As Twitchy reported, Judge Kimba Wood on Monday ordered President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to publicly release the name of his third client, a “publicly prominent individual” who turned out to be Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Hannity has already made statements on Twitter and on his radio show denying that there was any sort of formal legal relationship between the two:
https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/985970632201564161
Twitter star Popehat (aka Ken White) weighed in on the back-and-forth between Cohen and Hannity and seems to think that Cohen’s naming of Hannity as a client was a stretch to save his own hide.
Bear in mind that Cohen has every incentive to exaggerate his client communciations to try to derail the doc review, so he may be spinning Hannity into a client when he really isn't, or is only minimally for a few communications.
— YourFiveHatsAreUp (@Popehat) April 16, 2018
Also: Cohen screwed Hannity. Wood was only in a position to require revealing his identity because of how Cohen structured his mostly-weak mostly-bad argument about how the doc review should work. If Hannity was a real client, that was a knife in the back.
— YourFiveHatsAreUp (@Popehat) April 16, 2018
I am really at a loss whether to believe Cohen less or Hannity less.
— YourFiveHatsAreUp (@Popehat) April 16, 2018
It’s a toss-up, but Cohen was on the hot seat first.
I don't get the sense that Cohen and Hannity have thought this all the way through — the impact of their positions on the attorney-client privilege, and how they may be waiving and/or undermining privilege.
They need to be playing chess. They're playing Hungry Hungry Hippos.
— YourFiveHatsAreUp (@Popehat) April 16, 2018
Also, it's entirely possible for Hannity's communications with Cohen to be covered with privilege even if Hannity didn't formally retain or pay him. But if that's the case, the way Cohen and Hannity are approaching it is haphazard.
— YourFiveHatsAreUp (@Popehat) April 16, 2018
What's playing out now, in real-time, is exactly why you don't talk to the government (or make arguments to the court) without very thoroughly figuring out what's going on first. Way too easy to step in it.
— YourFiveHatsAreUp (@Popehat) April 16, 2018
I mean, normally I would say it's entirely incredible that someone with unlimited resources would go to Michael Cohen for legal advice.
But we're talking about Sean Hannity. Dude's mind careens around like Billy Joel on a long weekend.
— YourFiveHatsAreUp (@Popehat) April 16, 2018
Hannity definitely has some explaining to do, but so does Cohen — to a judge.
Evergreen tweet. Read this @Popehat thread: https://t.co/V6OQ0tplht
— David French (@DavidAFrench) April 16, 2018
It's kinda self-defeating that he only managed to name three clients, and even then one (Hannity) is already disavowing. https://t.co/Rd4IdgOXpq
— AySz88 (@AySz88) April 16, 2018
https://twitter.com/moorehn/status/985976663711387651
This is wildly tricky stuff that Cohen's team doesn't seem to be treating with the care it deserves, as laid out in this thread. https://t.co/Kzr7PJdaka
— Jess (@jessicaesquire) April 16, 2018
This seems the best explaination https://t.co/euifcbPJVh
— Josh Fields (@partiallypro) April 16, 2018
This makes sense, but it sounds like Hannity didn't know he was a client. We know that's not true b/c he asked Cohen not to name him.
— Michael D. Pomerantz (@MDP_ESQ) April 16, 2018
Assuming Cohen is telling the truth about that.
— YourFiveHatsAreUp (@Popehat) April 16, 2018
https://twitter.com/frohaug/status/985975743363600384
If Cohen had comms with Hannity that he doesn’t want to become public, he needs to spin Hannity as a client so attorney-client privilege kicks in.
— Jean-François Mezei (@jfmezei) April 16, 2018
https://twitter.com/PetzKathy/status/985979525686317057
Suspect Cohen was taken by surprise for those raids, and scrambling to develop a defence and hoping folks like Hannity will be smart enough to play along. Hannity didn’t play along.
— Jean-François Mezei (@jfmezei) April 16, 2018
You mean he may have (pause for dramatic breath) lied?
— Steverino (@CookieDuster) April 16, 2018
*clutching pearls while suffering an attack of the vapors*
— Zelda (@MonterioMA) April 16, 2018
* * *
And here it is: photographic proof that Cohen and Hannity are playing Hungry Hungry Hippos when they need to be playing chess:
— darth™ (@darth) April 16, 2018
Related:
Could Sean Hannity's relationship with Michael Cohen pose a problem for Fox News? https://t.co/mLzRw7W5iL
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 16, 2018