Paul Manafort had a sympathetic media ally in Sean Hannity as federal investigators closed in and ultimately prosecuted the former Trump campaign chairman for a series of financial crimes and witness tampering, according to hundreds of text messages released Friday.
The exchanges — which a federal judge ordered unsealed and placed onto the public court docket — cover a period starting around the FBI’s summertime 2017 raid on Manafort’s Northern Virginia home and extending through the late spring of 2018, when the longtime GOP operative was gearing up for back-to-back criminal trials.
Along the way, the Fox News host and Manafort engaged in many rapid-fire conversations discussing everything from Manafort’s criminal cases to Hannity’s on-air commentary that frequently targeted special counsel Robert Mueller and his prosecutors.
As news broke of the FBI raid on Manafort’s home, for example, Hannity wrote, “Please know you are in my prayers.” Manafort quickly replied, “Thank you. I need them. I feel so violated.”
Later in the day, Hannity wrote Manafort he was upset that “there are so many obvious crimes that are NOT being investigated” and added at the end of his message, “If you just ever want to talk, grab dinner, vent, strategize -whatever, I am here. I know this is very hard. Stand tall and strong.”
Hannity offered Manafort an ear on many more occasions, both to talk in private but also to appear on his primetime program to defend himself. They also frequently discussed what Hannity had just covered on air.
“I appreciate what you tried to do. Mueller is trying to intimidate me. The raid is just one example. I won’t let him succeed but it is very lonely fighting this fight. I feel all alone out there. Except for you and a few others, our side is not engaged,” Manafort texted Hannity a couple of days after the FBI raid in August 2017.
Later that same day, the former Trump campaign chairman referenced President Donald Trump: “The media is trying to split me with DT and family by lies and untruths.”
Hannity replied, “It is such a dirty game.”
Manafort offered Hannity real-time updates on his case, noting that in August he had hired new lawyers “who are junk yard dogs and will undo a lot of this injustice. But it is going to be a painful and expensive fight for me.”
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As news broke of the FBI raid on Manafort, for example, Hannity wrote, “Please know you are in my prayers.” Manafort quickly replied, “Thank you. I need them. I feel so violated”https://t.co/bszGn0eDB9
— POLITICO (@politico) June 21, 2019
The two should get a room. Maybe they can share Manafort’s prison cell.
Hannity never was that smart. That’s why Trump and Manafort were so successful manipulating him.
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