Paul Manafort had a lot of late-night chats with Sean Hannity, these court-released texts seemingly show

Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort got a lot of "u up"-style texts from someone who appears to be Sean Hannity.

The judge handling Manafort's case unsealed 56 pages of instant messages on Friday with someone who appears to be the Fox News host and ally of President Trump. They're chock full of reciprocated pleas for phone calls to discuss unspecified "info," and some pretty blatant references to the Mueller investigation and people in Trump's orbit.

The string of texts kicks off with "Sean" asking Manafort "can we talk" at 2:04 a.m. in July 2017. So begins a nearly year-long exchange in which Sean repeatedly sympathizes with Manafort as he is charged with conspiracy against the U.S. and even as he is under house arrest, constantly asking him to appear on his unnamed show. Notable bits show that Manafort told Sean that "Gates" — presumably former Trump campaign official Rick Gates — was "in it for the long haul" just a day before Gates agreed to cooperate with the Mueller probe. Manafort, at one point, also recommends Hannity for a Pulitzer.

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Sean never explicitly mentions his last name in the hundreds of texts, but he does share that he is "55 years old" in an August 2017 message, shares details about his family, and constantly talks about watching and appearing on TV. Sean's New Year's declaration that "2018 is the year of exposing the TRUTH!!!" is a pretty Hannity-esque statement, too.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.