Fox News host Sean Hannity reportedly suggested to Donald Trump that he pardoned Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden before he left office to “smooth things over” after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to the Daily Beast.
On Thursday, the Jan. 6 Committee released text messages between Hannity and then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. In those text messages, Hannity discussed a conversation he had with Trump on Jan. 7, one day after the attack at the Capitol.
According to one text message from Hannity, one idea in particular intrigued the former president: issuing a last-minute presidential pardon for Hunter Biden.
“He was intrigued by the pardon idea!! (Hunter),” Hannity wrote to McEnany.
Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine were at the center of Trump’s first impeachment when he withheld congressionally approved military aid in exchange for dirt on the Bidens. Though Hunter is currently the subject of a federal investigation he has not been charged.
A source told the Daily Beast that the idea to pardon Hunter Biden was not originally Hannity’s, but the Fox News host suggested it to Trump because he believed it might help “smooth things over” after the insurrection and he “genuinely wanted some healing.”
Another source told the Daily Beast that the idea “died on the vine,” and was “never seriously considered.”
Also at the committee’s first public hearing on Thursday, vice-chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said “multiple” Republican members of Congress requested a pardon from Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Cheney singled out Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry.
“Representative Perry contacted the White House in the weeks after January 6th to seek a presidential pardon. Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election,” Cheney said.
According to CNN, GOP Reps Paul Gosar (Ariz.) Andy Biggs (Ariz.) and Mo Brooks (Ala.) sought clemency from Trump for their alleged roles in the rally that preceded the deadly riot on the US Capitol.
