'MERRY LITMAS'! Michael Cohen's third client REVEALED — and it's 'going to BREAK THE INTERNET'; Updated

Editor’s note: Scroll down for updates to this post.

Buckle up, folks. This is gonna be one hell of a ride:

Lawyers are here not only for President Donald Trump but also for the Trump Organization, per judge.

— erica orden (@eorden) April 16, 2018

Prosecutor on Cohen's clients: "His letter this morning admits that he has only three legal clients, and I think this is fatal to their motion."

— erica orden (@eorden) April 16, 2018

Prosecutor Tom McKay: "Mr. Cohen has asserted that he has more attorneys of his own than he has clients."

— erica orden (@eorden) April 16, 2018

McKay says the warrant is specific to material in some cases for certain subjects from Jan 1, 2013 onward and for others for material concerning events that are post-2011.

— erica orden (@eorden) April 16, 2018

Prosecutor: "Mr. Cohen might have a legal degree, but this investigation and the search is largely focused on his business dealings and personal financial dealings."

— erica orden (@eorden) April 16, 2018

On Cohen's secret third client, McKay says, "How can the government ever hope to push back against the overly broad claim of privilege?" if he doesn't disclose the name.

— erica orden (@eorden) April 16, 2018

"I think it indicates that he's going to continue to hide behind overbroad claims of privilege."

— erica orden (@eorden) April 16, 2018

McKay: "There are three parties to this litigation as of now. Only two of them have made inflammatory public comments about this case," he says, naming Trump and Cohen. "Our office has done no such thing."

— erica orden (@eorden) April 16, 2018

On Fox, Shep Smith addresses Hannity: "We just spoke with his publicist here at Fox News who says that he says they've been friends for a long time, he never denied that he he was his lawyer, that he did some legal work along the way, and that's the extent of that."

— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) April 16, 2018

***

Update:

This is getting interesting. Well, more interesting:

HANNITY: "I've known Michael a long long time..let me be very clear to the media, Michael never represented me in any matter, I never retained him in the traditional sense … I have occasionally had legal discussions where I wanted his input

— Alana Abramson (@aabramson) April 16, 2018

https://twitter.com/bendreyfuss/status/985967875163918338

Hmmm …

Then why did Michael Cohen say he was his client? https://t.co/98feeJ7lvF

— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) April 16, 2018

I still don't understand why Cohen's lawyer would refer to Hannity, in a letter to the court, as a "client" if the relationship were this casual https://t.co/B6lxGNUPw2

— Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) April 16, 2018

What is going on?

HANNITY says he has 8 different lawyers, but occasionally slipped Cohen a few dollars … "I definitely might have handed him 10 bucks: "'I want attorney-client privilege on this'."

— David Martosko (@dmartosko) April 16, 2018

https://twitter.com/bendreyfuss/status/985968821956685825

OK …

The "Better Call Saul" defense.

— Charles Repine (@DistrictDawg) April 16, 2018

***

Update:

So, is Hannity calling Michael Cohen a liar or … ?

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/985970632201564161

In that case:

So, as @nycsouthpaw said earlier, either this is not accurately portraying the relationship, or there are basically no A-C privileged files at issue — which would undermine the argument Cohen's lawyers are trying to make in court. https://t.co/gTprU7HUK7

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) April 16, 2018

Oy vey.

https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/985972822177656832

***

Update:

Some insight from Legal Insurrection:

Contrary to what a lot of reporters are tweeting, it doesn't matter that Hannity never retained Cohen in a matter, signed a retainer, or paid attorney's fees. He still was, for legal purposes, a client if he consulted even informally for legal advice. https://t.co/7DzqT8x29p

— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) April 16, 2018

And more from Popehat:

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

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