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

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MSNBC publishes Trump's 2005 tax returns

Laura Ingraham and Jay Sekulow provide insight on 'Hannity'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 14, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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.

That's all the time we have left this evening. We'll have more about the deep state this morning night. Hope you'll join us. Thanks for being with us.

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