Analysis | Sean Hannity Is Keeping A List Of Trump Probes. Heres Whats On It.
Analysis | Sean Hannity Is Keeping A List Of Trump Probes. Here’s What’s On It. https://digitalalabamanews.com/analysis-sean-hannity-is-keeping-a-list-of-trump-probes-heres-whats-on-it/
There are two schools of thought about the array of investigations into Donald Trump since he entered the presidential race in June 2015.
School One is that the former president has been unfairly targeted from the outset by overzealous and biased prosecutors or elected officials. That Trump, as he himself has often complained, is a victim of a system determined to keep a hostile outsider at bay. School Two is that Trump sits at the center of a galaxy of dubious activity — and some demonstrated malfeasance — that has spun off a variety of probes and queries.
It would probably be useful for each school to treat the other’s position more seriously. It’s useful, for example, for those who see Trump as incorrigibly corrupt to consider how that generates a demand that politicians will be eager to fill. It’s probably more useful, though, for Trump supporters to consider that perhaps Trump has faced a lengthy list of investigations because he has engaged in a lot of questionable behavior, relying on partisan politics as a shield.
Fox News host Sean Hannity is by all appearances an earnest member of School One, the category in which Trump is simply a humble public servant who faces a barrage of unfair hostility from the elites. On Monday night, he sought to make that point in an unexpected way, presenting his audience with a looooong list of Trump investigations.
“Instead of trying to fix the economy or dare talk about it or the border or the fentanyl or opioid crisis or the crime crisis,” Hannity said, “Democrats have been wasting almost all of their time and billions of your tax dollars with one investigation after investigation into all things Donald Trump. And this has been going on now for years.”
And then came the list. The tactic (which Hannity deploys with some regularity) was to imply unimportance by indicating volume. Surely this barrage, unspooling slowly over Hannity’s shoulder, is proof that Trump’s opponents are trying to use any possible tool to derail him?
If we slow it down, though, picking out the actual investigations included by Hannity, the picture changes. A lot of these investigations … make a lot of sense. They aren’t ideal for Trump or for those seeking to apologize for the former president on their cable-news shows. When extracted from the cable-news throw-it-at-them-and-move-on format, the evidence at hand certainly seems to bolster School Two’s position more than School One’s.
Here is what Hannity offered and what each investigation involved. (All descriptions are as shown on Hannity’s show.)
Russia collusion investigation. I’ll note at the outset that Hannity uses the term “investigation” somewhat flexibly. He includes actual criminal probes, congressional inquiries and vaguer what’s-going-on-here sniffing around. So when Hannity mentions the “Russia collusion investigation,” it’s not really clear what he means. Just the unproven idea that Trump explicitly partnered with Russia to aid his 2016 campaign? Does that include media reporting? Just the work of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III? Who knows.
Regardless, we can explain this in similarly broad strokes. Despite the effort to suggest that the Russia probe was a “hoax,” investigations identified numerous contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russian actors. It established clearly how Russia sought to influence the election and how people on the campaign team — his campaign manager, deputy campaign manager and two policy advisers included — had intentional contact with people linked to Russian intelligence or the Russian government. An internal investigation found that the Russia probe was valid and grounded in real questions; a subsequent effort to undermine it has come up short.
Crossfire Hurricane investigation. “Crossfire Hurricane” was the FBI code name for its investigation into Russian interference. It’s not clear why Hannity breaks this out, unless it’s to differentiate between a “collusion” probe and the FBI effort. But: see above.
One thing Hannity didn’t mention, of course, was the very real questions about efforts to obstruct the Mueller probe that Trump avoided largely thanks to the intervention of his attorney general, William P. Barr.
D.C. investigates inaugural funds. After Trump won in 2016, he formed a non-profit committee to fundraise for his inauguration. It was wildly successful, vacuuming up millions of dollars. A lot of that money ended up being spent for inaugural events at Trump’s D.C. hotel, where prices skyrocketed as the inaugural committee was booking rooms.
The committee and the Trump Organization ultimately settled a lawsuit filed by D.C. for $750,000.
New York investigates inaugural funds. D.C. wasn’t alone in probing how inaugural funds were raised and spent. While Hannity calls this a “New York” investigation, it was actually a federal probe. In January 2020, a prominent donor to the committee pleaded guilty to obstruction charges.
New Jersey investigates inaugural funds. There was also an investigation in New Jersey that began in 2019. Nothing appears to have come from it.
Emoluments clause investigations. When Trump first took office, his failure to separate cleanly from his business interests immediately raised questions about conflicts of interest. That’s particularly the case given the Constitution’s emoluments clause, a line which prohibits the nation’s chief executive from receiving benefits from foreign governments. Like, say, booking a huge block of rooms at one of his hotels.
A lawsuit centered on the emoluments issue was dismissed by an appeals court in 2019.
Ways and Means tax investigation. Trump’s failure to provide tax returns during the 2016 election was a break with decades of precedent. When Democrats took over the House majority in 2019, the Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed the documents, arguing that the president’s complex business dealings demanded more scrutiny than past presidents. It was unsuccessful.
It’s not clear what “investigation” might have occurred in the absence of the documents. But the committee tried again in 2021 and, last month, the request was granted. So we may find out.
Trump hotel lease investigation. This one also wasn’t much of an “investigation.” When the Trump Organization took over the old D.C. post office to develop its hotel, the lease with the government (which owned the building) blocked federal officials from being party to the agreement. Then Trump became a federal official.
The General Services Administration determined in 2017 that the lease was still valid, even with Trump as a signatory. An internal watchdog later decried the decision. The hotel was sold earlier this year.
Foreign gifts investigation. There are rules that prevent a president from accepting expensive gifts from foreign officials for presumably obvious reasons. When Trump left office, it became clear that his administration’s documentation of the gifts provided by foreign governments was unreliable. The House launched an investigation in June.
After its search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last month (see below), federal investigators reported recovering a number of items identified as “gifts.”
Fulton County D.A. 2020 election investigation. The district attorney of Fulton County, Ga. is investigating whether Trump violated the law by pressuring state officials to overturn the certified vote in the state. The investigation is ongoing, with numerous Trump allies receiving subpoenas.
That Hannity simply slots this in the middle of the list is telling. This is a big deal, with a well-documented predicate — the recorded call of Trump asking that votes be “found.” But Hannity’s viewers are asked to simply consider this as equivalent to, say, the New Jersey inaugural probe.
NAACP Michigan Voting Rights Act investigation. Hannity also leverages his loose definition of “investigation” to make his list longer. This one, for example, is a lawsuit filed by the NAACP in response to the efforts of Trump allies to subvert the 2020 election results in Michigan. The suit has not yet been settled; there does not appear to be any “investigation.”
Mar-a-Lago search. Another little trick by Hannity: leverage the pejoratives he and his network have spent months or years constructing as shorthands for the audience to scoff any questions away. What Hannity calls “Mar-a-Lago raid” might also be described as “federal probe into Trump’s unauthorized retention of government documents, including ones marked ‘top secret’.” Or “investigation into mishandling classified materials and possible efforts to obstruct federal investigators.”
To each his own, I guess.
House Oversight classified materials investigation. It’s not uncommon for a criminal probe to sit alongside a civil one. So the House Oversight committee is also investigating whether Trump stashed classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago event space. It is a separate investigation, yes, but largely of the same thing as is being considered by the Justice Department.
January 6th committee investigation. There is a House select committee investigating the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump’s months-long effort to retain power despite his loss in the election. To Hannity and his allies, this is a partisan attack, despite the committee’s inclusion of two House Republicans.
Interestingly, Hannity doesn’t include the federal investigation into the riot on his list, despite abundant evidence that the Justice Department is collecting evidence — including that collected as part of the House’s civil probe.
D.C. A.G. investigation into January 6th. D.C.’s attorney general filed a civil lawsuit of his own in December.
That Hannity includes this on his list is fascinating since the suit doesn’t even target Trump! This is a “Trump inve...
