The text came in the night. Fox News host Sean Hannity asked, “U watching?” Paul Manafort replied, “Yes. I love you.”
Newly unsealed court documents reveal pages of text messages in 2017 and 2018 between Manafort, who was a campaign manager for President Trump, and Hannity.
The communications were released Friday by the order of Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for D.C., one of two venues where Manafort was charged with a series of crimes related to violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, conspiracy, tax fraud, bank fraud, and obstruction of justice.
Earlier this year, Jackson sentenced Manafort to 43 months in prison following a plea deal, while Judge T.S. Ellis of Virginia sentenced Manafort to 47 months behind bars after a guilty verdict.
Neither Manafort nor any members of the Trump campaign were charged with crimes connected to conspiring with the Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The hundreds of messages between Hannity and Manafort focus mainly on their complaints about special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation, which quickly swept up Manafort in 2017. They exchanged information and updates back-and-forth while they complained about Mueller, the way Mike Flynn was being treated, British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s anti-Trump dossier, perceived double standards at the Justice Department, and former officials including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Loretta Lynch, James Comey, and others.
At one point, Manafort said, “the stench is overwhelming.” Hannity said it was “despicable and grotesque.”
Hannity, a Mueller critic and friend and ally of Trump, makes it clear that he sympathized with Manafort’s plight, repeatedly offering him help and advice while telling him to tune into his show. Manafort repeatedly told Hannity that Mueller was coming after him unfairly.
In one exchange, Hannity told Manafort: “Please know that you are in my prayers.” Manafort responded, “Thank you. I need them. I feel so violated.”
“From what I’m seeing Today, there are so many obvious crimes that are NOT being investigated. Clear felonies committed. Conflicts of interest. A deep state LEAK A DAY and little to nothing being done,” Hannity said to Manafort. “Conversations with the Potus and other Presidents and Prime Ministers leaked? Unmasking political opponents, leaking Intel? And now we have criminalized political differences. HRC NOTHING?”
In one late-night exchange, Manafort thanked Hannity for what he said on TV earlier. “Just watched last night’s show,” Manafort said. “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.”
“Thank you for your help,” Manafort said.
Hannity responded, “Call me, text me, email me. Let’s eat, talk, and anything I can do to help. I’m very sorry.” Hannity told Manafort that he has “things to tell u in person” and asked Manafort if he is “ever coming to NYC.”
Manafort said “the media is trying to split me with DT and family by lies and untruths” and called it “such a dirty game.”
“Yup,” Hannity replied. “I see and know it all.”
Manafort told Hannity that “the establishment feels like they have to kill Trump… their existence depends on it… DT [Donald Trump] has to be destroyed… They will go after Jared [Kushner] and the family next.”
“Russia is history now that they have the special counsel,” Manafort predicted.
Hannity vented his own frustrations to Manafort. “5 groups I talk about all the time: Deep State, Dems, Media, Weak pathetic R’s, Never Trumper,” he said.
In one text at 3:27 a.m., Hannity asked Manafort, “Hey u up? ??? Info!” They talked on the phone a few minutes later and Manafort thanked Hannity for the unspecified news.
“Don’t let those assholes get you down,” Hannity told him. “Punch back HARD.”
The messages released on Friday end in June 2018.
Hannity issued a short statement on Twitter after the text messages were released. “My view of the Special Counsel investigation and the treatment of Paul Manafort were made clear every day to anyone who listens to my radio show or watches my TV show,” Hannity said.
Until earlier this week, Manafort was slated to be imprisoned at Rikers Island while he awaited trial for state-level crimes in New York, but an intervention by the DOJ’s new Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen meant he will not end up there after all.
