Mueller had requested some witnesses turn in their phones after suspicion that Manafort used WhatsApp to tamper with witnesses

Sean Hannity is trying a new tactic in his attempts to derail special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. He suggested to witnesses in the investigation to delete evidence and “bash” their phones with a hammer into “little itsy bitsy pieces”.

Paul Manafort tampering with witnesses, say Mueller investigators Read more

The Fox News host, who it is reported has replaced Melania Trump as the last person Donald Trump speaks to before he goes to bed each night, was responding to news that Mueller has asked some witnesses to turn in their phones in order to view messages on encrypted apps such as WhatsApp. Mueller made the request after suspicion arose that Paul Manafort was using encrypted services to tamper with witnesses.

Hannity gave surprisingly specific instructions: “Delete all your emails and then acid-wash your emails and hard drives on the phones, then take your phones and bash them with a hammer to little itsy-bitsy pieces, use BleachBit, remove the SIM cards and then take the pieces and hand them over to Robert Mueller and say, ‘Hillary Rodham Clinton, this is equal justice under the law.’”

Hannity was referring, as he often likes to do, to Clinton’s handling of confidential information while at the state department. The FBI revealed during the election campaign that one of Clinton’s staffers had destroyed two phones with a hammer, something Hannity has brought up dozens of times since then. He prefaced his list of data-destroying techniques by saying “if I advised [the witnesses] to follow Hillary Clinton’s lead”.

As Hannity acknowledges, Clinton’s phones were storing sensitive information, and many security experts believe that they were being destroyed to ensure safety rather than to avoid scrutiny.

During the Bush administration, Hannity was a staunch supporter of the NSA surveilling programme, data mining and government agencies looking at private messages. He repeatedly attacked Democrats for being weak on national defence for raising privacy concerns about such programmes.