Adam Klasfeld, a reporter for Courthouse News, is covering today’s court hearing of President Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen in New York City.
Prosecutors have been investigating Cohen for months. Last week the FBI raided his home, office and hotel room. Cohen’s attorneys are seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the government from reviewing what the FBI took.
Around 3 p.m. this afternoon, a media bombshell, when one of the Cohen’s attorneys, Steve Ryan, asked U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, who is presiding over today’s hearing, to withhold the name of a “publicly prominent individual” who had also been represented by Cohen.
“I understand that he doesn’t want his name out there, but that’s not enough under the law,” said Judge Wood. The name “must be disclosed publicly now,” she said.
“Dramatic buildup here,” Klasfeld tweeted.
“The client’s name is Sean Hannity,” said Cohen’s attorney.
Hannity is hosting his radio show at this hour. “I am on air right now. I wish everybody would stop calling me,” Hannity said at 3:40 p.m. ET, interrupting his own thought on the Syrian chemical weapons attack.
We’ve reached out to Fox News for comment.
Update, statement from Hannity, via Fox News Channel: “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. I assumed those conversations were confidential, but to be absolutely clear they never involved any matter between me and a third party.”