[Hannity] MSNBC publishes Trump's 2005 tax returns; Circa News reporter discusses the danger of the leaks

[Ubiquitous]

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: This is a Fox News Alert. Tonight, we have more
evidence of Obama deep state shadow government holdover saboteurs --
they are breaking laws all in an effort to undermine and
delegitimize the newly elected president. NBC News in particular is
on a political jihad against the president and his administration.
And that is tonight's "Opening Monologue."

All right, tonight, we've hit a new low in terms of privacy as we
know it here in our country, and it should deeply concern all of
you, the American people.

Now, just a short time ago, one of the Trump-hating hosts over at
NBC News who is really one of the leaders of the alt-left propaganda
destroy Trump at all costs media, well, she got her hands on
President Trump's -- two pages -- of his 2005 tax return.

Now, in many ways, this should be troublesome to everybody, but
also, there are many, many legal questions that we'll get into
tonight.


For example, according to 26 U.S. Code 7213, quote, "It shall be
unlawful for any officer or employee of the United States or any
person described in section 6103 and (ph)-- or any former officer or
employee of any such person or any former officer or employee,
willfully to disclose to any person except as authorized in this
title, any return or return information."

By the way, that's a felony. They say they found it in a mailbox,
and it could be related to the Russians. Now, that could result in a
$5,000 fine, five years in prison.

Now, tonight of the -- ahead of this criminal release, well, the
White House revealed, well, in 2005, Donald Trump paid $38 million
in taxes on a $150 million in income, which by the way, legal
deductions, I'm sure. That's not a scandal, but here is what the
scandal is tonight.

We have been reporting on these deep state actors in great detail
for weeks. They have been working tirelessly nonstop since November
the 8th behind the scenes. Why? They want to create a false
narrative that President Trump colluded with the Russians. Now, of
course, reports have now been debunked. That is a fake news story.

We've also told you about now just weeks before he left office,
President Obama altered executive order 12333 which allowed
widespread sharing of broad data collected by American intelligence
agencies, and that added 16 additional government agencies -- 16
additional -- and their employees now gained access to top secret
intelligence they never had access to before. He did this two weeks
before he left office.

But what we're seeing now is becoming far worse. Now it's a clear
and present danger that has emerged and it's threatening our
democracy and the will of the people, because we have people in our
government today who are committing felonies now on a weekly basis.
These saboteurs, they're trying to prevent the president from doing
the job that you, the American people, elected him to do.

Now, aside from the president's taxes, take a look at this. Look at
all the other leaks that have gone on since Donald Trump won the
election. Take a look at all that!

Now, this didn't happen when President Obama was in office, but we
now have deep state actors, some who broke the law by releasing the
president's taxes, all in an effort to destroy his presidency.

Now, it wasn't bad enough that Obama used the IRS, remember, as a
weapon against conservatives and conservative organizations. They
took the criminalization of political differences to a level we've
never seen before.

Last week, I said that President Trump, he needs to purge this deep
state and all these Obama holdovers, all these bureaucrats, all of
those sabotaging the president need to be exposed, some arrested and
tried and some fired. Now, tonight's example is exactly what I'm
talking about.

Now, the other issue we've got to address tonight is the corporate
jihad being waged by NBC News against President Trump. Now, as I
said earlier, they are the leaders of this alt-left propaganda
destroy Trump at all costs media, and now releasing his 2005 tax
return, it proves that they will do anything, spin any conspiracy to
destroy the commander-in-chief, including working with people
clearly that have broken the law.

Just take a look at some of these examples.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

LESTER HOLT, HOST, "NIGHTLY NEWS"/NBC, OCT. 10, 2016: I do want to
move quickly to some breaking news about Donald Trump, a decade-old
audiotape surfacing late today in which Trump is heard making crude
and vulgar comments about women, including how he gropes them. But I
want to warn you some of the language you're about to hear may be
offensive.

CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC, JAN. 20: When he said today "America first,"
it was not just a racial -- I mean, the -- I shouldn't say racial,
the Hitlerian background to it...

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, "THE LAST WORD"/MSNBC, MARCH 7: Here you have a
deranged president or a pathologically lying president lying about
the operations of the American government and lying about the
previous president of the United States. That's enough to invoke the
25th Amendment, but Mike Pence and the Cabinet are not there yet.
That tweet is also enough to impeach the president of the United
States.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI, "MORNING JOE"/MSNBC, MARCH 10: I urge people to
read and really make decisions about exactly what they're seeing. I
understand why so many people voted for him. I understand where you
were coming from. I understand why you like him. But this man is
lying to you.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: All the conspiracies, it's a concerted effort by a so-
called news organization. Why? Perhaps to take down the president.
Steve Bannon, I argue, was right. The alt-left propaganda media is
the opposition party in America today. They're not news anymore. And
by the way, did NBC News care when the IRS targeted conservatives
specifically to intimidate them? Did they care about President
Obama's unconstitutional executive orders he himself admitted he
didn't have the power to do?

They have this morning show on MSNBC. They attack the president's
mental health almost now on daily basis. And what Rachel Maddow did
tonight, if you can stomach -- I actually laughed, it actually made
me laugh, frankly, harder than I have in 10 years -- was a flat-out
pathetic conspiratorial attempt to smear the president.

Now, I really couldn't watch it with a straight face. It was sort of
like an "SNL" skit but actually better. And with her trying to piece
all these conspiracy pieces together, claiming in 2005, a Russian
oligarch knew that Trump was going to be the president and elected
in 2016 so he bought a property from him in Florida and Trump made a
big profit and -- you know, do they want to ask the guy who runs
NBC, maybe Andy Lack -- I wonder if Andy Lack, he's a pretty wealthy
guy, did he sell any property? Did he ever make a profit back into
2005 or any other year? Do they -- do they want to -- you know, do
they -- do they want to question if the moon actually -- the moon
landing actually occurred? This is "The Twilight Zone."

Let me get this straight, Russia knew in 2005 that Trump would be
president in 2016, but if you watch the tape on election night, even
up to the last minute, NBC News didn't think it was possible that
Donald Trump would become president. This is "The Twilight Zone."

So tonight, let's set the record straight. NBC is not news. It is
deep state Obama propaganda television.

Here with reaction, from the American Center for Law and Justice,
Jay Sekulow, editor-in-chief of Lifezette, nationally syndicated
radio host, Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham.

All right, Jay, legal side. Is all of this legal?

JAY SEKULOW, AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE: Well, no, I mean,
the disclosure of tax return information or the tax return itself
from, for instance, an IRS source is a violation of not only the
criminal code 7213, but also it's a direct violation of the Internal
Revenue manual.

I was a lawyer with the office of chief counsel for the Internal
Revenue Service. The IRS was our client, and we were instructed and
had to sign documents that you could not disclose taxpayer
information. So the release of taxpayer information, here Donald
Trump's taxpayer information -- if it came from the IRS or somebody
that was formerly with the IRS, that is a felony.

HANNITY: OK, well, I guess it could have come from a bank, but
wouldn't that be illegal, too, if somebody's releasing somebody's
taxes?

SEKULOW: So sure. If they got it from a source and then released it
knowing that, that would be a violation, as well. And...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: ... by NBC or would it be a violation of the person that
leaked it?

SEKULOW: So I look at that, Sean, because what NBC would assert and
Rachel Maddow did answer this, that this was protected by the 1st
Amendment. But it depends upon the way in which -- if it was
solicited, for instance, by the reporter, that is not protected
speech. So I think this 1st Amendment argument also misses...

HANNITY: Listen, it may surprise you...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: ... the benefit of the doubt. I'll give her the benefit of
the doubt that she has a right to report it. And wherever...

SEKULOW: Absolutely.

HANNITY: And Laura -- Laura -- Laura's rolling her eyes, and when
Laura rolls her eyes, that's bad for me. Go ahead.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Sean, first of all, if Donald
Trump paid what was the equivalent I guess of about 25 percent in
federal taxes, federal income taxes, I think he needs a better tax
attorney. (INAUDIBLE) I mean, if I were -- if I were Trump, I
wouldn't be worried about this at all. I mean, he -- so he
depreciated his assets. He probably has some losses counted against
income. This is all done according to the tax law. Big deal.

But Jay is right, there' a federal criminal violation here. It's --
clearly, if this was done by the IRS, clearly, if this was done by
some tax preparer or legal entity that helped Trump with his taxes
-- but it sounds and it seems more like this is someone burrowed
into the federal bureaucracy who's trying to make hay of this and
trying to capture another news cycle.

But I don't think it looks bad for Trump at all. What's the --
what's the story?

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: ... 25 percent in federal taxes? That's a lot.

HANNITY: Yes. Jay?

SEKULOW: The story here is not that Donald Trump paid a lot of
taxes, which he did. That's not the story. And I agree with Laura
(INAUDIBLE) tax planning -- he wasn't obviously -- he was taking
advantage of existing legal doctrine. So that's no big deal.

The story, though, is, if this came from -- and it's likely that it
came from a source within the IRS or the IRS leaking it to someone
else, that is a crime. And this goes back to something we've been
talking about a lot. These -- inside these agencies are these
individuals that are so opposed to anything this president does that
they would go to this extent to violate the law.

And should we be shocked? I mean, I handled the cases where the IRS
targeted conservative organizations. And I always said that...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: All right, the Obamas paid 19 percent effective tax rate in
2015, you know, not 17 years -- you know, not 10 or 11 years ago.

But here's my point. There's a bigger issue here because it's almost
weekly now that the deep state Obama holdovers that are out there
sabotaging -- and what it's doing is -- like, we'll have Sara Carter
on later tonight, Laura Ingraham. Sara Carter said that there was a
FISA warrant in October. It wasn't against Trump, that when it --
there was any issues that were raised about Trump, they were
debunked.

But night after night since November 8th, this false narrative keeps
getting reported. And this is what they have you believe at NBC
tonight, that Donald Trump sold a house to a Russian oligarch in
2005. He made a big profit.

INGRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: They knew in Russia that he'd be president in 2016! He'd be
elected, and that somehow, that he was buying influence way back
then just in case he became president! This -- there's something
really twisted and sick that they call themselves a news
organization here!

INGRAHAM: Yes. The amazing thing, Sean and Jay, is that these are
the same folks who are always rushing to conclude that conservatives
and conservative activists are conspiracy theorists and total
nutbags. But I would argue that they're the real fanatics.

The American people have moved on from all of these fake
controversies. They're trying to figure out, OK, am I going to get,
you know, health care that I can afford? Will the country started
working again? Will government start governing again?

And meanwhile, the Democrats are always on yesterday's storyline
that's invariably concocted, invariably picked up from dribs and
drabs of George Soros-funded media organizations that pose as media
Organizations. But there's no there there. And yet they have to keep
beating the drum, otherwise what do they do?

They talk about how great, you know, our foreign policy was under
Obama or how Hillary had all the answers? I mean, we know Russia got
more powerful over the last eight years of Barack Obama. We know
Russia got uranium interests in the United States. We know the reset
didn't work. We know that Hillary's brother was involved in all
those weird hazelnut deals in the former Soviet republic.

So all this stuff...

HANNITY: I got to take a break.

INGRAHAM: ... was happening. They have no argument, so they have to
go back to this nonsense.

HANNITY: All right, I...

INGRAHAM: And I think the American people are very smart about...

HANNITY: ... got to take a break...

INGRAHAM: ... what's happening. I think Newt Gingrich is right about
this. They're very smart and very savvy.

HANNITY: I got to take a break. But I will tell you there is a
danger here to all of this. I mean, the breathless, hysterical
reporting every single morning, noon and night on this network is --
it's -- it's actually -- there's a danger here that we've got to
explore. We'll get back into the legal angle. We'll have more with
Laura Ingraham, Jay Sekulow right after the break.

Also coming up, more of our continuing coverage of NBC's corporate
jihad against President Trump, president of the United States. Stay
with us for that as we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: This is a Fox News Alert. The deep state Obama holdover
forces are hard at work trying to take down the Trump administration
once again. NBC News is doing their best to try and help them. Now,
let's look back at their extremely biased, abusively biased and
actually humorous election night coverage. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

O’DONNELL, NOV. 9: There is crying tonight. I'm not sure how much of
America but a very, very significant portion. And I mean literally
crying. This is a sadness. It is a mourning moment for those
people, and it is a moment filled with fear, filled with fear.

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC, NOV. 9: Our country is about to face some
serious crises. And so buckle up. Your country needs you at a time
like this. This is -- if he does any of the things he said he's
going to do that are so outside political norms, the country is
about to go through something that is going to be a radical shock,
that's going to be a bigger shock than just electing him.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: You see, they couldn't even figure out on election night
that he was the president. They were all depressed about it. But the
Russians knew back in 2005.

And by the way, just to give you a corporate update, now, in 2015,
the Obamas paid about a 19 percent rate. Now, back in 2005 Trump's
rate -- what he paid was 25.3 percent, if I'm reading that right.
And the Tax Foundation says the top 01 percent pay an average of
22.48 percent. So that would mean that Donald Trump -- that Laura
Ingraham is right, that Donald Trump actually paid more and probably
needs a new accountant.

Laura, so -- all right, Jay, I guess we lost you. Laura -- we lost
Laura. Jay, let me ask you. Let's go back to the legal side of
this. Does it matter where it came from, the tax return?

SEKULOW: It does.

HANNITY: I want you to go over the law.

SEKULOW: It does. Yes, so it does.

HANNITY: OK. Tell me about it.

SEKULOW: So right now, you -- yes. So right now, you've got a
situation where it is a felony under section 7213 and also within
the Internal Revenue code manual itself for an employee or a former
employee to disclose the return itself or information from the
return.

And right now, if this came from IRS sources indirectly to the
reporter or indirectly through an intermediary, that in and of
itself would constitute a crime by those employees or former
employees of the IRS.

And Sean, right now, I'll tell you this. As someone that's litigated
against the IRS and (INAUDIBLE) used to be an IRS lawyer, I think
the IRS is institutionally incapable -- institutionally incapable of
correcting its wrongdoing here! And again, we don't know exactly
where this came from, but the likelihood, just with everything else
that's transpired, is someone inside the agency.

And here's what I would do from an investigative standpoint. Start
with the presumption that this came from inside and do your
investigation that way. If it leads elsewhere, so be it, but start
with the assumption that this is an inside problem because this
should concern every American, Republican, Democrat, independent,
libertarian, it does not matter. When the government starts leaking
tax information, this is a bad day for the United States!

HANNITY: Now, Laura, I want to put back on the screen from what I
said in the opening monologue -- I'll put up all the examples of the
leaks that we've had. You know, these are serious intelligence
leaks. Put aside everything else as it relates to Michael Flynn. You
know, signet (sic) intelligence never gets leaked. All of the --
that is on the screen right now never happened when Barack Obama was
president. Now we've got tax returns being released obviously for
political purposes. The media is breathlessly trying to create this
Russian conspiracy, even though we have no evidence whatsoever.

You know, there's a danger here, isn't there?

INGRAHAM: There's a huge danger. This is what a police state does.
This is why libertarians are so -- and so many conservatives, not
just libertarians, are so concerned about the surveillance state
that we have created in the United States.

You know, you have the whistleblower, Mr. Binney (ph), on last week
who talked about the fact that every communication, every text,
every e-mail, every phone conversation of every American is being
stored and kept. And everyone says, Well, that's only for the bad
guys. Well, maybe, maybe not. If he's right and all those big
warehouses that they're building out in Utah and Maryland are being
used to store information in law-abiding Americans, heck it's not
just conservatives who should be worried about this.

HANNITY: Oh, yes.

INGRAHAM: It's Democrats. It's independents. It's everyone. Jay is
exactly right...

HANNITY: And Jay let me...

INGRAHAM: ... because when they decide that you're a problem in
society, they meaning the government or government entities or
contractors or anyone burrowed into the government, whether you call
it deep state or the bureaucracy, and they want to take you down,
they'll take you down. That...

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: ... terrifying.

HANNITY: It is terrifying. Now, he's a 32-year vet. You know, he
worked at the NSA. He says every single American's phone
conversation is tapped and stored metadata, that every text message,
stored metadata, every e-mail stored, metadata. And that's the
reason that he left.

Now we've got some people -- and I want to be very careful with what
I say here. I do -- I believe in intelligence. I have great respect
for people that risk their lives and do hard word for the safety and
security of our country. But if intelligence officials are leaking
information to hurt a sitting president and maybe try and unseat
him...

INGRAHAM: (INAUDIBLE) terrifying (INAUDIBLE) hear that?

HANNITY: ... that is really, really terrifying -- Laura, as I hear
in my ear. But it's even worse than that, Jay, because it could be
done to every single solitary American.

And I would think that liberals would agree with me here in the
right to privacy...

SEKULOW: Yes, absolutely.

HANNITY: ... but what they're doing is -- and again, I don't really
have as big a problem with NBC reporting something they think is big
news that isn't, but...

SEKULOW: Sure.

HANNITY: ... I do have a problem where the leaks come from.

SEKULOW: Exactly. And look, we're are not talking about national
security intelligence here. We're talking about a then private
citizen's tax return and a tax return information that may well have
originated and been disclosed by the United States Department of the
Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service. And employees that do that
are guilty of a crime. And we've got to realize that -- what's going
on here. You oppose a president, you do it through policy. You don't
do it through leaking information.

HANNITY: Yes. All right...

SEKULOW: That's the fundamental difference for a constitutional
republic.

HANNITY: You know, Laura, I talked about a purge last week. If we
don't get rid of the leakers within the intelligence community, if
we don't find the people now that are sorting through people's, I
guess, tax returns -- I would argue that we're in a very precarious
area for the country if we want privacy and believe in privacy.

Now, James Comey said last week there is no real absolute privacy.
Those comments actually scared me.

INGRAHAM: Well, you're exactly right. This is where Donald Trump has
to ensure that he has the best people in the most senior positions
in the departments that are relevant to this type of sweep that
needs to be done.

So Jeff Sessions is a serious guy. He now has his deputy in place,
Tom Rosenstein, State Department, we got -- you know, we got the
FBI. We got CIA. Everyone is in place. So now it's time to get
serious.

Those who leak this information must be found, must be prosecuted to
the fullest extent of the law.

SEKULOW: Absolutely.

INGRAHAM: Only a certain number of people have access to this
information. That digital footprint is there. It can be rooted out.
Everyone needs to be brought in. Everyone needs to be deposed.
Everyone needs a lie detector test, and you have to figure this out.
Until that's done, I don't think anyone in the Trump administration
is safe. They all better lawyer up.

HANNITY: It's going to be a distraction a day...

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: ... White House counsel, Don McGahn.

HANNITY: It's never going to stop.

INGRAHAM: He better be ready because this is going to get really
ugly.

(CROSSTALK)

SEKULOW: ... unelected bureaucrats...

(CROSSTALK)

SEKULOW: ... one at a time, unelected bureaucrats.

HANNITY: You're right...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: ... and Obama holdovers.

INGRAHAM: Exactly.

HANNITY: And the bigger danger is, you got a media colluding and
they're just salivating. They thought tonight was the big night.
Sorry to disappoint. It actually was a higher rate than Obama paid.
But what do they care?

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: All right, guys, thank you.

Coming up -- all right, Sara Carter has been breaking incredible
news over at CircaNews.com. She's going to weigh in on these deep
state actors working to take down the Trump administration. Sara's
excellent reporting has uncovered no evidence, none, in spite of
what NBC and CNN tell you every day, between President Trump and the
Russians. She will join us exclusively next.

And then later tonight, Matt, Mercedes Schlapp are also here as we
continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: This is a Fox News alert. As we have been reporting on this
program for weeks, the so-called journalists over at NBC News and
CNN, they have been breathlessly trying to connect President Trump
to the Russians and trying to discredit the administration and
discredit the president. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

MADDOW, MARCH 9: We are, number one, nailing down more direct
connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian government at
the time the Russian government with influencing our election. And
number two, at the same time, we are also starting to see what may
be signs of continuing influence in our country, not just during the
campaign but during the administration, basically signs of what
could be a continuing operation.

MATTHEWS, MARCH 6: Vladimir Putin over in the kremlin did everything
to put guess who in the White House.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN, JAN. 10: CNN has learned that the nation's top
intelligence officials provided information to president-elect
Donald Trump and to President Barack Obama last week about claims of
Russian efforts to compromise president-elect Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: Joining us now is someone who has been following the story
closely, who by the way, those news agencies, organizations, if you
even want to call them that, in fact ignore whose sources tell her
no sources, none, found of collusion at all between Trump and the
Russians. From CircaNews.com Sara Carter is with us. Sara, didn't
James clapper say that there is no evidence at all suggesting that
the Russians influenced our election this past year, am I right
about that?

SARA CARTER, CIRCA NEWS: You're absolutely right. The director of
national intelligence says there is no evidence. The sources that
I've spoken and John Solomon who co-wrote the story with me say
there is no evidence of criminality that they have found in
connection between the Trump team, President Trump, or the Russians.
And now Director Comey of the FBI, I've just heard reports that he
is going to announce this week whether or not the FBI is
investigating Russia and the Trump connection. So I think that
they've come to a point where they want to dispel all of these
rumors, these innuendos, these conspiracy theories.

HANNITY: It was just like The New York Times, a front page story.
All these women say horrible things about Trump until we interviewed
the women and they all love Donald Trump. I mean, it was big lie and
one after another. I mean, part of this is actually funny, but part
of this is dangerous.

Now, you have sources that confirm -- I want to be very clear. This
story that you broke is so important, and it's interesting that the
mainstream media, John Solomon was an AP reporter for 20 years. How
many years have you been reporting?

CARTER: Oh, my gosh, I've been reporting for two decades now. I've
covered everything from Afghanistan to the war in Iraq. And John,
too.

HANNITY: So the important thing here is you have actually confirmed
something that nobody else in the media has, that there was a FISA
warrant in October before the election, that the FISA warrant was
related to issues involving potential Russian influence, and that as
an ancillary sidebar investigative part of this, every time they
looked at Donald Trump and his campaign and possible collusion, what
did your intelligence in law enforcement say they found?

CARTER: Nothing. They cannot find any criminal evidence. And that
server investigation found absolutely nothing. In fact, we are
breaking a story tomorrow, Sean, on the people actually who reported
to the FBI the pings between the servers, and it gives a little bit
more background on the people that actually pushed the FBI into the
investigation.

HANNITY: Can I guess that it may be someone in the political arena
on the other side of the aisle? Is that a possibility?

CARTER: Your guess is close. I could say that it is somebody that
supports the other side of the aisle in that political arena.

HANNITY: So Hannity has good instincts. So in other words, would
this be a jump to suggest -- I am obviously trying to pull it out of
you, and you're not going to give it all to me -- but would it be a
jump to suggest that maybe political operatives fed this to law
enforcement and advanced this entire narrative that now has been
proven to be false by your reporting?

CARTER: I think we are just at the very tip of the iceberg with
this. And I think that that will possibly reveal part of that and
also lead us to more and more people that were involved in, let's
say, making those dots and trying to connect dots that don't exist.
So that's all I can say on this.

HANNITY: All right.

(LAUGHTER)

CARTER: But you're good.

HANNITY: I'm trying real hard. You are making my job really hard
here. All right, last question. When you heard NBC News that we
just played, and you just heard CNN reporting, and they have been on
this now since even before the election, some of them, are they
lying to the American people? I know that's a hard question, but at
this point, is there any evidence to suggest what they are saying to
the American people is true?

CARTER: No, there isn't. And I don't know if it is necessarily a
lie. I think it's something that they want to be true, and there is
a good possibility that they have sources leading them in an
opposite direction. But I don't see why they couldn't contact the
sources that count. Those would be the people in federal agencies,
federal law enforcement agencies and the intelligence community that
would have been involved directly in this investigation.

HANNITY: So the same media that colluded with Hillary Clinton could
be lying about this because they couldn't accept the results of the
election, and there may be a political connection to getting law
enforcement and maybe even the intelligence community to leak and
lie, all in an effort after the election to delegitimize the
president? Is that a fair conclusion?

CARTER: I think that is a fair conclusion. But I think we all have
to look at the fact that there are people within the bureaucracy
that feel vehemently that President Trump, and I've talked to
sources in the intelligence community and in federal law enforcement
that feel that there are people they work with that oppose President
Trump being the president. And that is where we're seeing these
leaks come out. And this is very, very dangerous. This is very
dangerous to the republic. It's very dangerous to the American
people. And it's dangerous to our privacy. What we saw with Flynn
and what we've seen with the leaks, even the tax return leaks
tonight, I think it's something that needs to be investigated.

HANNITY: I am guessing that you are right, what you are going to
report tomorrow will probably be the tip of the iceberg. And I
believe that we are going to see a political angle to this slowly
unfold and unraveling. And it will be interesting if the media that
colluded with Hillary will own up to the fact that they have been
talking about something that has never been true for what, six
months now? Great work, Sara Carter. We will have you back on
tomorrow night, and we will discuss this further. We look forward to
your column tomorrow. Thank you for not giving me all your sources
and not giving it away, really appreciate it.

(LAUGHTER)

CARTER: You are good, though.

HANNITY: I'm trying.

All right, coming up, Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, they join us. We'll
talk to them to weigh in on these deep state agitators who could be
colluding with at news organizations. And then later, we will get
reaction from Tomi Lahren and Jessica Tarlov as we continue straight
ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: This is a Fox News alert. President Donald Trump's 2005
taxes and a blockbuster has now been released by NBC News and what
we are calling a political jihad. And now the president's son,
Donald Trump, Jr., is responding. By the way, thank you, Rachel
Maddow, proving to your Trump hating followers how successful
President Trump is and that he paid almost $40 million in taxes.

Also tonight, The Drudge Report has a headline that Trump paid a
higher tax rate than NBC's parent company, Comcast. They also noted
it's higher than Obama and Bernie Sanders.

Here with reaction, Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp, and
Fox News contributor Mercedes Schlapp. I don't even know where to
begin here. I guess it's a pretty good thing that he has paid more
than Comcast, paid more than Obama, paid more than Bernie. I mean,
$38 million in federal taxes alone is an obscene amount of money.
You know what they are going to say next, Mercedes? They will
suggest, oh, Trump probably put it in the guy's mailbox late at
night by himself. Watch, that's going to be the next conspiracy.

MERCEDES SCHLAPP, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I think the loser of the
week definitely is Rachel Maddow. It's a story that really has no
legs. I think they've been analyzing his 2005 tax returns of 2005
for the past, I don't know, two or three hours since you've been on
the air, Sean, as well where there's basically as Sean Spicer said,
there is no there there. Obviously Donald Trump ran his business
successfully. He paid the amount of taxes, I think it was about a 25
percent tax rate. That's more than even Mitt Romney paid. So it just
shows that he did his part. And they are obviously I think are just
trying to make a story out of it.

HANNITY: It gets more absurd though. Matt, they would have us
believe tonight that Donald Trump when he sold a home for a nice
profit back in 2005, he knew that one day he was going to run for
president and the Russians knew he was going to win in 2015. And
therefore because he sold the house and he made a big profit and he
sold it to a Russian oligarch, therefore now we proved the Russian
nexus connection thing that they have been hysterically reporting
here. I am in the Twilight Zone.

MATT SCHLAPP, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION CHAIRMAN: Sean, your
confused. Remember, the Russians started to try to win the White
House in 2016 with the sale of this house. We've got to get all that
straight. The conspiracy theories on the left have no end with
Donald Trump. With President Trump, and I talked to him a little bit
at CPAC about this, what President Trump is teaching the Republican
Party is stay on offense and keep fighting because these attacks are
groundless, they're silly, and they're a waste of time.

HANNITY: It's true but that's also a little bit dangerous.

MATT SCHLAPP: Very dangerous.

HANNITY: And this is where the deep state comes in. They are now
dealing with a leak a week, at least. And we put them up on the
screen many times tonight. And here's the problem, and the president
addressed himself when he said my staff, Reince Priebus, Steve
Bannon, Steve Miller, Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner, they are
spending 75 percent of their day dealing with lies, propaganda, no
evidence on any Russian connection or influence, even James Clapper
said it. And, Mercedes, they have to spend all this time playing
defense as the deep state is violating, committing felony after
felony, and they haven't been thrown the hell out yet.

MERCEDES SCHLAPP: The deep state is a very serious concern. The
reason being is the fact that you have these individuals within the
government who are leaking classified information to media
organizations. We know it is a crime, and the fact is that it is
hurtful. It's hurtful to our democratic process. It's hurtful to
President Trump and his agenda.

HANNITY: They don't care.

MERCEDES SCHLAPP: And they don't care. But Sean, it's a bigger
problem when you're talking about the fact that these individuals,
they have to be called out because the way President Obama set it up
in the final days, he loosened up those regulations so that there
was manipulation of this classified information so they could
disperse it broadly. And that, Sean, is a big problem.

HANNITY: Listen, if I'm Donald Trump tonight and I see I paid a
higher tax rate than Comcast and NBC's parent company, and I paid
more than Obama and I paid more than Bernie and I assume more than
Hillary, although the Clintons did get a big tax deduction when
deducted their used underwear many, many years ago, $38 million, the
average American is going to say that sounds like their fair share,
especially considering he paid more than all these people. It's
hilarious to me.

MATT SCHLAPP: That's right. And he paid more than Mitt Romney, too.
There are a lot of apologies that need to be made on President Trump
on this.

HANNITY: Don't hold your breath.

MERCEDES SCHLAPP: It's not a media story. It's not a media story.

MATT SCHLAPP: The key for Donald Trump is to keep forging ahead.
Back on the deep state question, his people, they have to continue
to jam Trump people into these agencies. They have to get rid of the
people who burrowed in, and we have to get more of these
appointments made. They have got to put the pedal to the metal on
these Trump appointments in the administration.

HANNITY: Listen, I said there has got to be a purge, and it was
hilarious because then the media reported Donald Trump listened to
Sean Hannity. I talked about Obama holdovers, deep state people, and
I never mentioned U.S. attorneys. And by the way, I once told Donald
Trump maybe you should stop tweeting. In retrospect I think I was
wrong. I think tweeting is actually good for him.

MERCEDES SCHLAPP: Sean, can I tell you one thing. Be looking at the
Veterans Affairs Department. A lot of Obama holdovers. And if that's
an agency I know is very important to President Trump in helping
veterans. He is going to need to clean house there.

HANNITY: It's going to be in intelligence. It's going to be in the
State Department, veterans affairs, they are all over the place.
And, well, I would like to see some people that committed felonies
prosecuted, convicted, and put in jail, because what they are doing
is dangerous for everybody in the country and the issue of privacy
should matter to every American.

All right, guys, good to see you two.

MATT SCHLAPP: Amen, brother.

HANNITY: When we come back, Tomi Lahren, Jessica Tarlov, they weigh
in on this and so much more, also, NBC's biased reporting. When will
the apology come? Don't hold your breath, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: This is a Fox News alert. NBC News is carrying out a
political jihad against President Donald Trump. They released his
2005 taxes, and lo and behold, he paid more than NBC/Comcast. He
paid more than Mitt Romney. He paid more than they Obamas. He paid
more than Bernie Sanders. The alt left mainstream media are going to
try to make a big deal of this, but Matt Drudge is pointing out on
his website, I'll read it to you, "Trump paid a higher tax rate, 25
percent, than MSNBC/Comcast, 24 percent, and much more than Obama,
19 percent."

Here with reaction, the host of "Tomi" on the Blaze Tomi Lahren, and
the director of research at Bustle.com, Democratic strategist
Jessica Tarlov. Jessica, I almost feel bad for you because this
came out faster than I could get the hour in on the program tonight.

JESSICA TARLOV, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I feel bad for me too right
now.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: Tomi, should we be nice to her tonight? What do we do?

TARLOV: Yes, come on, guys? Friday was a little rough, so let's calm
it down.

TOMI LAHREN, HOST, "TOMI" ON THE BLAZE: I think so. We will give you
a path, Jessica. It's a rough night for all of those that have
really dedicated the past six month of their lives to delegitimizing
President Trump and attacking him for everything. It's just a rough
night for those individuals. But it's going to be OK.

TARLOV: You've got a little too far now. It's not quite that rough.
Listen, this is just the first two pages of this.

HANNITY: Whoa, Jessica, hang on. This was portrayed with
breathlessness as the great conspiracy that Donald Trump in 2005
made a profit, he sold a home to the Russians. He paid $38 million
in taxes. Wow. Real conspiracy. But the Russians knew way back in
2005 that he's be president in 2016 and they were buying influence
then and they were setting this all up. We've all been influenced by
the Russians. They've invaded our minds.

TARLOV: But these were just the first to go pages. Donald Trump's
didn't hide his tax returns because he paid 25 percent. There is
more there. Tonight's data dump as it were, is not very
interesting. But it doesn't delegitimize those of us who have gone
after Donald Trump. What it did --

HANNITY: He does not have to release his tax returns. Let me just
tell everybody, he does not have to release anything.

TARLOV: They are certainly not under audit.

HANNITY: Because America knows that he made a lot of money. He paid
a lot in taxes. He probably paid the lowest rate possible, and Tomi
Lahren, you get paid a fortune at "The Blaze" and you pay your fair
portion too.

LAHREN: I just think this is so interesting. Meanwhile, when the
Democrats, just God bless your heart, you keep talking about Russia,
Russia, Russia, and taxes, taxes, taxes, and meanwhile President
Trump is talking about jobs. He's talking about securing the border
--

TARLOV: Tomi, Donald Trump is talking about wiretapping. He's
talking about conspiracy theories. This is a guy who started out as
a birther. So don't make it out like we are cloud nine here going
off on just conspiracy theories --

LAHREN: The beauty of it is he can talk about wiretapping claims and
investigations and he can also talk about jobs. And the Democrats,
they can only seem to talk about one thing. So I am really happy
that we have a president that can multitask. I think it's wonderful.
Bring it on.

TARLOV: Enjoy it. This is certainly not a bad night for those who
are supporting Donald Trump, and obviously all of us as Americans
should support our president. But bigger fans like yourselves --

HANNITY: Some in the media, wait a minute, some in the intelligence
community, whoever leaked these taxes, they are out to bring the
president down.

TARLOV: What if Donald Trump leaked them himself. What if they came
from the White House?

HANNITY: We got a new conspiracy. Maybe Vladimir Putin did it. Maybe
he flew into America in the dark of night and he put it in this
guy's mailbox.

TARLOV: That seems unlikely. But more likely that it came with
someone from within the administration because they do not want to
talk about health care. They don't want to talk about wiretapping
claims.

HANNITY: The intelligence leakers and the deep state people are
involved, Tomi Lahren, from my perspective. Yours?

LAHREN: It's got to be. What we have heard tonight is the only
conspiracies that are important are the ones that are fed to us by
the Democrats in mainstream media. But the conspiracy that Trump
brings up, those are not legitimate. Those are cuckoo. Those are
whacko. But if the Democrats bring something up, oh, my goodness, we
must investigate it to the fullest, Sean, and we must not do
anything else.

HANNITY: I've got to run, but they let Hillary commit multiple
felonies.

TARLOV: No one let Hillary commit any felonies. And Tomi, I would
love to know what you think about mass voter fraud.

HANNITY: An important "Question of the Day" is straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right, time for tonight's "Question of the Day." It's
really important. So what do you think about NBC's corporate jihad
against the president of the United States? Just go to
Facebook.com/SeanHannity, @SeanHannity on Twitter, let us know what
you think.

--
Dems & the media want Trump to be more like Obama, but then he'd
have to audit liberals & wire tap reporters' phones.