- Sean Hannity suggested Trump pardon Hunter Biden after the Capitol attack, The Daily Beast reported.
- Hunter Biden was the focus of a pressure campaign on Ukraine that led to Trump's first impeachment.
- A source said Hannity pitched it because he "genuinely wanted some healing."
Fox News host Sean Hannity suggested that President Donald Trump pardon Hunter Biden in a bid to "smooth things over" following the January 6, 2021, insurrection, The Daily Beast reported.
The House select committee investigating the Capitol riot released text messages on Thursday between Hannity and the then-press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, in which the conservative news host discussed the details of his conversation with Trump on January 7, 2021, following the attack on the Capitol.
Hannity and Trump were apparently discussing ways to address the potential fallout in the wake of hundreds of pro-Trump supporters breaching the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, including pitching "no more stolen election talk" and Trump "attending inauguration."
According to one text message from Hannity, one pitch in particular seemed to pique the former president's interest: issuing a last-minute presidential pardon for Hunter Biden, the son of President-elect Joe Biden.
"He was intrigued by the pardon idea!! (Hunter)," Hannity wrote to McEnany, according to the text messages released by the January 6 House panel.
Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine were at the center of Trump's pressure campaign on the Ukrainian government in 2019, which led to the former president's first impeachment in early 2020. Though he currently faces a federal investigation, Hunter Biden has not been charged and denied any wrongdoing.
A source told The Daily Beast that the pardon suggestion wasn't originally Hannity's idea, but he brought it to Trump because he "genuinely wanted some healing."
Another person familiar with the conversation between Hannity and Trump told The Daily Beast that Hannity proposed that the pardon might help "smooth things over," but the idea was ultimately shut down.
"It died on the vine," the person said, saying it was "never seriously considered."
Representatives from Fox News did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Presidential pardons appeared to be one of the few power moves left in Trump's playbook in the final days of his presidency. In the weeks following the insurrection, multiple GOP lawmakers reached out to Trump "for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election," Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the House January 6 committee, said during Thursday's hearings.
Cheney singled out Rep. Scott Perry, of Pennsylvania, saying he "contacted the White House in the weeks after January 6 to seek a presidential pardon."
