Sean Hannity boasted about having insider information supposedly proving that allegations Rep. Devin Nunes tried to dig up dirt on Bidens and the Democrats from Ukrainians are “outright lies.” But rather than refute any specific allegations, Hannity cheered and suggested lawyers for Nunes in his threatened lawsuits against CNN and The Daily Beast for reporting the claims.
In a previous post, I reported that Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, is offering to cooperate with House impeachment investigators of the Ukraine scandal and, through his lawyers, claims he helped connect Nunes with Ukrainians who could help dig up the political dirt that would be helpful to Donald Trump. In other words, it's information that, if true, would make Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee leading the inquiry, part of the events he's supposedly investigating.
Yet while Nunes insisted to Fox News on Sunday that the allegations are “demonstrably false,” he dodged the yes or no questions from Trumper host Maria Bartiromo. And yet the claims could be easily rebutted.
Last night, Nunes repeated the performance on the Hannity show. But in this case, Hannity avoided asking yes or no questions and declared the allegations “outright lies” on Nunes’ behalf before he said a word.
HANNITY: I’ve got to be honest, I know more about this than maybe you want me to reveal, so I will let you say it in your own words. I saw the report about you; I happen to know a lot of it is outright lies. Now, what are you planning to do?
Given Hannity’s record of dishonesty, this is hardly gospel truth. But it did relieve Nunes of the inconvenience of any pesky yes or no questions.
So, the two got right to Nunes’ latest threatened lawsuits. As far as I can tell, Nunes is still in the middle of a lawsuit against the McClatchy newspaper chain as well as one against Twitter and three Twitter users, including a parody account called Devin Nunes’ cow. His lawsuit against the publisher of Esquire and writer Ryan Lizza (which reported, among other things, that Nunes’ family employs undocumented immigrants on their farm) also appears to be ongoing. In September, Roll Call reported that Nunes dropped his lawsuit against three constituents “who called him a ‘fake farmer’ and petitioned, unsuccessfully, to remove the designation as 'farmer' from his name on the 2018 ballot.” Vox concluded that even for Nunes, “his latest threat against CNN and the Daily Beast is flimsy.”
Predictably, “free-speech advocate” Hannity swooned over Nunes’ latest threats.
First, we got Nunes' now-familiar “it’s all false” lines coupled with threats that utterly lacked any specific denials:
NUNES: Well, Sean, like we’ve seen so many times over the last three years, every time House Republicans on the Intelligence Committee come up with real information and put it out there, what do they do? They smear the messenger. And the problem that CNN has this time, and The Daily Beast is -- look, I understand the last week and a half -- it was a disaster for them. It was a train wreck for them. So, what do they have to do? They had to come out and say, “Well, look, Devin Nunes was actually the one that was meeting with all of these Ukrainians.” So, sorry, CNN, it’s totally false.
So, we put out a very clear statement after the story came out on Friday night saying it’s demonstrably false, total fake news, and I will tell you, Sean, for all of the last three years, including the Russia hoax to the Ukraine hoax, this is the mother of all fake news stories. There is not one bigger than this.
And so, next week we are going to take them to court. They will have an opportunity to come to court so that we can subpoena each other; we can get discovery; we can sit people down for depositions. And I have a bet for you, Sean: CNN and The Daily Beast are going to run for cover. They’re gonna fight this. They’re not going to show up in court. They’re not going to accept service. So, look, it’s -- but at the end of the day, I’m going to track them down, and I’m going to hold them accountable …
Then came the Hannity swooning, followed by his own threats:
HANNITY: I applaud what you’re doing, I really do, and actually, I’m pretty close to doing the same thing in some ways myself, which I won’t talk about tonight. But as a public figure, our standard is high. Absence of malice. … It's harder, but it's important. I think we're getting to a point that they've got to be held accountable. How spectacular is the lie on, say, a scale of one to 100, the lies that they told about you?
NUNES: Well, your scale of one to a hundred would not be -- they would blow the scale apart because it would be a thousand. So, look, I don't know how to describe it better. I made a clear statement on Friday night, “Demonstrably false and scandalous fake news.” Look, there were five other agencies, media agencies, that had this same fake news story that decided not to run it two months before. We have others that had the same story. So, look, I think it's also a little bit fake news, Sean, that these media companies have been -- they tell a story so often it just becomes true, that, oh, you're a public figure. Well, we’re a public figure, but really, if you have reckless disregard for the truth and actual malice -- and, I mean, are you kidding me?
FACT CHECK: Neither CNN nor The Daily Beast said the allegations were true, they reported on what Parnas’ lawyer alleged.
And yet truth-loving Hannity ignored the facts. Instead, he recommended other lawyers who have sued the media. “I’d like to see these guys get a lot of work, and I think they might," Hannity said. Then, in closing, he thanked Nunes "for sharing" and promised to "watch very closely what happens with this suit.”
Watch the war on the First Amendment below, from the November 25, 2019 Hannity.
Parnas and Fruman are saying they were heading to Ukraine to join Hannity in an interview of allegedly corrupt former Ukrainian prosecutor Shokin. So here’s a Giuliani to Hannity connection. Giuliani using Sean as a useful tool in spreading his anti-Biden smear propaganda? We don’t know because Sean and Fox News refuse to comment when asked by the ‘fake media’.
Additionally, there’s a diGenova to Hannity connection on Ukraine. diGenova, a frequent Hannity guest, represents corrupt oligarch and Kremlin tool Ukrainian Dmitry Firtash who is fighting extradition to the United States on bribery charges. Firtash is another player Giuliani hoped would provide dirt on the Bidens. A new wrinkle tying all this together is Shokin filed an affidavit in Firtash’s case where he repeats all his poor, pitiful me I’m a victim of the Bidens story.
I also noted Hannity’s attempt to cheerlead the doomed Sandmann nuisance suits, which have been allowed to continue to discovery to confirm that the media coverage was protected under 1st Amendment conditions and that following that, they’ll be tossed back out of court again.
As I noted in the other thread, I tire of all this chest pounding by despicable men like Nunes and Hannity. If they really have some giant smoking gun, then bring it out and let everyone see it. Otherwise, there is no indication that they have anything other than their own hot air.
I’d like to bet some of those big boys are just rarin’ to give you a dang good waterboarding.