--- title: Sean Hannity Criticized for Not Disclosing Trump Lawyer Ties description: Sean Hannity was forced to defend himself on his own Fox News show for not revealing he was a client of President Donald Trump's attorney. canonical: https://time.com/5242919/sean-hannity-alan-dershowitz-donald-trump-lawyer/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-17T15:59:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:59:31.232Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sean Hannity Criticized on His Own Show for Trump Lawyer Ties og:description: "I have the right to privacy" og:url: https://time.com/5242919/sean-hannity-alan-dershowitz-donald-trump-lawyer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb60a96a4d43339d9/6988e58d7cdbacb56dd5adcc/sean-hannity-keurig.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Sean Hannity Keurig og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sean Hannity Criticized on His Own Show for Trump Lawyer Ties twitter:description: "I have the right to privacy" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb60a96a4d43339d9/6988e58d7cdbacb56dd5adcc/sean-hannity-keurig.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sean Hannity Criticized on His Own Fox Show for Not Disclosing Relationship With Trump Lawyer > 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 [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Apr 17, 2018 3:59 PM UTC  Host Sean Hannity on set of FOX's "Hannity With Sean Hannity" at FOX Studios on April 21, 2014 in New York City. Host Sean Hannity on set of FOX's "Hannity With Sean Hannity" at FOX Studios on April 21, 2014 in New York City. Paul Zimmerman—Getty Images by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Apr 17, 2018 3:59 PM UTC [Sean Hannity](http://time.com/5232069/sean-hannity-jimmy-kimmel/) was forced to defend himself on his own Fox News show Monday night after one of his guests criticized him for not revealing he was a client of President Donald Trump’s attorney, [Michael Cohen](http://time.com/5242417/white-house-michael-cohen-donald-trump-records-sean-hannity/). Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor and frequent legal defender of the President, told Hannity he should have detailed his relationship with Cohen when discussing the case on his show. Hannity interrupted Dershowitz several times to defend himself. “I have the right to privacy,” Hannity said, adding that he only sought advice from Cohen for matters pertaining to real estate — “not politics.” > [](https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/986052009383034881) “But it’s a complex situation when you’re speaking to millions of people,” Dershowitz responded. “It was a minor relationship,” Hannity said. “You should’ve said that,” Dershowtiz replied. Cohen, who is currently under criminal investigation, [named Hannity](http://time.com/5242110/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-third-client/) as the previously undisclosed “third client” he sought to keep private in federal court Monday. The two other clients were Trump and Elliot Brody, a Republican fundraiser — both of whom received legal help from Cohen when negotiating payouts for women they allegedly had affairs with. Hannity, who has used his Fox News program to defend the president, tweeted Monday before his show that Cohen “never represented me in any matter” and “assumed” conversations with him would be “confidential.” > [](https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/985970632201564161) When news broke of the FBI raiding Cohen’s office, hotel room and home last week, Hannity defended the attorney and said Special Counsel Robert Mueller was conducting a “witch hunt” and “declared war against the President.” On Monday afternoon, Fox News’s Laura Ingle reported that one of Cohen’s attorney named Hannity as the third client in federal court. She then [moved on to other stories](http://time.com/5242207/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-fox-news-trump/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5242919/sean-hannity-alan-dershowitz-donald-trump-lawyer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5242919/sean-hannity-alan-dershowitz-donald-trump-lawyer/"},"headline":"Sean Hannity Criticized on His Own Fox Show for Not Disclosing Relationship With Trump Lawyer","datePublished":"2018-04-17T15:59:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:59:31.232Z","description":"\"I have the right to privacy\"","url":"https://time.com/5242919/sean-hannity-alan-dershowitz-donald-trump-lawyer/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb60a96a4d43339d9/6988e58d7cdbacb56dd5adcc/sean-hannity-keurig.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb60a96a4d43339d9/6988e58d7cdbacb56dd5adcc/sean-hannity-keurig.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sean Hannity Keurig","caption":"Sean Hannity Keurig","creditText":"Paul Zimmerman—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/5242919/sean-hannity-alan-dershowitz-donald-trump-lawyer/","name":"Sean Hannity Criticized on His Own Fox Show for Not Disclosing Relationship With Trump Lawyer"}}]}] ```