By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was ordered Monday to disclose the identity of a mysterious client whom he had tried to keep secret – and it’s none other than Fox News personality Sean Hannity.
Cohen’s lawyers tried to prevent Hannity’s name from being disclosed earlier in the day, but District Judge Kimba Wood demanded it, according to numerous news reports.
The lawyers said Cohen had only three clients – Trump, Hannity and Elliot Broidy, a prominent Los Angeles-based Republican fundraiser who, it was revealed last week, helped Cohen negotiate a $1.6 million settlement with a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump.
Hannity, an outspoken Trump supporter who has repeatedly slammed the FBI’s raid on Cohen’s office, hotel and computers, first responded on Twitter, saying Cohen had “never represented me in any matter,” but the two had “occasionally brief discussions” on unidentified legal issues.
Later on his radio show, Hannity said he believed the conversations with Cohen were confidential.
“I’ve known Michael a long, long time,” Hannity said. “Let me be very clear to the media. Michael never represented me in any matter. I never retained him in the traditional sense as retaining a lawyer. I never received an invoice from Michael. I never paid legal fees to Michael.”
FBI agents seized Cohen’s computers, phones, office and hotel room in a raid that sought, among other records, all communications between Cohen and Trump and his campaign aides.
Cohen, who is under investigation for possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations, has caught the attention of federal prosecutors for his role in combating negative stories about Trump. In 2016, Cohen paid adult-film attorney Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet about an affair she said she had with Trump shortly after his wife had a baby in 2006.
It’s unclear whether Hannity also is under investigation.
