Sean Hannity Denies Legal Connection To Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen
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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) - One of President Donald Trump's most important public supporters, Sean Hannity, has denied that he and the president have the same attorney.
On Monday, the Fox News host was identified as a 'mystery client' of Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen. It came up during an ongoing criminal investigation of Cohen's personal business dealings and possible campaign finance violations.
Cohen is fighting to control evidence taken in FBI raids of his home, office, and hotel room more than a week ago.
On his show Monday night, Hannity denied being Cohen's client.
"Michael Cohen never represented me in any legal matter, I never received an invoice. I never paid Cohen for legal fees," he said.
Hannity said he did ask Cohen legal questions from time to time but they were mostly about real estate.
"I had occasional brief conversations with Michael Cohen, they never involved any matter, any, sorry to disappoint so many, matter between me, or a third party or a third group at all," he said.
Hannity who once described Cohen as a "good friend" and came to his defense after the FBI raids. Cohen has been a guest on Hannity's show and both men frequently come to the president's defense.
During Monday's hearing, Judge Kimba Wood ordered prosecutors to enter but not review the material seized from Cohen's properties onto a searchable database and then share it with the defense. Wood will then decide whether to grant Cohen's request to appoint a special master to review the documents in order to decide what may be protected by attorney-client privilege.
Federal investigators are looking into whether Cohen violated campaign finance laws when he paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130 thousand to keep silent about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Daniels attended Monday's hearing but had no role in it. Her appearance, however, did cause a media frenzy at the courthouse.
"Anyone who has had any contact with this man in the last 20 years should be very concerned about what secrets of theirs are within these documents," said Daniel's attorney Michael Avenatti.
Prosecutors say they could begin to make some of the documents seized in last week's raids available within days.
