--- title: Sean Hannity: How Fox Handled Michael Cohen's 'Third Client' description: Fox News moved on quickly from the news that host Sean Hannity was the so-called "third client" of President Trump's attorney Michael Cohen canonical: https://time.com/5242207/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-fox-news-trump/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-16T20:48:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:59:17.558Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's How Fox Handled the News That Sean Hannity Was Trump Lawyer's 'Third Client' og:description: "So moving on to the rest of what's happening today" og:url: https://time.com/5242207/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-fox-news-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bfaa0a8088ee664/69892dc5e76ad273f8631b2d/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4538 og:image:height: 2553 og:image:alt: US-POLTICS-TRUMP-HANNITY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How Fox Handled the News That Sean Hannity Was Trump Lawyer's 'Third Client' twitter:description: "So moving on to the rest of what's happening today" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bfaa0a8088ee664/69892dc5e76ad273f8631b2d/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How Fox Handled the News That Sean Hannity Was Trump Lawyer's 'Third Client' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Apr 16, 2018 8:48 PM UTC  Fox News host Sean Hannity is seen in the White House briefing room in Washington, DC, on January 24, 2017. Fox News host Sean Hannity is seen in the White House briefing room in Washington, DC, on January 24, 2017. Nicholas Kamm—AFP/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Apr 16, 2018 8:48 PM UTC When it was revealed Monday that Fox News host [Sean Hannity](http://time.com/5242110/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-third-client/) was the so-called “third client” of President Trump’s attorney [Michael Cohen](http://time.com/5237454/donald-trump-relied-on-michael-cohen-to-weather-the-storm/), Hannity’s network was quick to move on from the topic. Cohen, who is [under criminal investigation](http://fortune.com/2018/04/13/michael-cohen-criminal-investigation/) for his business dealings, had said in a court filing that he did legal work in the past year for Trump, GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy and a “third client” who remained unnamed until Monday afternoon, when he was identified in court as Hannity. “In today’s proceedings that are underway right now, Stephen Ryan, one of Cohen’s attorneys, was asked by the judge to specifically name the other name because they said it would not fall under attorney-client privilege to withhold that name. And he stood up and named him as Sean Hannity,” Fox News correspondent Laura Ingle said on air just after 3 p.m. Monday. “So moving on to the rest of what’s happening today, there has been a good deal of back-and-forth filings over this issue since last night.” Fox News quickly pivoted away from coverage of the Cohen hearing and aired stories about Syria and Barbara Bush’s illness. CNN and MSNBC continued to cover the Hannity revelation. Hannity responded to the news on Twitter shortly thereafter, denying that Cohen ever represented him and describing their contact as “brief discussions about legal questions.” > [](https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/985970632201564161) “Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective,” he [tweeted](https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/985970632201564161). “I assumed those conversations were confidential, but to be absolutely clear they never involved any matter between me and a third-party.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5242207/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-fox-news-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5242207/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-fox-news-trump/"},"headline":"Here's How Fox Handled the News That Sean Hannity Was Trump Lawyer's 'Third Client'","datePublished":"2018-04-16T20:48:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:59:17.558Z","description":"\"So moving on to the rest of what's happening today\"","url":"https://time.com/5242207/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-fox-news-trump/","keywords":["Donald Trump","fox news","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bfaa0a8088ee664/69892dc5e76ad273f8631b2d/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bfaa0a8088ee664/69892dc5e76ad273f8631b2d/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLTICS-TRUMP-HANNITY","caption":"US-POLTICS-TRUMP-HANNITY","creditText":"Nicholas Kamm—AFP/Getty Images","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/5242207/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-fox-news-trump/","name":"Here's How Fox Handled the News That Sean Hannity Was Trump Lawyer's 'Third Client'"}}]}] ```