Fox News personality Sean Hannity Monday night tried to defend Donald Trump by scrolling a long list of dozens of investigations into the now-former president, suggesting they are evidence of political persecution rather than actual misdeeds or criminal acts.
In a 34-second clip Hannity manages to list about 30 investigations and related actions, including the Mar-a-Lago “raid.”
Last month Vox published an explainer of the “4 major criminal probes into Donald Trump,” including, “The DOJ’s Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation,” “The Justice Department investigation into January 6,” “The Georgia election investigation,” and “The New York investigations into the Trump Organization.”
Also last month Vanity Fair published what it calls, “The Complete Guide to All the Ways Donald Trump Is Legally Screwed,” promising “Every single criminal investigation and civil lawsuit the ex-president is currently facing, including the ones you’ve probably never heard about.”
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The nonprofit and nonpartisan watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) in March published “President Trump’s staggering record of uncharged criminal misconduct.” They write: “Donald Trump has been credibly accused of committing at least 48 criminal offenses while he was serving as President of the United States or campaigning for that office.”
And on January 20, 2021, McSweeney’s published a 360-page compendium titled, “Lest We Forget the Horrors: A Catalog of Trump’s Worst Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes,” which includes 1056 “atrocities.”
Hannity’s list does not include all of those.
Civil liberties and national security journalist Marcy Wheeler took to Twitter to thank Hannity “for laying out the reason Trump is so desperate to try to claw back information from the FBI, [because] Trump literally obstructed every single one of these investigations, every time with Hannity’s assistance.”
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Journalist Aaron Rupar observed, “it’s remarkable that Hannity doesn’t realize he’s actually owning Trump with this scroll.”
National security attorney Brad Moss commented, “Sean Hannity basically just made a contribution” to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
“Some of these have gotten lost in the mists of time,” noted journalist and professor Bill Grueskin, thanking Hannity “for reminding us of Trump’s many crimes.”
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license