Cohen’s mystery client: Fox News star
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, lost an early round in federal court in Manhattan on Monday 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.
U.S. District Court 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 that FBI agents seized from Cohen last week despite what Trump’s attorney called “the highly politicized, even fevered, atmosphere that envelops this matter.”
Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, told the court that Cohen had only three clients — Trump; Elliot Broidy, a prominent Los Angelesbased 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 disclose the name in a sealed envelope or secret filing to the court, but Wood ordered the identification 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 on-air commentaries about the case, even when Cohen appeared as his guest. The lawyers did not say what legal work Cohen had performed for Hannity.
Hannity later released a statement saying Cohen had “never represented me in any matter,” although they “occasionally had brief discussions” on legal questions.
“I assumed those conversations were confidential, but to be absolutely clear they never involved any matter between me and a third party,” he said. Hannity said Cohen never sent him a bill for legal services, and he never paid Cohen.
That left unclear why Cohen’s lawyers had said in a written submission to the court that he was Cohen’s client and that their communications should be considered covered by attorney-client privilege.
Hannity, one of Trump’s fiercest defenders, has harshly criticized the Justice Department on his Fox News show for sending FBI agents to seize evidence from Cohen’s New York apartment, hotel room, office and safety deposit box April 9.
A federal magistrate had approved the search warrants as part of a months-long criminal investigation into whether Cohen violated banking and campaign finance laws. The case stemmed from a referral from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, but is under the public integrity section of the office of the U.S. attorney for Southern District of New York.
Cohen has arranged two hushmoney payments to women who claimed they had sexual affairs with Trump. He gave $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, a porn actress, who attended the court hearing Monday, listening to the arguments without expression.
“Depending on what is contained within those documents, I think there is significant danger to the president,” her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, told reporters after the hearing.
For Broidy, Cohen helped broker a $1.6 million payment to a former Playboy model with whom he had a sexual relationship. The woman became pregnant and subsequently had an abortion, Broidy said in a statement last week after the Wall Street Journal first reported Cohen’s role.
Most of the hearing focused on efforts by lawyers for Trump and Cohen to stop federal prosecutors from sifting through tax records, business documents, emails and other material that FBI agents seized in the raids last week. They argued that the evidence should be protected by attorney-client privilege.
“We have a situation unprecedented in the history of the U.S.,” Ryan said.
But prosecutors said Trump has no more rights under the law than anyone else if his lawyer committed a crime.
“No one has given any reason why President Trump’s assertion of privilege is different from that of any other citizen of the U.S.,” said Thomas McKay, an assistant U.S. attorney.