Some background.
About 10 days before the 2016 election, Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress was paid $130,000 by Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to stay mum about the fact that she and Trump had an affair in 2006. Last week the FBI raided Cohen's office and seized records and tape recordings, in part on the recommendation of Robert Mueller, so the raid was tangentially related to Mueller's Russian election tampering investigation.
As part of his defense, Cohen argued that the raid violates attorney-client privilege. The government says that Trump was Cohen's only client so the raid is a part of the Mueller investigation. There is no attorney-client privilege if there are only two parties and they are part of the investigation. Cohen counter-argued that he has other clients and proceeded to say he had two other clients. He named one of the other ones--a Playboy model that claimed to have been impregnated by a Republican National Committee official, Elliott Broidy. The model was paid $1.5 million dollars in a deal worked out by Cohen to keep her quiet.
So you see what sort of a lawyer Cohen is--a fixer that pays people money to make problems go away.
Back to today's news...
What about the third client? Cohen didn't want to disclose who this person was. Given the sort of work he does, I can understand it. (LOL) The judge wasn't going to let him stay quiet and ordered him to divulge the name. Who was it?
Sean Hannity. Fox News show host. Number one rating champ of Fox News. Trump apologist extraordinaire. The Donald's chief sycophant.
So what kind of a problem did Cohen make disappear for Hannity?
Hannity says of Cohen: "I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions." (While I'm no lawyer, I'm pretty sure the fact that you never got an invoice from Cohen doesn't mean you weren't his client.)
Hannity said that Cohen and he discussed mostly real estate issues and certainly Cohen never represented Hannity in any dealings with "third parties" (a veiled reference to payoffs to make problems disappear.) At one point Hannity bragged, "I've got eight attorneys."
Which makes me wonder--if you've got eight lawyers why would you need to consult with Michael Cohen about anything?
Also--While Hannity goes on and on defending Cohen on his TV show, shouldn't he disclose that he's consulted with him for legal issues? Alan Dershowitz thinks so:
Dershowitz confronts Hannity: 'You should have disclosed your relationship with Cohen'
I mean, c'mon...
If you disagree that he needn't disclose this information--imagine how Sean Hannity would respond if it were news that Obama’s personal lawyer, while being the subject of a criminal investigation, was also secretly the lawyer for Rachel Maddow—and she had been using her show to defend the lawyer without disclosing that relationship?
Hmmm...?
About 10 days before the 2016 election, Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress was paid $130,000 by Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to stay mum about the fact that she and Trump had an affair in 2006. Last week the FBI raided Cohen's office and seized records and tape recordings, in part on the recommendation of Robert Mueller, so the raid was tangentially related to Mueller's Russian election tampering investigation.
As part of his defense, Cohen argued that the raid violates attorney-client privilege. The government says that Trump was Cohen's only client so the raid is a part of the Mueller investigation. There is no attorney-client privilege if there are only two parties and they are part of the investigation. Cohen counter-argued that he has other clients and proceeded to say he had two other clients. He named one of the other ones--a Playboy model that claimed to have been impregnated by a Republican National Committee official, Elliott Broidy. The model was paid $1.5 million dollars in a deal worked out by Cohen to keep her quiet.
So you see what sort of a lawyer Cohen is--a fixer that pays people money to make problems go away.
Back to today's news...
What about the third client? Cohen didn't want to disclose who this person was. Given the sort of work he does, I can understand it. (LOL) The judge wasn't going to let him stay quiet and ordered him to divulge the name. Who was it?
Sean Hannity. Fox News show host. Number one rating champ of Fox News. Trump apologist extraordinaire. The Donald's chief sycophant.
So what kind of a problem did Cohen make disappear for Hannity?
Hannity says of Cohen: "I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions." (While I'm no lawyer, I'm pretty sure the fact that you never got an invoice from Cohen doesn't mean you weren't his client.)
Hannity said that Cohen and he discussed mostly real estate issues and certainly Cohen never represented Hannity in any dealings with "third parties" (a veiled reference to payoffs to make problems disappear.) At one point Hannity bragged, "I've got eight attorneys."
Which makes me wonder--if you've got eight lawyers why would you need to consult with Michael Cohen about anything?
Also--While Hannity goes on and on defending Cohen on his TV show, shouldn't he disclose that he's consulted with him for legal issues? Alan Dershowitz thinks so:
Dershowitz confronts Hannity: 'You should have disclosed your relationship with Cohen'
I mean, c'mon...
If you disagree that he needn't disclose this information--imagine how Sean Hannity would respond if it were news that Obama’s personal lawyer, while being the subject of a criminal investigation, was also secretly the lawyer for Rachel Maddow—and she had been using her show to defend the lawyer without disclosing that relationship?
Hmmm...?
