former speaker nancy pelosi is threatening to dredge it up. gingrich reporters say getting information from the house ethics investigation would be at the least unethical. congresswoman pelosi says she's only talking about what's already on the record. you can decide whether it matters. cnn's jim acosta asked the candidate about it yesterday in new york. >> we turned over a million pages of material. we had a huge report. the total 83 charges were repudiated as false. the one mistake we made was a letter written by a lawyer that i didn't read carefully. >> keeping them honest. mr. gingrich isn't telling the whole story about the house investigation back then. it's complicated but in a nutshell they wanted to know if gingrich used money from tax exempt organizations to fund college courses that he taught and used, by his own admission, to further his political agenda. here's the time line, shortly after the rival filed the complaint, gingrich hired a washington lawyer who wrote two letters dates 8, 1994 and march 27, 1995 to the ethics committee. according to committee documents gingrich signed the first letter and approved the second. both contained statements that were false. it is late as october of 1996 gingrich was telling the committee they were accurate, but on january 17th of 1997 under tough questioning by special counsel james cole, speaker gingrich acknowledges the falsehood. as cole described it it was like pulling teeth. quote, it was not that he just walked in and recognized everything was inaccurate and explained it right off the bat. by then ethics committee chairman, porter goss, had already said that gingrich failed to seek and follow legal advice that would have told him he was improperly using tax exempt organizations for political aims. and the document included the admission from the speaker, quote, i, newt gingrich, admit to the statement of alleged violations dated december 21. speaker gingrich put out a statement of his own, quote, in my name and over my signature, inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable statements were given to the ethics committee, but i did not intend to mislead. the statement went on to say, i did not seek personal gain, but my actions did not reflect credibility on the house of representatives. what sounds now in his answer to jim acosta like a simple oversight was by his own admission back then a bit more. you can determine for yourself whether it matters. special counsel cole concluded that gingrich had violated tax law and lied to the committee. but the panel couldn't agree on the tax part, turned it over to irs, which later sided with gingrich. the committee set. ed and said on the guilt, which i read, a reprimand and the $300,000 bill. raw politics now. obama 2012 pollster cornell belcher, also gop strategist mary matalin and redstate.com editor in chief erick erickson. cornell, how much do you think the reemergence of these ethics violations could damage gingrich's campaign? >> you know at this point i really don't think it's going to mat that much because when you look at the republican primary of voters they're looking for someone who can be the authentic conservative and the opposition to mitt romney. they seem to be coalescing. when cain left the race all those voters seem to be coalescing around newt gingrich right now. they're looking for a conservative voice that they can all rally around. i really don't think this is going to matter so much in the primary right now. i think it will matter if he's the nominee in the general election with independent voters. but with the hard core voters i really just think they're looking for the most conservative authentic person they can vote for right now. >> erick, you agree with that? >> by and large, i do. this may come up if republicans are scared this might come up in the general election, they might wave a red flag and say we shouldn't go with him. more than a decade ago the irs dismissed the tax charge, sided with gingrich. people will focus on his record more than what happened a decade or so ago with this. >> you say he should just release the ethics records himself, if for no other reason for transparency sake. >> if he gets into the general election, the democrats are going to dog him on this and continue to badger him with it and on and on, trying to keep the media raising questions about it. the easiest thing for him to do is go make a full disclosure, be very transparent about it and say, this was ten years ago. i don't think even in the general election if he did that, voters would say, lord, this is more than ten years ago, why does it matter now? >> mary, you've known gingrich for decades. do you think he really can be the republican nominee? >> yes, i do. everyone is all crazed about these tap line polls in first four states but they're deeper than that. erick knows this and so does cornell from being on the ground. these tap lines are nothing compared to what's underneath him. he is pulling way far ahead of everybody else in the number one issue, which voters care about not just primary voters but independents and general electorate which is leading on the economy. all of this extraneous baggage has been discounted for him and will be discounted in the general because this is a message not a messenger election. and he epitomizes what is a contemporaneous message ironically, which is the era of big government is over. whatever else he did, newt is the guy connected to president clinton saying the era of big government is over. and that's what this election is going to be fought over. >> cornell, are the polls as deep as mary has seen them? >> well, you know, for one who i'm a pollster always be cautious about early polls because my guy was behind all the polls by 30 points going into the primaries. but there's a trend line. what we look for in polling is a trend line. clearly the problem for mitt romney is that the trend line for him has been stuck in the 20s now for four or five months now. and you look at all those other voters, they're not -- mitt romney is not the second choice of any of the other candidates. so it's real problematic for him. the trend lines are moving his way. the other person i would say don't count him out, which goes to mary's point on the ground. ron paul. ron paul has an energy about his supporters and an energy about what's going on right now, when you look at places like iowa. he actually has some soldiers on the ground and they're energizes and they're young. you can't overlook that. i think it's wor a couple of points. >> does nancy pelosi's attack on gingrich or threat of releasing information, does that actually help him? >> yeah, to a degree. republicans like the rally around whoever is being attacked by the democrats. to a degree the republicans react more harshly and more defensively when nancy pelosi attacks than barack obama does. there's a visceral dislike of her in the republican party that i don't even think barack obama even has with a lot of republicans. that said, the attacks that will matter against gingrich aren't going to be from pelosi. to cornell's point, they're going to be from ron paul and mitt romney. if mitt romney wants to win new hampshire he has to shut down gingrich and if ron paul wants to win iowa, he has to shut down gingrich. so the attacks are going to come fast and furious but they're going to come from the right, not from the democrats. >> mary, he's painting himself as a washington outsider. will that hold up to scrutiny? this is a guy who spent a lot of time and made an awful lot of money in washington. >> well, i'm going to go back to my basic framework, which is this is ultimately a message, not a messenger. as a messenger he proved he's lazarus, now he has to prove he's not icarus and flying too close to the sun. but picking up on what cornell said, who is -- we've all done this in iowa. it is really not organization. it is, as my old boss, george herbert walker bush said, it's big mo, whoever has the big mo going into the final days, that is momentum, it is iowa which will influence new hampshire. et cetera, et cetera. about and he has the big mo right now. take it from me, this notion of organization, we had the best organization that got beat by pat robertson, who had the big mo. if he can sustain the mo and not be icarus, he'll be pretty good to south carolina. >> can i say one thing about new hampshire? if you look at how things are getting close in new hampshire, too, the other thing if you were ron paul or newt gingrich is, and mary knows this well, is set the expectations in new hampshire right now if you're newt gingrich, so high that romney can't meet those expectations. you should be saying right now that, you know what? this is your home state, this is your backyard. you have to win new hampshire by going away by ten or more points or it doesn't count at all. if he can't meet those expectations, he doesn't have the momentum. it really gets hard when he tears down to south carolina. >> it is amazing, this is what i love about presidential races, and must be what, mary, you love about working in them and working in the world of politics is you just cannot predict. months ago who would have predicted newt gingrich when we were all reporting on all his staff defecting? >> well, those of us who have known newt for over two decades said, and i think i said it to you, anderson, you can never say never when it comes to newt. he did earn this comeback. he's the quintessential comeback kid. he scratched and clawed and won on merit. he was again going to the notion that this is a message not a messenger. and he's a fighter. so every time they put out the number of ron paul and romney and everybody putting out these things showing mitt in full battle, well, that's what they want. that's what they don't like about romney's last man standing strategy. they want a fighter who can take it to cornell's candidate because cornell is putting together a great campaign. obama will be tough, tough, tough. we need someone who can armor up. and newt can do that. that's what they like. >> mary matalin, fascinating, erick erickson and cornell belcher. thank you. let us know what you think, we're on facebook, google plus. add us to your circles, follow me on twitter. @andersoncooper, i'm tweeting tonight. it is a botched operation that let guns be smuggled back and forth across the mexican border until a border agent was killed with some of those guns. that's a question being asked by republicans about an operation involving money not guns, money laundering from mexico. we'll have a sheriff on the lines and an agent. he spend years infiltrating drug cartels. a really fascinating discussion. trying to get answers to why a prestigious school relied on questionable medical evidence when it denied admission to an honors student with hiv. first, let's check with isha. anderson, new trouble for mega church pastor eddie long. he's taking a break from his church, and his wife wants to take a break from him. this after allegations that he sexually abused several young men in his congregation. that and more when "360" continues. 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that's not what i'm focussed on. what kind of boarding school are they running that the kids there are that sexually active with all the staff members there 24 hours a day? also this fact, nothing hypothetical about it. this 13-year-old taking drugs to keep the virus in check. drugs that reduce the risk of sexual transmission by more than 95%, even if the sex is unprotected. about here's dr. kimberly manning of emory university medical center. >> this was a decision that was rooted in fear not because of public health concern because if this was truly for public health purposes, they would have sought the counsel of the appropriate medical professionals who would have then told them of the compelling data that is demonstrated those taking retroviral therapy if they do have sexual intercourse with someone hiv negative, the chances of getting hiv is minimal in those instances. >> who exactly did the school consult for medical advice on the matter? i asked about that as well. what medical evidence was your decision based on? >> we did a thorough review. we had the admissions committee and our seen your administration along with our medical staff review -- review the case. >> you had a doctor or medical professionals consulting on this? >> yes. >> and they advised you that there was a risk of having an hiv positive child in the school? >> i wasn't in those discussions, anderson, but i can tell you that the decision at the end of the day was that in balancing the risks, we had to think about those other 2,000 students in our home. >> well, we spent all afternoon trying to contact the school's medical staff, we made several phone calls but each person we spoke to sent us to the communications director and we got a voice mail. we asked the spokeswoman for the names of the medical professionals the school claims to have consulted. she sent us a statement, but it didn't address which medical professionals they consulted in making their decision. in the meantime we reached out to another expert on hiv/aids, dr. nicholas hellmann. he told us that there's essentially no risk to the rest of the student population, which is why there's no reason to exclude this individual from school. tonight the milton hershey school is standing by its decision. we finally heard back from the school which told us in a statement we understand that the risks presented by an hiv-positive individual who is on medication are low. taking all of these and other factors into consideration including the fact that we would be prohibited by law from forming the community of the young man's hiv status, we concluded that the risk was significant and rose to the level 0 a direct threat to the health and safety of others. our first obligation is to protect the students already in our care. if we knowingly admitted a student with hiv and that student ultimately had sexual relations with another student we believe we would have failed in meeting our obligation. a lawsuit filed against the milton hershey school claims that it violated the americans with disabilities act by turning this boy away simply because he's hiv positive. joining me is a disability rights attorney and children's advocate. thanks for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> based on the part of medical professionals, the school won't release the names of the medical professionals. does it strike you as odd? i mean if this lawsuit moves ahead, they're going to have to eventually disclose those medical advisers? >> absolutely anderson. they're going to have to release the names of the medical providers and tell us what facts are did they weigh because the americans with disabilities act makes it clear there has to be an individualized assessment. you can't just base your decision on gross generalizations or fear or hypotheticals. everything in this case is so very speculative. we've not heard one piece of evidence, one factual statement to suggest that this young man, this 13-year-old student poses any risk to those other students. so i'm at just a loss as to how the school was even justified the decision that they made. >> this is a great school. they help a lot of kids in need. but specifically on this, it's pretty shocking because they are saying that they're basing their argument on the risk of the student possibly engaging in sexual activity. how much weight would that kind of hypothetical carry legally? >> very legal. the reality is, yes in general, all kids, all students all adults may have sex. but is there any evidence that this young man -- and what about all the other kids? are they going to start testing them for sexually transmittable diseases, for hiv? you're talking about the remote possibility that something might happen. even considering that even if he does have sex, we know he's on medication. the chances of him transmitting aids to another student is so very small, so insignificant, that i don't believe any court is going to prevent this young man from entering that school. i agree with you. this school has a stellar track record. it educates underserved students. it takes kids from low income communities, a lot of foster care kids. his track record is amazing. when you look at this decision, it just doesn't fit with what the school has done historically in terms of educating those who have been locked out of society. >> the school keeps coming back to the term direct threat. they say it is not a violation of the americans with disabilities act because if it's a direct threat that can be an exemption. the justice department has said that people with hiv are rarely if ever a direct threat. >> absolutely. and not only that they're using this term "direct threat" broadly. they still haven't addressed what the americans with disabilities act requires them to address, the individualized circumstances. what