Sean Hannity Wants Liz Cheney's Private Messages Revealed After His Own Texts Were Exposed

Fox News host Sean Hannity has made repeated calls for Rep. Liz Cheney's private texts to be made public, after she revealed that he had messaged Donald Trump's chief of staff during the Capitol riots.

Cheney, who is vice chair of the House select committee investigating the events of January 6, said at a hearing that Hannity and other Fox News personalities had texted Mark Meadows during the storming of the Capitol, in an attempt to persuade the then president to call for an end to the violence.

"Can he make a statement? Ask people to leave the Capitol," Hannity wrote to Meadows.

Responding to these revelations during his show on Tuesday night, Hannity claimed—citing unnamed sources—that Cheney and other members of her family had "begged and begged and begged" Trump to pardon Scooter Libby.

Libby had been chief to staff to Rep. Cheney's father, Dick Cheney, when he was vice president. He was convicted of perjury in 2007, over his involvement in the case of CIA officer Valerie Plame. Libby was pardoned by Trump in 2018.

Hannity repeated his claim on his Wednesday night show, during a conversation with Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican who also texted Meadows on January 6, and Lara Trump, a TV producer and the former president's daughter-in-law.

He said: "I'd like to see all Cheney family texts, emails, transcripts, phone calls, kissing Donald Trump's a** to get a pardon for Scooter Libby—and what was the aftermath of that? Maybe she could release that in the interest of releasing other people's private messages."

During the committee hearing on Monday, Cheney said Hannity had messaged Meadows during the January 6 attack—as had Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade of Fox News, and Donald Trump Jr.

Cheney said the texts sent to Meadows showed there was "no doubt [that] the White House knew exactly what was happening" at the Capitol on January 6 and Trump "refused to act when action by our president was required" for more than three hours.

On Tuesday's show, Hannity described this as a "weak attempt to smear" him and Trump. The host then made the claim about Libby and the Cheneys, saying: "According to my sources, this is just a few years after Liz and her family begged and begged and begged Donald Trump to pardon Scooter Libby."

He went on: "In the interest of full disclosure, I'd like to see any communication between the Cheney family—that means Liz, that means her sister, mom, dad—anybody in the family that they had with President Trump on behalf of Scooter Libby or any other matter.

"Let's release any and all emails and texts. Liz, let's release your phone records and text and your family discussing Donald Trump, considering you're so free to release everybody else's.

"And by the way, where is the outrage in the media over my private text messages being released again publicly? Do we believe in privacy in this country? Apparently not."

After Libby's pardon was announced in 2018, Rep. Cheney posted a tweet thanking Trump for "righting a terrible wrong." She has not responded to Hannity's claims this week. Newsweek has contacted Cheney for comment.