According to the source, Hannity had proposed that Trump issue a last-minute pardon for Hunter Biden, whose business dealings had two years prior been at the center of the ex-president’s campaign to extort an investigation out of the Ukrainian government—efforts that led to Trump’s first impeachment in 2019.

Hannity pitched the idea in a Jan. 7 conversation, framing it as a gesture that might help “smooth things over” after the insurrection’s traumatic rift, this person confirmed. But ultimately, the idea, like others in the text to McEnany—such as “no more stolen election talk” and “attending inauguration”—ultimately went nowhere.

“It died on the vine,” the person recalled, adding that, despite Trump’s initial interest, the pardon was “never seriously considered.”