January 4, 2022

The January 6 Committee Just Revealed Alarming Text Messages From Sean Hannity

Newly disclosed communications show the Fox News star in close touch with the Trump White House on the eve of the insurrection.

Sean Hannity on August 25, 2020Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty

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Before the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Sean Hannity texted that he was “very worried about the next 48 hours,” the House committee investigating the insurrection revealed Tuesday.

In a letter asking Hannity to agree to an interview, the panel said it has “dozens of text messages you sent to and received from former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and others related to the 2020 election and President Trump’s efforts to contest the outcome of the vote.”

According to the panel, those include a December 31 message in which Hannity suggested he knew that the White House Counsel’s office had legal concerns about Trump’s plans to try to overturn his reelection defeat and remain in office.

“We can’t lose the entire WH counsels office,” Hannity told Meadows. “I do NOT see January 6 happening the way he is being told. After the 6 th. [sic] He should announce will lead the nationwide effort to reform voting integrity. Go to Fl and watch Joe mess up daily. Stay engaged. When he speaks people will listen.” The identity of whomever Hannity was referring to as egging on Trump’s plans is unclear.

 

On January 5, according to the letter, Hannity also texted Meadows: “Pence pressure. WH counsel will leave.” The committee said that other messages indicate that Hannity had spoke directly with Trump on the evening of January 5 about Trump’s plans for the next day. 

The committee previously revealed that Hannity on January 6 was among various Fox News hosts and Trump confidants, including Ivanka Trump, who tried for hours to get Trump to issue a statement asking the rioters to stop their attack and leave the Capitol. Trump did not do so until 4:17 p.m. that day, hours after the mayhem and violence began. The committee’s letter indicates, however, that Hannity had more extensive contacts with Trump and his inner circle before and after the attack than previously known. Hannity said in a January 10 message to Meadow and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that he had spoken to Trump that day and urged him not to “mention the election,” the panel noted.

Hannity has said he is “not a journalist.” Still, the committee, anticipating complaints from the political right about focusing on a member of the media, emphasized that they were not questioning Hannity about his politics or his broadcasts, but instead wanted to seek from him “factual information directly relevant to the events of January 6th and the attack on the institutions of our democracy.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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