The Select Committee investigating the January 6 riot at the United States Capitol announced in a press release yesterday that it is seeking information from Fox News host Sean Hannity as a “fact witness.”
The Select Committee said it possesses dozens of Hannity’s text messages to and from Mark Meadows, former White House Chief of Staff, and others concerning then-President Trump’s alleged efforts to contest the outcome of the 2020 presidential vote won by the current U.S. President Joe Biden. The Select Committee is asking Hannity for testimony on communications dating from December 31, 2020, to January 20, 2021.
The letter states, “for example, on December 31, 2020, you texted Mr. Meadows the following: ‘We can’t lose the entire WH counsels office. 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.'”
MSN News reported that the Select Committee asked Hannity to cooperate with the investigation voluntarily. The letter to Hannity states that the text suggests, among other things, that he was aware of concerns raised by President Trump’s White House Counsel’s Office about the legality of the former President’s plans for January 6, which the Committee called “crucial” to their investigation.
“Similarly, on January 5, the night before the violent riot, you sent and received a stream of texts. You wrote: ‘Im (SIC) very worried about the next 48 hours,'” the letter to Hannity states. “With the counting of the electoral votes scheduled for January 6 at 1 p.m., why were you concerned about the next 48 hours?”
In January 2021, The U.S. House of Representatives adopted one article of impeachment against Trump for alleged incitement of an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. On February 9, 2021, the U.S. Senate held Trump’s second impeachment trial (Trump was impeached and acquitted on the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.) After that trial, the Senate voted 57-43 to convict Trump of inciting an insurrection, ten votes short of the two-thirds majority required by the U.S. Constitution, and Trump was acquitted for a second time.
The Select Committee’s about page describes the day of the Capitol riot as “one of the darkest days of our democracy, during which insurrectionists attempted to impede Congress’s Constitutional mandate to validate the presidential election and launched an assault on the United States Capitol Complex that resulted in multiple deaths, physical harm to over 140 members of law enforcement, and terror and trauma among staff, institutional employees, press, and Members.”
The Committee’s stated purpose is “to investigate and report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex.”
