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UPDATE: Just call Hannity Trump’s Minister of Information.
A new Atlantic article breaks the story that Hannity actually had three other Trump connected lawyers-besides Michael Cohen-represent him and appear on his Fox News show.
This brings the number of Trump lawyers who have also represented Hannity to 4: besides Cohen, there’s Jay Sekulow, who is currently the only personal attorney for so-called ‘President Trump’ working full time on a response to Mueller’s inquiry. Then there are Joseph diGenova and his wife, Victoria Toesing.
In May of 2017 all three of these Trump connected lawyers sent a cease and desist letter on Hannity’s behalf in response to an accusation against Hannity of making an unwanted sexual advance in April of 2017:
“Sean Hannity has had no shortage of lawyers. In court on Monday, his name was disclosed as the third “mystery client” of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Though Hannity says he was never actually Cohen’s client, he does appear to have used the legal services of other well-connected Trump-world lawyers in a different matter a year ago.”
“On May 25, 2017, KFAQ, a radio station based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, received a cease-and-desist letter signed by two lawyers for Hannity: Victoria Toensing and Jay Alan Sekulow. Toensing’s signature sits above her name and that of her husband Joseph E. diGenova, the members of diGenova and Toensing LLP, who are identified as “Counsel for Sean Hannity,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Atlantic. Sekulow is also identified in the letter page as a “Counsel for Sean Hannity.”
“Hannity responded at the time by calling the allegations “100 percent false and a complete fabrication,” and said that he had hired lawyers to plan a response. “This letter provides notice that Ms. Schlussel’s statements are false and defamatory,” the letter read. “Continued publication will result in further exposure to liability because of continued harm to Mr. Hannity’s impeccable reputation.”
“On Monday, Schlussel said she remembered that the radio station where she made the remarks had received a legal letter afterwards, but she didn’t know who the lawyer was. Reached by phone on Tuesday, Toensing acknowledged that “at that time” she was acting as Hannity’s lawyer but wouldn’t comment on whether she still represents him.”
“I’ve just learned in the press that anybody who is Sean Hannity’s lawyer is going to be blasted so I think this phone call is over,” Toensing said. “I’m wondering what attorney-client privilege means to anybody. I don’t say who my clients are, sometimes I do, and many times, most of the time, I do not.”
“Sekulow, diGenova, and Toensing have frequently appeared on Hannity’s program; diGenova appeared on the show as recently as Monday night. Asked for comment, Hannity sent a text consisting of NewsBusters and Daily Caller links to stories about ethical misconduct in the mainstream media and declined to offer further comment. “I don’t have time for these silly questions,” he said.
Sure-he’s willing to throw spitballs at MSM journalists for their alleged misconduct but has nothing to say regarding his own clearly unethical conduct.
Meanwhile, another major Hannity bombshell are the news reports Hannity may have hired Michael Cohen for help on the Seth Rich conspiracy and boycotts by progressives against his show.
“Calling into MSNBC minutes after the bombshell was dropped, Vanity Fair‘s Gabriel Sherman — who has reported on the inside workings of Fox News for years — reported that Hannity hired Cohen last year following Bill O’Reilly‘s ouster from Fox News in the wake of a severe ad boycott.”
“You know, this is a fast-moving story, so I am going to be doing a lot more reporting but what I have heard so far is that at some point last year Sean Hannity hired Michael Cohen to help defend him against left-wing groups that were calling for boycotts in the wake of Bill O’Reilly’s ouster from Fox News,” Sherman told host Ali Velshi.
“Noting that Hannity had come under pressure from left-wing groups — Media Matters, for one, targeted Hannity’s advertisers over the Seth Rich story — Sherman said he was told that Hannity “got paranoid” and hired Cohen to look into those groups.”
“This could be interesting because oftentimes private investigators are hired by law firms because it allows attorney/client privilege to be maintained,” Sherman added. “So there is a scenario in which if they seized Michael Cohen’s documents inadvertently we might be able to learn to what degree did Sean Hannity try to go after his enemies with shady tactics like private investigators.”
Sherman later did a piece in Vanity Fair that documents Hannity’s Fox News colleagues are appalled and embarrassed-though it’s a decent bet that he will face no penalty from management:
“The symbiotic relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News can make it difficult to discern where the Trump administration ends and the network begins. But yesterday’s revelation in Manhattan federal court, that Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen’s three-person client roster includes Sean Hannity, was shocking, even to those inside Fox News. “What the fuck? This is the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen,” one staffer told me. “This is bad,” another Fox staffer said. “It violates every rule of journalism.”
“It was a surreal moment inside Fox as the news broke and producers scrambled to make sense of the developments. Hannity, according to sources, had not informed senior Fox News executives about his undisclosed relationship with Cohen, so the network was basically flying blind. Adding to the chaos, Hannity was in the middle of hosting his afternoon radio show, and weighed in live on air without clearing his response with Fox’s notoriously controlling public-relations department. His opaque, have-it-both-ways explanation—that he wasn’t really a Cohen client, and that he merely consulted him informally about “real estate,” while still maintaining that attorney client privilege applied—did little to stop Fox journalists from speculating about just what, exactly, Cohen did for Hannity.”
“According to employees I spoke to, a range of theories swirled through the newsroom. Did Hannity have a woman problem like Cohen clients Trump and Elliott Broidy, the former Republican fund-raiser who paid $1.6 million to a former Playboy model who had an abortion amid an affair with Broidy? “Everyone’s first impression was the same: you only hire Cohen for one reason,” one staffer said. Another staffer speculated Hannity hired Cohen to help him fight left-wing groups that were orchestrating an advertiser boycott after Hannity fanned the Seth Rich conspiracy last year. “Hannity was paranoid and hiring lawyers,” the staffer said. Still another theory posited that Cohen perhaps brokered a meeting between Hannity and Julian Assange last year.”
To call Hannity’s relationship with Trump symbiotic is the right word-in fact Trump personally has Hannity on ‘speed dial’-they talk about 3 times a week, Trump talks to Hannity about his frustration with the Russia probe, ideas for Hannity’s show and sometimes even what the Fuhrer ‘President’ should tweet.
Indeed, they’re so close some WH aides refer to Hannity as the ‘unofficial chief of staff.’
“Trump and Hannity usually speak several times a week, according to people familiar with their relationship. The Fox News host, whose show averages more than 3 million viewers daily, is one of the few people who gets patched immediately to Trump. The two men review news stories and aspects of Hannity’s show, and occasionally debate specifics about whatever the president is considering typing out on Twitter. There have also been times when Trump has assessed the merits of various White House aides with Hannity.”
The frequency of Hannity’s contact with Trump means that “he basically has a desk in the place,” one presidential adviser said.
“Advisers, at times, refer to Hannity as the “shadow” chief of staff, rivaling White House chief of staff John F. Kelly in terms of influence. Whenever Trump is irritated by his staff, he turns to outside allies, and Hannity is usually atop the call list.”
FN: Hannity certainly has more influence than Kelly now-he left at the end of last year-and truthfully Trump never trusted Kelly like Hannity as the fake ‘journalist’ offers the fake ‘President’ exactly what Trump wants-unconditional praise and absolute loyalty, whereas Kelly has a mind of his own.
“Hannity’s relationship with attorney Jay Sekulow played a part in Sekulow signing on to Trump’s legal team on the Russia investigation, they said, adding that Hannity’s work with lawyers Victoria Toensing and her husband, Joseph diGenova, also contributed to the pair being considered to come aboard, although they did not ultimately do so.”
“For a president who feels, intensely, that he is under siege, Hannity offers what he prizes: loyalty and a mass audience. And Trump, in turn, has directed his supporters to Hannity’s show — urging people on Twitter last week to watch the commentator attack special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who heads the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.”
In telling his supporters to watch Hannity, basically we’re through the looking glass and into the realm of Trump’s own version of Kremlin state tv.
QUESTION: The Post says Hannity and Trump talk several times a week and often discuss the Trump-Russia probe. Trump can't claim his conversations with Hannity are privileged, as Hannity isn't an immediate advisor within his government. So why doesn't Mueller talk to Hannity ASAP? pic.twitter.com/qqDue4fcpf
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) April 18, 2018
UPDATE: Good question by Seth Abramson-but none of the Judiciary Dems asked it when he testified last month-and I don’t know how great the odds are that Mueller would have answered if they did.
We do now have all Hannity’s texts with Manafort.