Sean Hannity 'had been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks': court docs

Behind the scenes at Fox News after the 2020 election, it was becoming clear that conservative prime-time hosts were saying one thing to viewers and another thing privately.

According to court filings by Dominion Voting Systems in their lawsuit against Fox News, the hosts of the network knew very well that Donald Trump lost the election and that his election conspiracies were all lies.

Sean Hannity was a close adviser to Trump and his 2020 election, even going so far as to "endorse" his phony election fraud claims before ultimately abandoning them.

"On January 12, [Paul] Ryan discussed with Rupert and Lachlan an article called 'The Alternate Reality Machine' about 'the right-wing media ecosystem created an alternative reality for those who had come to rely on its outlets for news' and were the 'enablers' of January 6," said the documents. "Ryan believed that 'some high percentage of Americans' thought the election was stolen 'because they got a diet of information telling them the election was stolen from what they believe were credible sources.'"

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When Murdoch responded to Ryan's email, he said, “Thanks Paul. Wake-up call for Hannity, who has been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks, but was scared to lose viewers."

While Fox might not lose viewers, it could ultimately lose $1.6 billion if they are found to have defamed Dominion voting systems.

"[T]he sooner we can put down the echoes of falsehoods from our side, the faster we can get onto principled loyal opposition," Ryan responded to Murdoch. "I truly hope our contributors, along with Tucker, Laura, and Sean get that and execute."

Murdoch went on to beg then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to tell other GOP senators not to push the big lie, while his network continued to do so.