The committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol will ask Fox News host Sean Hannity to cooperate with its investigation.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren told CNN the committee has dozens of text messages that Hannity sent Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and other administration officials on “a variety of subjects” that members want to ask him about. Lofgren, a California Democrat, confirmed an Axios report about the committee’s interest in talking to Hannity.
Lofgren, a member of the Jan. 6 panel and head of the House Administration Committee, said her colleagues want to talk to Hannity “outside of his role as a press person.” Instead, Lofgren said, lawmakers want to talk to Hannity as a “political operative.”
A spokesperson for Fox News did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
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Hannity, a conservative commentator and radio host, is a prominent supporter of and close ally to former President Donald Trump, and he was in frequent communication with Trump during his presidency.
Jay Sekulow, Hannity’s legal counsel, told Axios, “If true, any such request would raise serious constitutional issues including First Amendment concerns regarding freedom of the press.”
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Hannity condemned the riot on air on his Fox News program the day it occurred. But in the year since, he has been critical of the congressional committee investigating the riot and its origins. The committee last month revealed text messages Hannity sent to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the riot asking him to get Trump to call off the rioters.
