Fox News host Sean Hannity was revealed to be Michael Cohen’s secret client during court proceedings on Monday. Cohen is President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and recently had his office, home, and hotel room raided and documents seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Cohen’s lawyers attempted to challenge the seized documents in court and had tried to hide the identity of one of Cohen’s clients. However, Judge Kimba Wood forced the lawyer to reveal the identity.
It is currently unknown in what capacity Hannity dealt with Cohen. Cohen’s lawyers listed Hannity as one of the three clients with whom he had a legal relationship with.
Hannity tweeted, “Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective.” Hannity later tweeted that his interactions with Cohen “dealt almost exclusively about real estate” which raises the question of what else besides real estate was discussed.
Hannity has frequently opined on matters involving Cohen and has interviewed the lawyer. He has not disclosed any relationship with Cohen when discussing the lawyer.
During his primetime program that night, Hannity poked at the media’s obsession with his reveal and showed a montage of cable news personalities on MSNBC and CNN saying his name. Hannity also addressed the question of his disclosures (or lack thereof), “My discussions with Michael Cohen never rose to any level that I needed to tell anyone that I was asking him questions.”