--- title: Sean Hannity Revealed as Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen's Client description: President Donald Trump's attorney Michael Cohen revealed in federal court that Fox News host Sean Hannity received legal advice from him. canonical: https://time.com/5242110/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-third-client/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-16T19:27:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T20:32:26.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sean Hannity Revealed as Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen's Secret 'Third Client' og:description: The other two clients are Trump and Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy og:url: https://time.com/5242110/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-third-client/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb4348315b835e67/69892d11cf40a8c1f9c4bdd5/sean-hannity-fox-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4096 og:image:height: 2304 og:image:alt: Usa Elections Cpac - Mar 2016 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sean Hannity Revealed as Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen's Secret 'Third Client' twitter:description: The other two clients are Trump and Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb4348315b835e67/69892d11cf40a8c1f9c4bdd5/sean-hannity-fox-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sean Hannity Revealed as Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen's Secret 'Third Client' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:32 PM UTCPublished: Apr 16, 2018 7:27 PM UTC  Sean Hannity in March 2016 Sean Hannity in March 2016 Jim Lo Scalzo—EPA/REX/Shutterstock by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:32 PM UTCPublished: Apr 16, 2018 7:27 PM UTC President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen has revealed in federal court that Fox News host Sean Hannity secretly received legal advice from him in the past year – the so-called “third client” whose identity Cohen sought to keep private. The other two clients are Trump and Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy. Cohen has arranged payouts for women who said they carried on affairs with Trump and Broidy. Sean Hannity addressed the disclosure on his radio show on Monday afternoon saying he never “retained \[Cohen\] in the traditional sense,” but that he has occasionally reached out to him for legal advice or opinion. Hannity also said he “definitely had attorney-client privilege” with Cohen in their conversations. > [](https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/985970632201564161) “I’d ask him a legal question and that’s it. I don’t think that it is that complicated,” Hannity said on the radio. “But I never used Michael in any case that involved me and any third party ever.” However, Hannity later said in a tweet “Michael Cohen never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received, and invoice or paid legal fees.” The revelation was made at a Monday afternoon hearing in New York federal court as prosecutors and Cohen’s attorneys argued over who should get to see the boxes of evidence collected last week in an FBI raid on Cohen’s office, hotel room and home.  Adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, center, also known as Stormy Daniels, arrives for a court hearing in New York City on April 16, 2018. Hector Retamal—AFP/Getty Images Cohen has argued that both he and Trump’s legal team should have access to the material before prosecutors in order to protect any information that falls under attorney-client privilege that exists within the documents. U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood had asked for key details about who Cohen’s clients were and what documents may have been picked up by federal officials. Broidy [admitted last week](http://time.com/5239654/michael-cohen-elliott-broidy-playboy-payout/) that Cohen had negotiated a $1.6 million payout to a Playboy Playmate who said she became pregnant after an affair with Broidy. The woman later terminated the pregnancy. > [](https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/985959434269741056) Cohen confirmed previously that he arranged a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who says she had an affair with Trump when he was married to Melania. Trump denies the affair. Daniels was present at the hearing on Monday. On Hannity’s network, Fox News, reporter Laura Ingle revealed the news about Hannity and then immediately segued with, “so moving on into the rest of what’s happening today…” The network shifted to coverage of Syria and Barbara Bush’s failing health. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5242110/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-third-client/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5242110/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-third-client/"},"headline":"Sean Hannity Revealed as Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen's Secret 'Third Client'","datePublished":"2018-04-16T19:27:08.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T20:32:26.000Z","description":"President Donald Trump's attorney Michael Cohen revealed in federal court that Fox News host Sean Hannity received legal advice from him.","url":"https://time.com/5242110/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-third-client/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb4348315b835e67/69892d11cf40a8c1f9c4bdd5/sean-hannity-fox-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb4348315b835e67/69892d11cf40a8c1f9c4bdd5/sean-hannity-fox-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Usa Elections Cpac - Mar 2016","caption":"Usa Elections Cpac - Mar 2016","creditText":"Jim Lo Scalzo—EPA/REX/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5242110/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-third-client/","name":"Sean Hannity Revealed as Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen's Secret 'Third Client'"}}]}] ```