Fox commentator revealed as Trump lawyer’s secret client
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s longtime lawyer and hardedged fixer, Michael Cohen, lost an early round in federal court in Manhattan yesterday as a judge ordered him to disclose the name of a celebrity client he had tried to keep secret: Fox News personality Sean Hannity.
The disclosure was the latest surprise in an extraordinary court case in which the president is fighting his own Justice Department — and losing so far.
US District Judge Kimba Wood rejected a request from Trump’s lawyer to issue a restraining order in the case. But she delayed her ruling on the bigger question on whether lawyers for Cohen and Trump could quash at least some of the evidence FBI agents seized from Cohen last week despite what Trump’s attorney called ‘‘the highly politicised, even fevered, atmosphere that envelops this matter’’.
Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, told the court Cohen had only three clients — Trump, Elliott Broidy, a Republican fundraiser, and a third whom he declined to name.
Ryan said the mystery client had asked to keep his name out of the case, and to file a legal appeal if necessary to keep his identity secret. The lawyer at one point offered to reveal the name in a sealed envelope or secret filing to the court, but Wood ordered the disclosure made in open court.
‘‘I rule it must be disclosed now,’’ she said.
‘‘The client’s name is Sean Hannity,’’ Ryan said.
That prompted a loud gasp in the crowded courtroom given Hannity’s close ties to Trump — and because he had not disclosed his association with Cohen in multiple onair commentaries about the case, even when Cohen was his guest. — TCA