Hannity and Cohen

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 08:30:13 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)

Share This: Digg!

I'm actually watching Sean Hannity tonight. He says he is going to address his relationship with Michael Cohen. Alan Dershowitz, who was Hannity's guest along with Joe DiGenova, in a segment trashing James Comey, answered a question about Comey with a light rasp on Hannity's knuckles by volunteering that Hannity should have disclosed his relationship with Cohen when he had Cohen on the show. Hannity responded that his and Cohen's relationship was so minimal -- it was about real estate.

As for diGenova, he had nothing to say other than Comey should be charged with crimes and Hillary should have been made to have pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor before the election over the emails. What planet do these people live on? [more...]

His next segment is with Newt, who I can't watch, so I've muted the show. They are still talking about Comey. Now Lanny Davis is on, calling James Comey a lawyer. Hannity also brings on his own lawyer (the one who negotiates his contracts with Fox). His lawyer calls Comey a "gossipy little girl" and a narcissist, a publicity hound and a man without a country.

Hsnnity keeps harping on his claim that Comey lied on a FISA warrant for Carter Page because the affidavit (which wasn't written by Comey

Sean Spicer will be next -- also trashing Comey. I'll mute him.

Obviously, Hannity is only going to spend 2 minutes or less at the end on his relationship with Cohen. Is he going to say he slipped Cohen a few $10 bills or took him to dinner in exchange for some free legal advice about a real estate investment?

Whatever happened to libel and slander laws? Every guest is calling James Comey a liar and a criminal. The last guest says Comey is is helping the Russians!

< Monday Open Thread | Starbucks to Provide Racial Bias Training to 175,000 Employees >

Legal

Nothing on this site should be construed as legal advice. TalkLeft does not give legal advice.

TalkLeft is not responsible for and often disagrees with material posted in the comments section. Read at your own risk.

Hannity and Cohen | 27 comments (27 topical)

Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

I (5.00 / 2) (#5)
by FlJoe on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 05:13:12 AM EST

think the Hannity thing is somewhat of a red herring, The real trouble for the entire Republican party is the other client, Elliot Broidy. Broidy is a huge fundraiser, him and Cohen are both deputy finance chairs in the RNC, Broidy is tied into the Mueller investigation through George Nader and the UAE and possibly the Seychelles meeting.

If Cohen had named only tRump and Broidy the press would have been forced to at least pay some attention to him, the bombshell about Hannity allowed him to slip back into the shadows as the non-shiny object.

Follow the money, my theory is that the payoff money came from a slush fund(where did Broidy get his 1.6 mil/), possibly funded with foreign money thus the Fed's interest in the payoff's.

I also think that it is quite possible that Broidy was funneling some of that money to the camps of tRump and possibly many other R's.

The main (none / 0) (#6)
by Ga6thDem on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 06:18:15 AM EST

question I'm seeing about Hannity is what did Cohen "fix" for Hannity. So there's probably a story there too along the Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, Broidy and the playmate lines.


Or....this is a case of (5.00 / 1) (#7)
by Anne on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 06:45:28 AM EST

Dumb and Dumber outwitting themselves. Cohen whines to Hannity about having to give the court a client list, and he can only come up with two names. Hannity says, "well, gosh, Michael, you and I have had off-the-cuff legal conversations - tell the court you have three clients, but don't give them my name." "oooh - good idea, Sean, yeah, thanks, man."

So, three clients it is! But, uh-oh, the court's not going along with keeping the third name a secret: she orders Cohen to disclose the names, too - so, eventually having no choice, his lawyer drops the Hannity bomb. And Hannity, who just thought he was helping out his bud, is now all over the news and everyone's wondering what Cohen "really" did for him.

So, what's he do? Backpedals, dissembles, trivializes. Tells the media that no, Cohen didn't represent him, they just had a coupla private chats now and again about mostly real estate. Uh-hunh, sure.

Now, I saw Avenatti say that he's pretty sure Hannity has something to hide, and that's why he didn't want his name out there. It's not that I think Hannity doesn't have things to hide, but honestly, the more I think about it, the more I think this is a case of no good deed (yeah, tell `em you have three clients) going unpunished.

The show goes on, one circus act after another.


I'm sure that's a possiblity (none / 0) (#9)
by Ga6thDem on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 02:50:13 PM EST

but if Avenatti says there is something there probably is.

It could be both stupid and there is something.


LOL! That's just stupid, Anne. (none / 0) (#16)
by Donald from Hawaii on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 09:29:21 PM EST

Which, of course, renders such a scenario entirely plausible and even likely, because we've long since come to expect nothing less from this self-propelled clown car that's fueled by its occupants' own farts.

;-D


I saw a pundit (none / 0) (#17)
by CaptHowdy on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 09:31:37 PM EST

Saying the same thing this afternoon

Sometimes I think they read this blog.


: Really? (none / 0) (#18)
by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Apr 18, 2018 at 03:13:16 AM EST

Maybe Jeralyn should copyright, since some of the stuff written here is A-list material.
;-D

: Yes! I saw Nick Ackerman float (none / 0) (#19)
by Anne on Wed Apr 18, 2018 at 06:42:18 AM EST

this as a possibility on Ari Melber's show...had the same thought: "wonder if he's reading TalkLeft?"

I agree it should be bigger news (none / 0) (#8)
by CaptHowdy on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 08:12:50 AM EST

And I think it will be. Especially if (when) Cohen is indicted. Will the RNC fire him then.

At least the other guy, the other fundraiser, is no longer with the RNC.

I absolutely agree that this story is a cruise missile aimed at the republican party if, as you say and I believe, there was Russian money going into the coffers of the RNC.

It's hard to explain the over the top reaction and running of interference of many republicans in any way except they have real skin in the game.

That would be a youuuuuge story. This is after all an elecion year.


From (5.00 / 3) (#10)
by FlJoe on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 04:35:20 PM EST

it's a small world files

In late May of 2017, a radio station in Oklahoma received a cease and desist from two lawyers representing Fox News personality Sean Hannity: Jay Sekulow and Victoria Toensing.

was it about alleged sexual misconduct? Why, of course

Sekulow and Toensing sent the letter to Tulsa's KFAQ after conservative activist Debbie Schlussel alleged on the station's Pat Campbell show that Hannity had acted in a "creepy" manner with her and invited her to his hotel room.

I guess Cohen was busy that weekend.

Well, (none / 0) (#11)
by Zorba on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 05:30:42 PM EST

She's not a porn star or a Playboy Bunny, so there is that.
;-)


: I've still got my fingers crossed (none / 0) (#12)
by jondee on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 08:19:25 PM EST

for a male pron star.
Alright, so I'm mean.

: I read somewhere that Hannity is angling.. (none / 0) (#20)
by desertswine on Wed Apr 18, 2018 at 12:13:48 PM EST

to become the new first lady as soon as Melania gets fired.

I think Hannity (none / 0) (#15)
by CaptHowdy on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 08:32:09 PM EST

Inviting you to his hotel room could be considered "creepy" in almost any case.


: He's saving up jars (none / 0) (#21)
by jondee on Wed Apr 18, 2018 at 12:28:46 PM EST

of his 'stuff' the way Howard Hughes used to. As part of his dowry.

No one cares (2.00 / 1) (#22)
by thomas rogan on Wed Apr 18, 2018 at 01:52:01 PM EST

I guess none of the lawyers here really care that a lawyer had all of his files seized and then that the name of one of the lawyer's clients was released even though there are no criminal charges and the matter of a special master is still pending, and the name of the client (Hannity) has no connection to any criminal allegations.

The lawyer's (5.00 / 1) (#23)
by Ga6thDem on Wed Apr 18, 2018 at 02:52:43 PM EST

forced the hand of releasing the name. Cohen's reps are the ones that stupidly forced that issue. If they had just said oh, Cohen is basically only the lawyer to Trump no one would have had to know about Comey. They're the ones that insisted that Cohen was a regular lawyer with clients when he wasnt. So since they insisted that he had more clients and couldn't produce a list of those clients then they pulled this stunt about a "third" client who wanted his name to be kept quiet. Hannity if he didn't agree to be listed as a client should be the one who is furious here.

Seriously dude you don't have to have criminal charges filed to obtain a search warrant.


: know about (none / 0) (#24)
by Ga6thDem on Wed Apr 18, 2018 at 02:53:41 PM EST

Hannity not Comey.

If you think that "no one" (5.00 / 3) (#25)
by Peter G on Wed Apr 18, 2018 at 04:17:24 PM EST

(including the lawyers) cares, you have not been reading the variety of thoughtful comments that have been posted. I would not equate "caring" with "having a simplistic, partisan, knee-jerk reaction."


Apart from silly strawman (none / 0) (#26)
by Yman on Thu Apr 19, 2018 at 11:10:34 AM EST

... arguments, you seen to be suggesting that there was something wrong in doing those things.

There wasn't.


No one cares.. (none / 0) (#27)
by jondee on Thu Apr 19, 2018 at 01:29:10 PM EST

Given your high, non-partisan, ethical standards, you must have some powerful feelings about what Hannity and Fox put Seth Rich's family through.

Care to share them with us? Feel free on the open thread.


: Oh, that was just (5.00 / 1) (#28)
by Ga6thDem on Thu Apr 19, 2018 at 04:09:53 PM EST

horrible what he did to that family.

Rachel (none / 0) (#1)
by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:24:57 PM EST

Read long sections of the transcript of that hearing tonight. Mostly around the disclosure of Hannitys name.

It was better than reality tv. I've been looking for the transcript.

One surprising thing (none / 0) (#3)
by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:29:04 PM EST

At least to me, was that the most forceful argument for making the name public was not from the lawyers from either side of the case but some guy who just interrupted and started making the case.

He was a lawyer for several news organizations.

Is this unusual? It sounded like the guy was just in the courtroom.


: Journalists have a protected First Amendment right (5.00 / 4) (#4)
by Peter G on Mon Apr 16, 2018 at 09:46:30 PM EST

to public access to official proceedings (unless properly sealed or closed). So, no, it's not unusual for the press, in an important case, to retain counsel to appear, intervene, and argue for disclosure.

here's a link to Rachael's transcript reading. (none / 0) (#13)
by leap on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 08:23:44 PM EST

She could barely contain herself from laughing!


: The longer Trump is in office (5.00 / 2) (#14)
by jondee on Tue Apr 17, 2018 at 08:30:21 PM EST

the more Hannity's head seems to be assuming a suppository-like shape. He's undergoing a Kafkaesque metamorphosis.