises me is how much senior people in congress think they are respected and liked. You have been outside . People dont like us. They want change. And i think thats what being a freshman member of congress, its not all the pomp and circumstance, we got a response. I love the energy, and dont get jaded. Keep fighting and supports because i know that you are completely right when you say thats what people want to see. Ro said people dont like me. [ laughter ] its great to see you, thank you very much. Thank you. Steve my thanks to the congressmen. We wish them well and check in from time to time to see how its going. Stay with us. More from the swamp watch series and exclusive interview with jack abramoff. Coming up next, how they are controlling the laws of this country . Wait until you see what theyre up to. Dont miss it. On struts, brakes, shocks. Does he turn everything to gold . Not everything. At midas were always a touch better. Book an appointment at midas. Com hey grandpa. Hey, kid. Really good to see you. You too. You tell grandma you were going fishing again . Maybe. vo the best things in life keep going. Thats why i got a subaru, too. Introducing the allnew crosstrek. Love is out there. Find it in a subaru crosstrek. With the pole, and i had to make a claim and all that . Is that whole thing still draggin on . No, i took some pics with the app and filed a claim, but, you know how they send you money to cover repairs and they took forever to pay you, right . No, i got paid right away, but, at the very end of it all, my agent wouldnt even call you back, right . No, she called to see if i was happy, but, if i wasnt happy with my claim experience, for any reason. Theyd give me my money back, no questions asked. Can you believe that . No. The claim satisfaction guarantee, only from allstate. Switching to allstate is worth it. Im in the kitchen. I need my blood sugar to stay in control. I need to shave my a1c im always on call. An insulin that fits my schedule is key. Tresiba® ready announcer tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. Dont use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. Dont share needles or insulin pens. Dont reuse needles. 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Senior fellow at new america and business of america is lobbying. I had the chance to talk to him about whats really going on in congress. Take a look. Thank you so much, lee. For doing this. I love the work that youre doing in lobbying. I love your book and the title of your book, the business of america is lobbying. What do you mean by that . What lies behind that . Well, the business of america is spending incredible sums of money on trying to influence Public Policy in washington. Lobbying in washington is in terms of reported lobbying, 3. 2 billion industry, you really want to double that. And most of that money is spend by businesses, by large corporations primarily trying to shape Public Policy. Shape what policy does in washington. Steve why do you think that is america what particularly bad happens here . There is much more lobbying in the u. S. Than there is in most other countries. The eu is catching up with us rapidly. There is something about the american system of government. There is a lot of opportunities to participate. Steve just because the lobbying goes on, what evidence have you got that it changes outcomes . Well, so lets start with that. Why do they listen in the first place . Well, they listen because lobbyists have expertise and knowledge about the subjects on which theyre lobbying on, that they make compelling Public Policy argument, arguments grounded in research and analysis, and on the staffer end, the staffers are taking the meetings, not the members themselves, lot of staffers on the hill are quite young, quite inexperienced, working incredibly hard and the lobbyists are helping them. Theyre helping them to come up with ideas for public policies, for legislation that their boss might want to introduce. Theyre helping to understand complicated issues and in the process of helping them, theyre shaping their perspective. If you hear steve the companies are shaping the policy, theyre not just commenting on it. Theyre theyre giving them. This happens over and over again. That the lobbyists hand staffers, when i was a staffer on the hill, the lobbyists would say heres the legislative language we would like, weve already drafted it for you. Steve they draft the laws . They draft the laws, yeah. Steve they wrote the laws . They supply the drafts and then the steve then what happens, people would be amazed to hear that, then what happens . Then sometime the staffers just take that and they enter it into often they happened it over into the legislative counsel that helps offices draft bills, and they enter it as a bill. They file it, and then sometimes it becomes a law. Steve what about the rules around lobbying . Are they tight enough . Are they tight enough . Well, one of the things they think you also ought to enact Public Financing of elections so lobbyists play a role in fundraising and raising money for candidates and that creates a certain amount of reciprocity and limits what members of congress. The lobbyists are raising money for the campaign as well as spending money to lobby them . Yes. So theres a link there that helps, if youre a corporate lobbyist, you have money to spend, corporations have pacs and increasingly super pacs can shape elections, so you want to Public Financing of elections would make steve again, a lot of people would make interesting, a lot of people would recoil on the conservative side. People make the argument about how bad this swampy behavior is. When you Say Something like Public Financing for elections, that would be a step they would recoil from. Thats an expansion of government. Well, were going to have people running for office no matter what. So do we want them to be dependent on a very narrow number of lobbyists and very wealthy people and corporations or do we want them to be dependent on the public. Steve its an interesting argument. What do we want . Who do we want our politicians to be accountable to . Donors or the public . If you want them accountable to the public, Public Financing of elections. Steve general attitude of this is trying to clamp down on it with rules and regulation and monitoring and so on, you should try, the real answer is to create a level Playing Field so there is not disproportion at access to corporations. Yes. Steve thats a strong point of view. I dont know if everyone would agree, i appreciate you talking us through that, thank you, lee. Thank you, steve. Steve coming up next, americas most notorious lobbyist jake abramov is here to tell us what really needs to be done drain the swamp . Dont go away. You know, you missed a bunch of great guys today . Everywhere you went. Where . 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It is so great to have you join us, as i said, you know what this is about. Just to remind our viewers briefly, you went to jail for some of the things we talk about when we discuss draining the swamp. Justice with judge jeanine you, there are 20 or so others, and including members of congress and aides and administration officials. Can you tell us briefly what exactly it was that got you and those others convicted before we go into how we might deal with some of these problems . Yeah, well, it was a variety of things, but i think in general, what it was is that there are bizarre lines in the sand between whats illegal and legal in washington, and people mistake sometimes as i did, unfortunately, between legal and illegal and right and wrong, and unfortunately, most of stuff that all of us did was legal, it wasnt actually what any of us had trouble with, and that stuff is abhorrent and unfortunately has been absolutely terrible for the country. What we did do, i think, among our group, unfortunately and others do it too, we were the ones focused on it at that point, certainly, we went over the lines, the bizarre lines that arent anywhere where they should be. Steve what exactly was it . Well, giving basically providing a series of goods and gratuities and the rest to Public Servants as they did to bidding clients and clients of other people as well as being engaged in practices that were rough politically in terms of that kind of thing. I think that is where that particular aspect of the line that was drawn that we went over and thats why we were punished. Steve i think you were hinting at there, what you and others were doing, including gifts and money given to politicians and aides and circles around the system. This goes on, i think im right in saying, today, it hasnt stopped with your conviction and jail time, and its what we would describe i think, im just reading the materials about your case. Its kind of like legalized corruption, isnt it . Legalized bribery is what it is. Any time you give a Public Servant something of value in the effort to do something of value to you, that is bribery in standards, it is not bribery inside the walls that govern washington, d. C. But thats the problem. Steve and thats still true to today . Yes, it is, absolutely right. Steve this is the truly shocking thing, isnt it . Because youre there as the poster child of our corrupt system and done a great Public Service since then in speaking out against it but its still going odespite that. I wanted to pick up on a couple of things i found interesting because it speaks to the point that nothing has changed. Some of the characters involved in your case, theyre still big figures in d. C. Today. I was interested in roy blunt, the senator from missouri, his aide was one of the people that went to jail. Hes chairing President Trumps inauguration committee. What do you have to say about that . That some of the people involved in your case are thriving and prospering today in the swamp . First of all, there were 2,000 open investigations in my case, it would be almost impossible that somebody in d. C. Wasnt involved. Investigation which i cooperated in by the way was so wide ranging and so farreaching. Roy blunt wasnt involved in the corrupt activities that we were involved with. One of the his staffers was and paid the price for that. It would be almost impossible to remove everybody that had anything to do with the wide ranging investigation that took place about a decade ago, and think they couldnt still be here. The issue isnt the people, steve, its the system. The issue is the laws. We need a system where basically if you give a Public Servant anything of value, youve committed bribery. Until we get to that, were never going to be able to solve this problem. Steve so thats the specific change you think would make the most difference . Specifically what we need do is anyone who is lobbying, and this group by the way has to be defined better. The truth is even i if i looked at the strict definition wasnt a lobbyist. Theres so many loopholes in the law that define who a lobbyist is, that almost nobody is an actual lobbyist. We need to rope together everybody who is lobbying for pay, and that group and clients should not be permitted to give anything of value, including and particularly campaign contributions, to public ser servants to people running or Holding Public office. If we add, that that would be a huge change. Steve i appreciate you laying that out so quickly. I would love to keep following up on this, our viewers are focused on the drain the swamp agenda and making sure President Trumps promise to deliver it is something that happens, and i think the more specific we can get, as you have today, the better chance we have to make it happen. Jack, thank you for joining us, and hope to have you again. Well keep on the topic, thank you so much. Thank you. Steve we try to figure out why the rich never seem to go to jail . Thats next. And later well bring your thoughts on our swamp watch series. I take pictures of sunr but with my back pain i couldnt sleep and get up in time. Then i found aleve pm. Aleve pm is the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. Im back. Aleve pm for a better am. Will people know it means theyll get the lowest price guaranteed on our rooms by booking direct on choicehotels. Com . Hey badda book. Badda boom mr. Badda book. Badda boom book now at choicehotels. Com [notification tone] i love your vest. Your crocheted purses have wonderful eyes. In the modern world, an app can help you find your Perfect Match. And with esurance, coverage counselor® can help you find great coverage thats a Perfect Match too. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. Steve welcome back to the next revolution, drain the swamp special. Another swamp watch investigation that got a huge response from you was when we talked White Collar Crime and why the rich never seem to go to jail. Take a look. Why do drug dealers go to prisin on while white collar criminals get off with a fine and a slap on the wrist . Why wasnt a senior Bank Official prosecuted for role in the banking crash. Because of a corrupt department of justice has effectively decriminalized White Collar Crime. Its the subject of tonights swamp watch. The 2008 financial crash was the biggest Economic Disaster in u. S. History causing millions of pain for working americans not to mention billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts for the big banks. Despite that and with new wall street scandals exposed all the time, most recently at wells faring oechl criminal prosecutions for financial fraud have been falling ever since the Clinton Administration and especially fast under president obama. In the 80s and0s during the Savings Loans crisis, prosecutors convicted nearly 900 people including the chief executives of several banks who went to jail. The enron scandal in 2001 led to both being convicted. As Rudy Giuliani himself a former top u. S. Attorney once said, the rules apply to mob big shots like fat tony salano and big shots at Goldman Sachs, too. They certainly should but dont anymore. What happened . Eric holder happened. In 1999 he wrote whats become known as the holder memo. He was the Deputy Attorney general and issued a memorandum to u. S. Attorneys informing them when deciding whether to charge a corporation with a crime they can, quote, take into account the possibly substantial consequences to a corporations officers directors, employees and shareholders. One rule for Big Corporations where prosecution would have big consequences, and another for Small Businesses who have to face the full force of the law because the consequences of their crimes are smaller. The holder memo established a new elitist doctrine. The bigger the crime, the less likely the time. Holder admitted as much when he was president obamas attorney general in 2013. I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. Steve after the outcry that followed, he tried to walk the swampy statement back by saying. Let me be very, very, very clear, banks are not too big to jail. Steve well, let me be very, very, very clear, mr. Holder, you can see what the hell you like, you are condemned by your own actions. In 2012 hsbc admitted to laundering money for murderous mexican drug cartels, financing terrorist groups and helping iran and north korea evade u. S. Sanctions. Remember, the bank admitted these crimes. Whats oft punishment . Ceo Stewart Gulliver agreed to say he was sorry. In fact, he was profoundly sorry. The bank paid a fine that amount to round half profits for three months. Not only is gulliver still ceo but hsbc increased his salary to 12 million. Goldman sachs admitted to defrauding investors causing them to lose billions of dollars. Did any goldman banksters go to jail . Nope. They paid a fine and went right back to work. This is what the holder memo led to. Instead of pressing criminal charges, prosecutors negotiate deferred agreement. Basically the Company Acknowledges wrongdoing, paid the fine and pledges to improve corporate culture. Nobody is punished for the crime. I could cite case after case of the deferred prosecution agreements between 2002 and 2016 the department of justice entered into more than 400 of them. Executives in large corporations now know in america whatever crimes they commit, the worst thats going to happen is a fine, a fine they dont personally pay. As one retiring sec attorney put it for the powerful elite, the fines are at most a toll booth on the bankster turnpike. Now as the author of a new book on the topic argues, this is a shocking corruption of our Justice System and at the heart of it is insular club of elite lawyers who make their way multiple times through the revolving door between the Justice Department and elite law firms. In 2010, when the senate recommended criminal prosecution for Goldman Sachs ceo Lloyd Blankfein, he hired one of the nations top white collar Defense Attorneys reid weingarten, conveniently friends with eric holder and kids go school with lanny breuer. Lanny breuer head of the d. O. J. Criminal division. Holder and brewer worked for years at the elite Washington Law Firm where they represented many of the banks responsible for the financial crisis including bank of america, citigroup and jpmorgan chase. Holder and breuer joined the Obama Administrations Justice Department making sure no one including Lloyd Blankfein was prosecuted for the financial crash. Now theyre out of government and back at covington and berling, representing Big Corporations, did they stop representing Big Corporation says in covington and berlings millions in political donations just add to the stench of corruption attached to the swampy firm. Lawyers are supposed to represent justice, in todays america, its the exact opposite. Too many of them represent the perversion of justice. Coming up, tweets and facebook posts on swamp watch, and well reveal what you, our viewers, want to see on upcoming shows. Allergies with nasal congestion . Find fast relief behind the counter with claritind. Strut past that aisle for the steroid free allergy relief that starts working in as little as 30 minutes. And contains the best oral decongestant. Live claritin clear with claritind. I expect a lifetime guarantee. 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Does your bed do that . The new 360 smart bed is part of our biggest sale of the year where all beds are on sale. And right now save 50 on the labor Day Limited Edition bed, plus 36 month financing. Ends monday booking a flight doesnt have to be expensive. Just go to priceline. Its the best place to book a flight a few days before my trip and still save up to 40 . Just tap and go. And while im gone i can even check on my baby with this doggie cam. Oh jack, youre such a good boy. No, jack, what are you doing . Bad dog and if you need to get back home, like right now, priceline has you covered. If you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis,. Isnt it time to let the real you shine through . Maybe its time for Otezla Apremilast . Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months,. With reduced redness,. Thickness, and scaliness of plaques. And the otezla prescribing information has. No requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre 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 youre pregnant or planning to be. Ask your dermatologist about otezla today. Otezla. Show more of you. Steve nothing seems to fire you up like swamp watch. On white collared crime fran said and response to our segment on hospitals, linda love says many of you had great suggestions for upcoming swamp watch topics. Just found your show, i love it, please look into tax loopholes in pension plans, and kathy sent in can you look at aarp. They are lobbyist groups, great suggestions and thank you for your great responses, that is it for us tonight, i am steve hilton, join us again next week when the next revolution will be televised. I am chris wallace. North korea conducts its most powerful nuclear test so far. We will have the latest and speak with a member of the National Security council. And President Trump sees firsthand the devastation from hurricane harvey. We are talking about they say two years, three years i think. Because this is texas it will be over in six months i have a feeling. We will get the latest and how texans are responding and rebuilding from the governor of that state greg abbott. Then, when continues to keep thousands from their homes as victims of harvey wait