thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. that it for this special fair balanced and unafraid. happy saint patrick's day. "the story" with sandra smith starts right now. >> sandra: happy saint patrick's day to you, bret. thank you. we pick up the story from here. >> shame on the federal government. shame on the trump administration. shame on them in terms of bringing retaliatory vindictive prosecution. >> sandra: vindictive prosecution. that is what the illegal immigrant acquitted in the murder of kate steinle claims he is a victim of. good evening. i'm sandra smith in for martha maccallum. last november jose garcia zarate who had been deported five times from the u.s. was found not guilty by a california jury in the 2015 shooting death of steinle on that san francisco pier. but one day liter attorney general jeff sessions filed federal charges against him.

and now he's crying fowl. claiminfoul.claiming in court ds the government is trying to make an example of him pinning some of the blame on president trump's tweets. in moment exclusive interview with zarate's attorney belly. jonathan hunt is live in our west coast newsroom with the story. >> good morning, sandra. jose garcia zat says prosecutor trying to found not guilty on murder charges on state trial. comments by president trump have played a part in what they called as you just heard a vindictive prosecution. the court motion says the original murder charge against zat i zarate against kae steinle was highly publicized and quote almost immediately after the death of kate steinle then presidential candidate donald trump began to use

mr. jose garcia zat the symbol and need for the wall between the united states and mexico. the motion called attention to a post vert tweet from mr. trump that said, quote: a disgraceful verdict in the kate steinle case. no wonder the people of our country are so angry with illegal immigration. now, 32-year-old ms. steinle was shot and killed on july 1st, 2015 on a popular san francisco pier zarate claimed he had just found the gun that was used and it fired accidentally when he picked it up. he was found not guilty of murder in the state trial but guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm. and immediately after the verdict, the federal gun charges were filed, a move that his attorneys say is simply designed to send a message to undocumented immigrants that, quote: their successful exercise of due process rights will not be respected and will result in the heavy hammer of a

federal prosecution. sandra, we asked the department of justice for reaction in an email reply late this afternoon. a spokesman wrote simply doj declines comment. sandra? >> sandra: jonathan hunt, thank you. here now exclusively, one of the attorneys representing jose garcia zarate maria belli. you want these federal charges dropped against your client. why? >> thank you for having me, sandra. yes, that's correct. and in this motion what we're asking for is discovery. essentially discovery of documents that will show how the prosecution really began and also of collusion between the federal and the state governments. >> sandra: what evidence do you have of that? >> so evidence of the vindictive prosecution what we do have is statements, first of all, have the department of justice spokesperson and the attorney general of the united states immediately after the verdict that

indicated that after the verdict is when the federal government began to look at seeking potential charges against our client. we also have the timing of the ultimate indictment which happened three court dates after the verdict. >> sandra: the timing of the verdict is your evidence? >> the timing and also the vitriol, the rhetoric that was used by the administration and by other members of the department of justice. >> sandra: let's be clear on what these two charges are felon in possession of a firearm. >> sure. >> sandra: alien illegal and unlawfully in the united states in possession of a firearm. there is overwhelming evidence to support both of those charges. >> so, regarding that, that's not really a consideration when considering whether or not the charge is vindictive. >> sandra: those are the charges that you are asking to be dismissed. >> absolutely, that's correct. >> sandra: because of political motivation. do you somehow have prove

that politics play a bigger part when prosecutors were deciding to come forth with charges against your client? >> so not necessarily political motivation but a vindictive motivation. what that really means is that our client is actually being punished for exercising his right to go to trial. that's what -- the concept of vindictive prosecution is that a person should not be punished for doing something that he has a right to do. so if, for example. >> sandra: he is being punished for those two charges and federal prosecutors have the right to prosecute this man to the fullest extent of the law. >> so, that's correct unless that prosecution is vindictively motivated. the supreme court of the united states has, you know, created this -- not created this policy but has spoken to that as well. so it's not just whether or not the prosecution has a right to pursue charges. of course the federal government has the right to pursue charges against a

person. however,. >> sandra: the vindictive prosecution and the reasoning behind the charges, of course to your point would be correct if there were not overwhelming evidence of these charges that prosecution has brought forward. >> that's not true. so, the -- so even if there is evidence to support these charges, which we are not saying that there is. even if there was evidence to support those charges, the fact that they are brought forth, because our client successfully exercised or well he successfully exercised his right. he got this acquittal in the murder charges. he got the acquittal of the assault charges and the anger of the administration. the anger of the department of justice over his being successful in that regard in that state case, that is what brought on these charges. and i would like to point out to you that he was convicted of being a felon in possession of firearm in state court. and the department of justice does have a policy to not pursue prosecutions generally that were alread

already -- >> sandra: understanding you want these charges to be dropped if not dropped you want them combined. you want to see all the prosecution shared between state and federal authorities. you that turned over to you; is that correct? >> that's correct. >> sandra: it's unbelievable case and obviously have you seen the national outrage over the verdict in that case. we will see where this goes. thank you for coming on the program tonight. >> thank you so much for having me. >> sandra: well here now is dastled wolfdavid wolfe. dreamer and immigration rights attorney. david, i want you to respond to what you just heard these attorneys talking about the political motivation of these charges. >> think about this for a second. this is a guy convicted of seven felonies, deported five times. came back after being deported that fifth time to gun down kate steinle in cold blood. he was prosecuted by a poor

prosecution team in state court. he was acquitted of everything except the gun charge and jeff sessions followed up like he said he would do all the way back from the campaign days with a federal prosecution that is just -- not just based on the law but on the facts. what this -- what this defense team wants is for mr. zarate to be released from jail, charges dismissed, deported, come back to san francisco where they will roll out the red carpet and then be free to kill somebody else. >> sandra: retaliation from the federal government is there any truth to that legally? >> no. i mean, yeah, the federal government, president trump reflected the attitudes and beliefs and opinions of tens of millions of americans. this was an absolute outrage that this young woman got gunned down. but there is nothing to that whatsoever. the prosecution is well-founded factually and based on the law. >> sandra: okay. >> there is no vindictiveness whatsoever. they want to get this guy

behind garcia. >> sandra: jose your thoughts. >> i think it's ridiculous that the top law enforcement agency is setting prosecutorial policies based on late night tweets by the commander-in-chief. whether or not this prosecution is double jeopardy, it's a double waste of taxpayer funds. after mr. garcia serves his state sentence he is going to be deported and the trump administration is not going to let him back into the country. trump simply wants this case in the news because is he using this case to tar the broader immigrant population. do you want to know what president trump said when the verdict came out on mr. garcia? he didn't send his condolences to kate steinle's family. he said three words. build the wall. and using this tragic death to push an anti-immigrant animus fueled agenda is beneath the office of the president. >> sandra: the prosecution is asking that these two charges be brought against this man felon in possession of a firearm and alien illegally and unlawfully in the u.s. in possession of a firearm. >> they would have been brought no matter what happened in the state case. the idea that trump is just going after him because they have this vindictive philosophy. this man, by the way, this

gentleman i'm debating is a dreamer so to speak. he seems to me to be the dreamer's nightmare. the dreamers should be distancing themselves from a guy who seven time felon, who comes back into the united states after being deported five times. to associate yourself with a guy like zarate is completely out of control and the wrong thing for you are guys to do to make progress in your path towards getting that dreamer status. this guy zarate will be behind bars in federal prison for many years to come and if he does get deported and does come back, then the penalties will be increased substantially. this is something promised way back from when. >> sandra: zarate was in the middle of trying to return -- he was in the middle of getting deported the sixth time before the death of kate steinle. the bigger question is are they going to be able to somehow prove that politics played a bigger part in the minds of the prosecution when bringing on these charges in the law itself? >> you know, when it comes to immigration, politics is

an integral part of how this administration is implementing its immigration policies. this prosecution represents yet another attack on sanctuary jurisdiction. you know what i want to know is what happened to republicans being the party of small government? david, you went to law school. you know under the 10th amendment local jurisdictions are allowed to you enact these policies where local police officers and sheriffs are able to police their communities not bureaucrats in washington, d.c. >> same people on the left. the same people on the left that are decrying this prosecution were jumping for joy when the feds went after the cops who beat rodney king, after they were acquitted in state court. this is entirely selective. this is entirely political on the left. and it's absolute garbage. he will be convicted and sentenced to a substantial prisoner term. >> sandra: look, if you are kate steinle's family or this happened to a loved one in your family you want this man prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. period. thank you both for coming on tonight. >> thank you. >> sandra: shocking batch of

text messages reveal bias in the fbi as embattled fbi agent peter strzok texted his lover bragging about his personal relationship with the federal judge who was once overseeing the michael flynn case. tammy bruce and adrienne elrod are here on that next. plus, the liberal organization slamming jr. rotc programs as quote war machines that promote violence in schools. but those parkland victims you see on your screen were members of the jrotc and their training saved lives that day. their story and debate a alive next. next. ♪ for my constipation,

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>> sandra: breaking tonight. any moment now the justice department is expected to

announce whether attorney general jeff sessions will fire fbi deputy director andrew mccabe or let him retire. the second in command at the agency is accused of leaking intelligence to the media and misleading investigators in the hillary clinton investigation. this as fox news obtained new text messages between anti-trump fbi agent peter strzok and his lover lisa page discussing whether meeting a fisa judge over cocktails or a dinner date would constitute a conflict. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge is working along for us. she is live in washington tonight with the breaking story. hey, catherine. >> thanks, sandra. late 2017 after the case close and russia case text messages peter strzok and fbi larry lisa page talked about exploiting strzok's relationship with a federal judge who would later handle the investigation of mike flynn. texting on work phones the

two fbi lovers suggest setting up work party with rudolph who also sits on the secret fisa surveillance court. on july 25th, 2016, page writes: rudy is on the fisc: did you know that. >> i did. i need to get together with him. page continues i can't imagine either one of you could talk about anything in detail meaningful enough to warrant recusal. really? rudy. i'm in charge of espionage for the fbi any espionage fisa warrants comes before him, what should he do, given his friend oversees them? after texting about unrelated issue, strzok rites is he super thoughtful and rigorous, referring to con treras

treras. >> not clear whether the cocktail party ever happened offer whether the cocktail party was a joke. mike flynn pleaded guilty lying to the fbi in december. less than one week later he was removed from the case without explanation. congressional investigators question whether there is a connection to strzok who also conducted flynn's fbi interview. the justice department late today had no comment for fox news on the texts but emphasized they have been fully transparent with congress. sandra? >> sandra: interesting stuff. catherine herridge, thank you for that. >> you are welcome. >> sandra: here now is tammy bruce and adrienne elrod strategic communications director for hillary clinton 2016 presidential campaign. thanks to both of you for being here. >> thanks for having us. >> sandra: we will get to those text messages between the lovers in just a moment. first, andrew mccabe because this decision could come down at any moment. a decision is in the hands of attorney general jeff sessions. will andrew mccabe be fired

and lose his pension, tammy? >> well, he certainly should be fired primarily because the fbi says he should be fired. this is not jeff sessions deciding he needs to do something fun for the weekend. he is looking at the recommendation which is highly unusual. this is from the inspector general's report. they looked at what he was doing. and the issue was not only did he leak something to a network, but he then lied to the inspector general about it. so you are looking at a man who prosecutes people for lying to the fbi. he has to be a witness in other cases when things come up. how can you do that when you, yourself, are lying to your own agency? so that is the remarkable event. and so, of course, they are going to, look and this is not just the inspector general. from a collection of individuals at the fbi that he interviewed recommended that. so you are looking at a variety of people who have said yes he needs to go. there is no reason for jeff sessions for the attorney general to disagree with that. plus, it needs to send a

message to everyone in the fbi who they do want to send a message that we're not all corrupt and people will have repercussions. this is an important message reaffirming that. >> sandra: if he did. not only if s. this about the leaks, but if he did compromise the hillary clinton investigation, interesting point by jonathan turley constitutional law professor last night with martha said isn't it strange that he is concerned about losing his pension and not concerned about going to jail? >> yeah, look, i mean, of course, you know, to tammy's point. this is the office of professional conduct to the fbi. this is a nonpartisan, completely separate from any political appointee operation from the fbi. so, if they are recommending that he be fired, then, you know, i think you have to go with that recommendation, right? we will see what attorney general sessions does. look, you just made the point, he was, despite what some on the right will say about his, you know, terry mcauliff giving contributions to his wife during her state legislative race, he ultimately made some decisions which hurt

the investigation and not toward hillary's favor into the emails. >> sandra: bret baier had the chance to ask senator lindsey graham himself should mcmccabe be fired and here was his answer. >> the punishment should be losing your job if he in fact did authorize fbi agents to talk to the media and lied about it. >> bret: and seeing what you have seen you think he did. >> i don't know. here is what i do know, that the fbi and the department of justice were corrupt in my view when it came to handling the email investigation of clinton. >> sandra: so apparently this decision will happen any moment, next couple minutes. next couple hours. but some time before end of day tomorrow is the expectation. >> fascinating statement though from the senator. if you lie to the fbi, you should lose your job. we would go to the jail and into the dungeon. we would never be seen again. and they are like well, you are going to lose your job. this really, have you got to base it on the average person.

>> yeah. >> if we did that, would we be arrested? this is what the american people want is law and order and a fair application of the rule of law. >> and there has got to be parody across the board on this. >> sandra: as promise weed have to discuss tems. newly revealed tems originally hidden by congress between two fbi agents carrying on affair between lisa page and peter strzok apparently talking about this personal relationship that they had with the judge or i should say that peter strzok had with the judge who presided over the michael flynn case, adrienne. >> yeah, look, these text messages they continue to have a life on their own, right? especially many of them are cherry picked by the intelligence committee and released. so we don't always know the full story, but it's very unfortunate that theresa labors text messages between these two individuals are taking away from the real point of the investigation here is that we have got to figure out what happened in the collusion. >> we don't know if that cocktail party happened. dinner party. that was a discussion which one was it going to be,

right? >> right. >> sandra: clearly a conversation about how to leverage that relationship. >> correct, tammy. >> this was effectively conspiring to find a way to collude with their friend, the judge. and what was extremely troubling was in their tone the presumption that if they could find a way to make it look okay and to have cover that the judge would go along with it that needs to be addressed. and if that dinner did occur, that needs to be investigated. because then that could inform the degree of if there was accurately, if criminf there was an effort to corrupt the system, if a judge played a role in that all of those questions have to be answered plus the fact that those texts were given to congress at first completely redacted by someone deep inside the doj, which tells us that the effort to cover up was deep inside the entity itself. >> sandra: they definitely didn't want to have a one-on-one. they wanted to have some sort of. suspicion. >> exactly mueller did remove those two agents once

this bias was revealed. >> sandra: unbelievable stuff. that was breaking today. what a friday it's been. what a week it's been, ladies. >> happy saint patrick's day. >> sandra: happy saint patrick's day to you as well. enjoy. calling out media hypocrisy for calling out trump's new top economic advisor because he comes from tv. what about the more than two dozen reporters obama hired? plus three junior rotc members died during the parkland shooting. one hailed a hero for holding the door so other students could run and escape. one liberal activist groups says the military program is just a breeding ground for violence and war. the story and the debate after the break. >> he always so proud he was a member of jrotc, you know. the day he got shot, he got shot and he died, he wore uniform.

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and get jr. rotc and nra out of our schools. that tweet setting off a firestorm of criticism. you might remember the three of the parkland victims elena petty, peter weijia jianwang andmartin duqui. wang was shot helping other student. not backing down saying quote the student killed in parkland were victims of unnecessary violence highlighting the fact that jrotc does not belong in our schools is not an attempt to malign any memory but rather to rise up against the piece of the problem. here now jeremy hunt u.s. army officer and opinion writer. wendy osefo is a professor and political commentator. thanks to both of you for being here tonight. >> thank you. >> sandra: jeremy, i wonder how hearing all of that makes you feel. >> yeah, you know, it is just so disheartening to hear the code pink is on a campaign to end high school

jrotc. >jrotc. i was in the program four years. it teaches leadership, selflessness, integrity. these are values that our nation desperately needs. what better embodiment of those values than those that gave their lives trying to help their friends. peter wang was buried in his rotc jr. we should be taking this moment to highlight the incredible things, incredible contributions the jrotc makes in our community especially under privileged communities and communities of people of color. i cannot talk enough about the incredible values that i learned in that program. to hear code pink trying to come against j rotc for their own agenda is hard to hear. >> sandra: pointing to jrotc is part of the problem that's a problem for many americans. >> i can see why that is again because jrotc has equipped people with leadership skills. it would be intellectually

dishonest to see how it could militarize kids. we see between 2010 and 2016 nra donated $126,000 to schools and to the jrotc especially in broward county. what they are not talking about is nikolas cruz, the person who killed these victims was actually a member of the jrotc. >> sandra: what's your point? >> the point is that the shooter was a member of the jrotc. >> sandra: that makes jrotc bad and the cause of the problem. >> he is a killer and the fact you cannot digest the good things and bad things is problematic to be intellectually dishonest. >> sandra: jeremy? >> it's clear that wendy has bought into the falsehoods that code pink is selling. >> i haven't bought into anything. >> trying to sell false narrative that they are training next mass murderer. they are training leaders. in our culture today that is so self-centered as the me generation as we are called,

here you have a jr. rotc program that teaches values and selflessness to give to others. to come against that program because of this one case, i think that's where the intellectually dishonesty. >> sandra: it teaches leadership. why are not not talking about celebrating peter wang. >> we are. >> sandra: he wanted to go to west point and west point issued his family a ceremonial letter of acceptance. this is a kid we should be honoring tonight who held the door open so other student could run and flee. >> you are trying to twist my words to say we are not honoring him but we are. for anyone to sit here and say we cannot look at the good things that a company does or organization does or a program does as well as the bad things, it's intellectually -- >> sandra: you are making a generalization of the rotc. >> the shooter mark manship program. what are you talking about? >> around a falsehood. >> a falsehood that the shooter was a member of the j rotc for mark manship his

ability to shoot target the way he did was because of them? no, sir. >> sandra: one at a time because we can't hear you are. >> falsehood. >> it's so unfortunate that here we are on the air and instead of honoring those who gave their life for their classmates where they're talking about how the whole program should be. let's make it very clear. code pink is advocating not the nra donations or to end just those -- >> -- that is what they are advocating. >> they want to end the entire jrtc program. >> that is not true. that is false. >> if you look at the article, that is exactly what they're trying to push. contact your congressman. on their website they are saying write your congressman and end jrotc. honestly that's so unfortunate. >> that's a false narrative. >> sandra: we'll let the folks at home. >> i'm sorry you bought it. >> sandra: thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> sandra: first woman to publicly speak out about sexual abuse by u.s.a. gymnastic nassar has a new

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>> it's a presidency that was essentially born on reality tv and now the lines between tv and reality may be blurring even further. the president has chosen a cable news personality to be his top economic advisor. >> sandra: cnn's anderson cooper one of many in the media attacking trump for choosing larry kudlow do serve as new economic advisor claiming he hires too many people from tv. one critic even referring to it as the trump tv pipeline. but what they are not reporting is that president obama did the exact same thing, hiring dozens of former reporters to serve in

his administration. joining me now joe concha, a media reporter at the hill. richard fowler nationally syndicated radio host and fox news contributor. joe, you point out very interesting and needed facts today. >> yes, i wrote this in a column for the hill today and, look 30 media members went on to work for the obama administration. this isn't what selective outrage looks like it's what it smells like. many went on to communication shops. i totally get that ben rhodes, for instance, you may remember a "new york times" headline that said the aspiring novellest who became obama's foreign policy grew ryu from speech write tort guy who was the architect to the iran deal, pretty big deal. samantha power same deal she worked for u.s. world report. "boston globe" "time" magazine columnist as recently as 2007. she goes onto the be the u.s. ambassador to the united nations. so, this is something that was very common within the obama administration. and many people went on to very important jobs within it, so when we hear about

people getting angry about donald trump taking media members to work in his administration there is this thing called precedent that you better look at and you better report. i have not seen that in any reporting so far. >> sandra: why, richard, all the outrage over president trump doing what it appears president obama did as well? >> well, i think the reasonable why there is outrage, mind you, i don't agree with the outrage. i think the reasonable why there is outrage because we know this president spends a lot of time watching cable news and tweeting about cable news and so when he hires people from cable news, people are a little bit shocked by it. i'm not one of those individuals. but i think the larger problem that we have here, sandra, is this idea that this white house seems to be sort of recasting itself. i like to call it donald trump season two. >> sandra: does that surprise you? this is a businessman who has a history of firing people and hiring new people. >> yeah. it does surprise me because he is no longer a businessman. enough to he is the leader of the free world. and to be the leader of the free world it takes consistency and it takes

patience. >> sandra: and it takes having the right people around you which is why he is saying what he is doing, right, joe? >> i agree. go ahead, joe. >> all right. thanks. >> go ahead, joe. >> i think the narrative. >> sandra: so civil. >> he has fired a lot of people. the turnover has been extraordinarily high and it can be unsettling people looking at home. i think the narrative that we are missing here is that most of the positions where people have left, there has been an upgrade. would you rather have your starting five be steve bannon and reince priebus as your chief of staff or showers who i havseanspicer or h sanders. rex tillerson. pompeo is probably a upgrade to many people's eyes as well and go down the list it seems whenever most critical people have been fired the people that have been brought in to replace them has been an upgrade so, yeah, the president is a novice politician. maybe he chose wrong in his first year in certain positions. >> sandra: how about that richard? >> rewarding people from the campaign and it seems like we have some upgrades here.

>> joe, i mean, i guess that's spin. but i disagree with you fundamentally -- i disagree with you wholeheartedly. i disagree with you though. think about it. is he a four communications directors and i mean i don't think scaramucci is an upgrade. and then had you hope hicks who left now he doesn't have a communications director. and the white house's response to that well donald trump is our communications director. it's impossible for the president of the united states to do his job and also be the communications director. once again, what have you here is not a president of the united states but somebody who is trying to run a reality show and we need him to run the free world. >> sandra: he has a lot more decisions to make. he has a couple confirmation hearings coming up in april. there is certainly a lot going on that. is fair to say. >> and he also has the north korea meeting and he needs stability and he doesn't have that right now. >> sandra: he has nominated a new secretary of state. that's for sure. all right. she was the first woman to go public with her accusations of abuse against former u.s.a. gymnastic nassar.

now rachel is looking on to take on abuse within another major organization, her powerful message, that's next. >> the attacks of sexual assault was limitless and defies description. it is a horror no little girl or woman should have to face. for all the eyes that get itchy and watery near pollen. there's flonase sensimist. it relieves all your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. ♪ ♪ there are two types of people in the world. those who fear the future...

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>> sandra: rachel became you a household name earlier this year when she stood in front of a packed court and television cameras when she spoke of the abuse she had at the hands of dr. larry nassar. the first woman to go public with her accusations and final woman to make her victim impact statement. now she is taking on the evangelical community for sweeping accusations within their own ranks under the rug trace gallagher is in our west coast newsroom with the back story. >> and it's important to understand exactly what rachel den hollander is up against. sovereign grace protestant network north america, latin america, europe and asia.

a lawsuit was filed against the organization alleging a year's long pattern of child sexual abuse from church leaders and other employees. the suit also claimed that everyone from sovereign grace pastors to president c.j. that haney were complicit in covering up the abuse by pressuring alleged victims to forgive their abusers and discourage them from going to police. sovereign grace denied the accusations and the suit was dismissed in 2014, mostly because of statute of limbizations. though a former church youth leader was convicted in a separate case. but critics and alleged victims of which there are dozens, say the organization has failed to atone for its sins and that's where rachel denhollander comes. in though she is not a member of sovereign grace she believes her church in kentucky helped restore president c.j.mahaney? his position. in the same way her voice brought down larry nassar. she is hoping to shed new light on these allegations. but she acknowledges that

getting evangelical christians to speak out against their own is a tall order. telling christianity today, quote: the extent that one is willing to speak out against their own community is the bright line test for how much they care and how much they understand. we have failed abhor rantly as christians when it comes to that test. we are very happy to use sexual assault as a convenient whipping block when it's outside our community. sovereign grace responded to that interview saying, quote, we thank god for rachel courage in confronting nassar and commend her invaluable work on behalf of other abuse victims. at the same time it is to be said she is mistaken in her accusations made against sovereign grace churches and c.j.mahaney. she claims the evidence was not heard in court and fighting to have governor grace provide answers about their handling of the allegations. back to you. >> sandra: thanks, trace. earlier this week martha sat

down with rachel. >> this has been a year for you. have you faced the demon in larry nassar and trying to turn that attention and focus on what you believe is a serious problem in the church that you loved and grew up, in right? >> yeah. the community that i loved and grew up. in i grew up as a conservative evangelical. i remain a conservative evangelical. and what is most painful about this is that the way that evangelical church handles the issue of sexual assault and domestic violence is very much in opposition to christ teaching. it's in opposition to the gospel. of my heart is to see christians leaving out their faith to be a defender of the weak and the oppressed and to extend the mercy and grace and compassion to the victims that christ would have. >> martha: so, when you read some of the accounts of these people, the kinds of situations that they are talking about is not the leadership, the people that we pointed to. they are saying that they are the enablers by not allowing, excuse me, these people to come forward.

and the baby-sitters in the group and people who took carol of each other's kids or husbands in some cases abusing children. when the individuals come forward they are told let's keep this within the group is that accurate? >> i think that's accurate. i think that's also the tip of the iceberg. do you have multiple instances where pastor's sons were the abusers. have you instances where there were serial pedophiles in the church who were the abusers. what you really see happening is the same institutional dynamics that you saw in my case at michigan state university, the same institutional dynamics you saw in the catholic church the systematic burying the of the reports of sexual assaults. counselors forgive and forget. not reporting to the police. moving people around within the organization to different church plants. not warning families who are in contact with these predators that there were sexual predators within the church. you see all of those dynamics at sovereign grace ministries the same as you see in every other organization. the difference is there has

never been accountability. >> martha: as pointed out the church says you are mistaken and this is not happening as you well know. that's their take on this what evidence do you see that the problem within this evangelical group is even bigger than any of these other institutions that have already been outed so to speak in. >> data on evangelical organizations is quite clear. look at the insurance claims filed against churches. and if you examine the reasons evangelical organizations are typically held liable in courts the number one reason over the last decade is mishandling claims of childhood sexual assaults. experts believe the problem is worse in evangelical organizations than even in the catholic church. within sovereign grace ministries you see a consistent pattern over decades of mishandling sexual assault allegations. have you pastors on record

including in police reports who acknowledge that the practice was to handle things internally. have you multiple pedophiles who were convicted where the pastors are alleged to have interfered with the police investigation. have you allegations in almost half of the sovereign grace churches across the country of this pattern. that's without any investigative reporting having even been done. so, a big question that i have is that if we had the spotlight on evangelical organizations, the way we hav --had the spotlight on the catholic church and michigan state university, if people were to dig into this what would we find if we have that much without any investigation at all. >> martha: you plan to stay on it and keep digging. you say your advocacy cost you your church. what do you mean by that and were you touched by this abuse within the church personally in any way? >> i was not within sovereign grace ministries. i actually had been a supporter of the organization, which is part of wife i find this so painful. and the reason that i began

examining the claims against sovereign grace because as a teacher i would recommend some of their materials. just as a general practice i think it's very important to consider how are recommending. and so that was the reason that i really began looking into it. it's not vindictive at all. it's out of a desire to see churches really handle this well the way that christ would. >> martha: we are going to stay on it please keep us apprized of developments in this story because it could be potential lay very big story. raacrachel thank you very much. >> thank you. right, mom? righttt. safe driving bonus checks. only from allstate. switching to allstate is worth it. [ engine revving ] [ engine revving ] when you drop a 603-horsepower v8 biturbo engine into one of mercedes-benz's finest luxury sedans,

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san san thank you for joining us on your friday evening. that's it for "the story" tonight. i will see you live monday at 9:00 a.m. on "america's newsroom" as can you every weekday and again on outnumbered at noon and by the way, monday morning when you tune in at 9:00 to see bill and i, bill and me, we will be in a new spot and look at that there it is. the brand new newsroom. bill and i are saying goodbye to studio j. our normal studio. it's going to get some work

done. construction. a brand new studio is coming. so temporarily that will be our home. check it us out there monday morning at 9:00. mark steyn is in for tucker tonight. have a great weekend, everybody, happy saint patrick's day. ♪ ♪ >> mark: good evening and welcome to tucker carlson tonight i'm mark steyn in for tucker this evening. there is new outrage in the case that sparked a fierce sanctuary city debate across the country. in december, the illegal immigrant accused of murdering kate steinle on a san francisco pier was found not guilty of murder and now jose garcia zarate is attacking the feds for pursuing new charges against him. soon after his acquittal, the federal government brought firearms charges against geaz zarate. is he now calling for those charges to be dropped, claiming that they are