Fox's Hannity Hypes Over 5 Debunked Benghazi Myths In Under 6 Minutes To Attack Hillary Clinton Ahead Of Her Committee Testimony

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

On the October 21 edition of Fox News' Hannity, host Sean Hannity and senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano hyped numerous repeatedly debunked myths ahead of Clinton's testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi. Hannity pushed the debunked myths that a stand down order was issued and that Clinton's State Department falsely attributed the attacks to an inflammatory anti-Islam video, despite the fact that there is no evidence any stand down order was given, and the intelligence community, the suspected attackers, and eyewitnesses all linked the video to the attacks. Hannity and Napolitano also used Clinton's testimony to repeat false claims about her use of email while serving as secretary of state, pushing the discredited claim that Clinton's email use may have been criminal.  Napolitano repeated the disproven claim that Clinton stored top secret information in her personal emails, including the name of a CIA source despite the agency confirming this claim was false. Hannity also revived the repeatedly debunked myth that Clinton's server was stored in the bathroom of a “mom and pop shop.”

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Here are the three issues we've got to maintain which also opened up the email issue. Before we know for a fact Ambassador Stevens requested security because of the deteriorating situation.

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Right.

HANNITY: He was denied. During, I've interviewed a number of the guys at the annex, they all said the same thing. They were told to stand down instead of going to help and save. They defied that order. They saved lives. Afterwards we now know they knew within minutes that it was a terror attack. But they went on with this narrative about a YouTube video and this being a spontaneous demonstration.

NAPOLITANO: Right.

HANNITY: What you are looking for in the hearings?

NAPOLITANO: I'm looking for Mrs. Clinton to acknowledge that she has held back information or to profess an ignorance of facts that we know she knows about. I am looking for her to say things which will help the FBI put together the puzzle of whether or not she committed espionage by failing to protect and preserve national security secrets, destruction of government property by attempting to destroy emails. Obstruction of justice by attempting to destroy emails and perjury by swearing under oath that she submitted all the emails that she had.

[...]

HANNITY: Now, this investigation then opened up the fact that they discovered she had a private email which then led to the server.

NAPOLITANO: Right.

HANNITY: Which is in a bathroom of a mom and pop shop, that since we now discovered the Russians tried to hack in five times, the Germans, the Chinese, maybe even the Iranians when all is said and done. My sources are telling me the FBI is likely going to get the 33,000 deleted emails legally. If it's not about yoga, a wedding, a funeral, and conversations with Bill who doesn't email, this is what she said they were about.

NAPOLITANO: Right.

HANNITY: And she went email by email and destroyed them and they're about Benghazi or they're about the Clinton Foundation or they have classified information on them, that means she is in real legal jeopardy and a potential criminal trial.

NAPOLITANO: Absolutely. There is nothing that will frustrate the FBI more than obstruction of justice particularly by a lawyer, particularly by a high ranking lawyer in the government who knows what the law is and who has been briefed on what she can do and what she can't do. I told you they're looking for perjury and they're looking for espionage and they're looking for destruction of property, but the thing that will goad them the most is obstruction of justice, frustrating their job by attempting to destroy evidence which we now believe her attempts were unsuccessful.

HANNITY: My sources tell me and every IT expert tells me that as she deleted the emails, she really believed they were deleted. As she wiped the server clean, they never thought computer forensics would allow them to ever find them again. If they find them and we find that, in fact, she did have classified information there, I have a list of 15 statutes -- actually 16 now, that Rudy Giuliani thinks that ought to be investigated, that's up on the screen as we talk. Many of the things you talked about the espionage act, USC 793, for example, but also obstruction of justice, attempted conspiracy. If they find emails that -- what are the odds they're going to find this?

NAPOLITANO: Well, Sean I think they've already found emails like Ambassador Stevens' itinerary as he's traveling around Libya. How can she say that's not top secret? The name of a CIA officer operating under deep cover. Satellite photographs of American satellites of military and nuclear sites. Correct, correct. Intercepts of foreign agents in the Middle East, telephone calls and emails. There's no conceivable way that she could credibly say I didn't know that was classified.

HANNITY: Do you think there's a prima facie case against her now?

NAPOLITANO: I absolutely do. I've said this before and I'll say it again, her legal situation is somewhere between grave and worse than grave. Now we might not learn about that tomorrow because they might not ask the questions as a skilled cross-examiner would ask. They might ask the questions as a politician asks.