President Donald Trump's biggest fan Sean Hannity has suggested witnesses in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe should smash up their mobile phones.
In the opening monologue of his show on Wednesday evening, the Fox News host likened his advice to Hillary Clinton's handling of the investigation into her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
"Maybe Mueller's witnesses, I don't know, if I advised them to follow Hillary Clinton's lead," Hannity said.
"Delete all your emails, and then acid wash the emails and hard drives on your phones, then take your phones and bash them with a hammer into little itsy bitsy pieces, use BleachBit, remove the sim cards, he continued. "And then take the pieces and hand it over to Robert Mueller and say, 'Hillary Rodham Clinton, this is equal justice under the law."
"How do you think that would work out for everybody who Mueller's demanding their phones of tonight?" Hannity added. "I'm certain the result would not be the same as Hillary's."
Trump himself tweeted about Clinton "destroying phones with a hammer" in 2017, querying why his "non-dealings" with Russia were being investigated.
"Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are?" the President tweeted, adding, "Crooked H destroyed phones w/ hammer, 'bleached' emails, & had husband meet w/AG days before she was cleared- & they talk about obstruction?"
His comments, and Hannity's appear to reference reports from the FBI on its investigation into Clinton's emails that suggest Clinton destroyed her used phones on several occasions and also deleted emails using BleachBit software, The Independent reported at the time.
Hannity reportedly speaks to Trump regularly, with aides referring to the TV host as Trump's unofficial chief of staff, The Washington Post reported back in April.
Indeed, sources who spoke with The Post said that Hannity was one of a small number of people trump appears to regard as an equal. "There is a small group of people who Trump speaks with who truly don't have to be obsequious," one Trump ally told the news outlet. "Sean is one of them."
Updated | This story has been expanded to include additional information about Sean Hannity.
