http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... dt.01.html

DOBBS: Well, we reported earlier to you on the guilty plea of the drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, the key government witness against former Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean. U.S Attorney Johnny Sutton is the man who lead the prosecution of those two former agents and he brought the case against Davila. Joining us tonight from Austin, Texas. Good to have you with us.

JOHNNY SUTTON, U.S. ATTORNEY: Hey Lou, thanks for having me on.

DOBBS: This guilty plea, today, is striking. It is also revelatory. What's your reaction?

SUTTON: Well, it's something we've been working towards for many years. Unfortunately we would have liked to have put Aldrete in prison several years ago when he ran his first load of dope. Unfortunately Compean and Ramos instead of doing what they were supposed to do, which is to follow the law, decided to shot them and then cover it up and destroyed evidence and, you know, basically, virtually destroyed any attempt to be able to prosecute him for that first load. I said from the beginning that I always would prosecute Aldrete, didn't have immunity for any other crimes and that as soon as we had a provable case with competent admissible evidence, we would do it and my team worked very hare along with the DEA to work up a case and today he pled guilty to all of the charges that we charged him with.

DOBBS: Any plea bargain?

SUTTON: No, he plead straight up to the indictment, plea to all counts and the sentencing hearing will be later this summer, but he plead to all the accounts as they were just in the indictment.

DOBBS: You and the judge decided to secure the fact and seal the fact that this man, while testifying against two U.S. federal law enforcement agents, was committing crimes against the United States. Why?

SUTTON: Yeah, what you're referring to is what been come to know as the "October load." Basically, during the trial, the defense attorneys wanted to confront Aldrete with that. My prosecutors -- my career prosecutors objected to that, made arguments, obviously the jury knew that Aldrete was a drug dealer, they knew he was an illegal alien, so they had all that information in front of them...

DOBBS: Whoa, Mr. Sutton, your prosecutors said that he had one load, was al low-level drug smuggler, and was in no way involved in a drug smuggling "ring."

SUTTON: Yeah, no, my prosecutors never said that. You know, that might have come up on cross-examination.

DOBBS: Yes, it did.

SUTTON: But, I guess what I'd say to you is that those are rulings that are made in court every day. There's a lot of stuff that we wanted to get in evidence that we weren't allowed to and a lot of things the defense attorneys want to talk about, they were not...

(CROSSTALK)

DOBBS: One of the things I'd like to ask you is, as a prosecutor of two U.S. federal agents, how in the world you would be comfortable sealing evidence that would, in point of fact, undermine the testimony, the credibility and the trustworthiness of your own witness and how you and your prosecutors could take the word of such a person against two sworn agents of the United States government?

SUTTON: That's a great question. I think it's important that your listeners understand the facts. And when we say "sealed," it was sealed so the criminals, the cartel and the public, wouldn't know that we were investigating Aldrete, because obviously, when we heard that he may have run a second load, we wanted to hold him accountable for that.

Now, of course, the defense attorneys knew all about it, the judge knew all about it, my prosecutors did and that is what they were arguing at trial. Some people said there's a cover-up, that we suppressed that evidence. We argue about it, the defense attorneys knew about it. They obviously wanted to bring it in, my prosecutors thought it wasn't relevant. The jury knew the guy was a dope dealer, they knew he was an illegal alien and the judge ruled in our favor and that's the central issue on the appeal. It's in front of the Appellate Courts, now, and at some point in the future we'll find out whether that was a mistake.

DOBBS: Well, as you know, Mr. Sutton, I think it was a huge mistake. And I think it was, absolutely, frankly, outside the bounds to do that to two sworn agents of the United States government. The idea that Aldrete Davila sued the United States government for his injuries, while, with your immunity, his blessing across the border, he was continuing to transport drugs while United States agents, Ramos and Compean, were under trial -- in trial for this, for these -- for a crime against this man, I mean, I just cannot get there. I cannot even imagine what went through your mind.

SUTTON: Well, let me help you and your listeners get there, because, I mean, I guess, what I was -- obviously, Aldrete's a criminal, I mean, he's a dope dealer, he's a illegal alien, he's the kind of guy I prosecute day in and day out. The problem is, just because he's a criminal, just because he commits crimes doesn't mean that prosecutors look the other way when federal agents shoot unarmed people, cover it up, destroy evidence, file false reports and lie about it.

DOBBS: Your only evidence against the man is this testimony of a drug dealer who's violating U.S. law by crossing the border, violating U.S. law repeatedly by bringing death dealing drugs into this country. I mean, my gosh, he's not exactly what I'd call a choir boy.

SUTTON: And I'm not calling him one. I mean, Lou, the hilarious part about this is that -- I'm in the business...

DOBBS: I'm waiting for something hilarious about it. SUTTON: I'm in the business of putting types like Aldrete in prison and we made a good step today, he was convicted of all accounts. Since Compean and Ramos were tried, my prosecutors have put over -- prosecuted over 10,000 defendants, 90 percent are drugs and illegal immigrants, that's what we do...

DOBBS: You and I have talked for some number of years about this. You and I, both, understand the facts of this case. But surely, surely, Mr. Sutton, you understand that the distinction here is you went after two U.S. law enforcement agents on the word of a scumbag.

SUTTON: No, we didn't, Lou and let me tell you, I mean, the most damning...

DOBBS: Well, who else...

SUTTON: The most damning evidence against agents Compean and Ramos were their lies, were their cover-ups, was the conspiracy entered into with other agents to destroy evidence, that killed their credibility in front of the jury. Both agents testified in front of the jury -- everybody knew that Aldrete was a doper, everybody knew that he was, you know, a scumbag mule. Those agents weren't credible, it was a lot of evidence besides Aldrete...

DOBBS: On cross-examination, did the jury understand that Davila was, in point of fact, a professional dug dealer and smuggler and a total scumbag?

SUTTON: They certainly knew that he...

DOBBS: Did you portray him as a one-time offender, a low-level -- with low-level involvement in that drug distribution ring?

SUTTON: I mean, I guess when I say a trial is, the jury knew that he had ran a huge load of dope. They knew he was an illegal alien, they knew that that kind of stuff happens on the border, that he was a bad guy, they knew that he was the kind of guy we'd put in prison. And you know, I've never defended Aldrete, I mean, I'm happy, today, that he's convicted and...

DOBBS: Well, you did. You did defend him. You kept the reality of his record from that jury making a determination about the fate of two U.S. law enforcement officers.

SUTTON: Well, first of all, he had no record. DEA had no record...

DOBBS: I didn't say he wasn't good at what he did, Mr. Sutton. I didn't say he wasn't good at what he did, did I?

SUTTON: Well, what we put in front of the jury the information that was admissible at the trial. And that's the way we run. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that I would have loved to have gotten in evidence against Compean and Ramos, but I couldn't. The judge said, it's not relevant, it's highly prejudicial. That's why we have trials to make these determinations. The jury knew this guy was a dope deal. And the hilarious -- the sick -- the sad part...

DOBBS: Do you think your prosecution will be upheld by the Appellate Court?

SUTTON: You know, I have no idea, that's up to those courts. I know the Fifth Circuit is very experienced judges and there's no way to predict what they'll do. I'm sure that they'll tell us in their good time.

DOBBS: All right. U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, thank you for being here.

SUTTON: Thank you, Lou.

DOBBS: Up next, I'll be joined by Congressman Ted Poe, he's one leading the fight to free Ramos and Compean from prison.

And Senator Obama defending his relationship with a terrorist? That's the charge from Andrew McCarthy, the author of an important new book, "Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad." He'll be here to talk about that and the treat still posed to this county by radical Islamists. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DOBBS: Now, we've just been reporting to you the guilty plea of drug smuggle, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, the key government witness against former Border Patrol agents, Ramos and Compean. Congressman Teds Poe, among those leading extensive efforts to have those two agents released from prison, their names cleared. He joins me now.

Congressman, I just talked with Johnny Sutton, I know you heard that, I just talked with reporters out of El Paso. What in the world is going on in Texas? This doesn't make a lick of sense to me?

REP TED POE (R), TEXAS: It doesn't make a lick of sense and this drug dealer was portrayed to the jury as a mule that, for a couple of hundred bucks, brought a load of drugs to help his poor, sick mother back in Mexico, which was a whole lie. And the jury though he was a small-time dealer. The U.S. Attorney's Office knew that he was major player, they kept that from the jury. The star witness, not only lied, but was misrespected to the jury. The jury should have known about his background and it's very unfortunate that they hid this truth from the jury...

DOBBS: Let me say before you go further, because I should have pointed out, that Congressman Poe, is a former judge, former prosecutor and knows whereof he speaks. I need to remind our viewers of that fact. Will this play at all into the doggone appeal that's going on in the Fifth Circuit right now for Ramos and Compean?

POE: I certainly hope so. It may not be as important to the judges on appeal, as maybe we would think, but it shows that the guy was a criminal, a drug dealer, he lied to the U.S. Attorney's Office, and misrepresented -- he was misrepresented to American public when he testified, and so he's going to go to prison, he will get less time than both the border agents are already serving, but it will play in the fact that...

DOBBS: Do you think that's already baked into this deal? Johnny Sutton told me there hadn't been a plea deal.

POE: Well, the sentence range is up to 10 years in prison, which is less than either one of the border agents got. So, I think that he will get less time than they got. But, the Court of Appeals, the Fifth Circuit of Appeals, I think, at the end of the day, will reverse its case mainly because the U.S. Attorney's Office misled the jury, hid the evidence from the jury that this guy was a major drug dealer.

DOBBS: You know, this -- is there such a thing as fraud when the U.S. attorney brings a case? Because, I mean, these people lied. They lied in front of that jury, they lied, apparently, to the investigators from the Department of Homeland Security. Then, the inspector general, as you well know, for the Department of Homeland Security, lied to the United States Congress, including you.

POE: That's right.

DOBBS: I mean, this smells to high Heaven.

POE: It does. And it looks, in my opinion, it looks politically corrupt to do this. And so...

DOBBS: Congressman, should we have a federal investigation of the prosecution, of the Department of Homeland Security, of this entire situation. I mean, I even talked to the sector chief of the Border Patrol. He didn't even have any regard for his own agents. I don't even know what planet he was from.

POE: Well, I hope Congress continues to investigate this case and there'll be congressional hearings. We'll air all this out and see what the political motive or the motive was to trying the wrong people the first time. They should have tried the drug dealer the first time. The whole case was based on the drug dealer's testimony. He's the only one that said he didn't have a gun. He's the only one that they could rely on. And now we know he's a known liar and a known drug dealer. And it's unfortunate the whole U.S. attorney's case was based on this purpose -- this person who presented fraud to the jury when he testified.

DOBBS: Well, Congressman, thank you for being here. Thank you for all your efforts that you do in leading the efforts to free Ramos and Compean. We appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

POE: Thank you, Lou.

DOBBS: Congressman Ted Poe.