Fox backs Hannity despite Cohen link
NEW YORK — Fox News host Sean Hannity is under fire over the courtroom revelation Monday that he is a client of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, a relationship never made known to viewers of his nightly program or his bosses.
The failure to make such a disclosure while covering or commenting on such a story would ordinarily be a major breach at any journalism organization. But Hannity will not suffer any immediate consequences for it beyond the shaming by other commentators and journalists.
Fox News issued a statement supporting Hannity on Tuesday despite having just learned that Cohen considered him a legal client.
“While Fox News was unaware of Sean Hannity’s informal relationship with Michael Cohen and was surprised by the announcement in court yesterday, we have reviewed the matter and spoken to Sean and he continues to have our full support,” the statement said.
Hannity presented his own defense throughout the day on social media, his nationally syndicated radio program and, finally, his toprated cable news show Monday night.
“Michael Cohen never represented me in any legal matter,” Hannity said at the end of his program. “I never retained his services, I never received an invoice, I never paid Michael Cohen for legal fees. I did have occasional brief conversations with Michael Cohen — he’s a great attorney — about legal questions I had where I was looking for input and perspective ... My questions exclusively almost focused on real estate.”
Hannity is the strongest television advocate of Trump — an avid viewer of Fox News who has praised the news host — and was highly critical of the FBI’s raid on Cohen’s office on April 9. Cohen has appeared on Hannity’s primetime program numerous times to speak on behalf of Trump.
But it was only revealed Monday at a federal court hearing on the evidence seized by the FBI in Cohen’s office, home and hotel room that Hannity is a client of the president’s longtime lawyer and fixer, presenting a major conflict of interest for the host who typically draws 3 million viewers nightly.
Hannity’s name surfaced during the hearing in which U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood rejected a request from Trump’s lawyer to issue a restraining order that would have kept federal prosecutors from reading the files seized from Cohen.
Attorney Alan Dershowitz, who has been advising Trump, chastised Hannity on Monday for failing to reveal that he had even a minor connection to Cohen.
“I really think you should have disclosed your relationship with Cohen when you talked about him on this show,” Dershowitz said. “You could have said just you asked him for advice or whatever — but I think it would have been much, much better had you disclosed that relationship.”
Since the court learned that Hannity is a Cohen client, the host’s ethics have been questioned on other cable news programs and network morning shows, and mocked by late-night hosts.
But Hannity is likely to power through the negative reaction. He has largely operated by his own set of rules at Fox News as a commentator who is not bound by journalistic objectivity.
Jonathan Klein, a former president of CNN, said there will likely be no impact on Hannity’s audience.
“Many Fox News viewers might be delighted that one of its host is so tightly tied in to Trump’s inner circle and won’t mind that he had not disclosed this before,” Klein said. “The Fox viewers are eager to cut President Trump a break, and they will be just as willing to cut Sean Hannity a break.”