{"id":1055866,"date":"2018-04-16T17:00:08","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T21:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/observer.com\/?p=1055866"},"modified":"2018-04-16T17:04:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T21:04:06","slug":"fox-news-sean-hannity-downplay-michael-cohen-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/observer.com\/2018\/04\/fox-news-sean-hannity-downplay-michael-cohen-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"Fox News and Sean Hannity Downplay Host’s Relationship With Attorney Michael Cohen"},"content":{"rendered":"
Michael Cohen arrives at a New York court on April 16, 2018 in New York City. Spencer Platt\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vulturous reporters elbowed one another outside Manhattan’s Southern District Court for photographs of President Donald Trump’s legal counsel and a porn star-turned-media sensation.<\/p>\n

“This is so unprofessional!” yelled one millennial paparazzi after an older colleague lodged himself in front of a window, blocking the herd’s only view of former adult film actress\u00a0Stephanie Clifford, AKA Stormy Daniels,\u00a0passing through metal detectors.<\/p>\n

While the afternoon attraction was a possible showdown between Clifford and battered attorney Michael Cohen\u2014who appeared in court as part of an emergency action taken by his attorneys to stop prosecutors from reviewing documents seized by the FBI\u2014a national scandal involving Fox News personality Sean Hannity enveloped the news cycle following revelations in court.<\/p>\n

After Cohen’s lawyers\u00a0revealed Cohen represented Hannity, Fox became the newest player sucked into a Trumpian vortex of FBI raids, silence payments and alleged affairs:\u00a0Hannity frequently covered Cohen on his primetime show without ever disclosing he retained the lawyer’s services.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/seanhannity\/status\/984242895300579330<\/p>\n

When asked whether Hannity ever told Fox about this conflict-of-interest, and if the network stands by its decision not to issue a disclaimer,\u00a0a Fox spokesperson deferred to a statement made by the host:<\/p>\n

“Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter,” said Hannity. “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.”\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n

The network did not immediately respond to Observer’s follow-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When asked whether Hannity ever told Fox about this conflict-of-interest,\u00a0a Fox spokesperson deferred to a statement made by the host.<\/p>\n Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":128756279,"featured_media":1055899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2018-04-16T21:01:23Z","apple_news_api_id":"6971fdd5-f03c-48da-8883-105eab4b38b1","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2018-04-16T21:04:22Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AaXH91fA8SNqIgxBeq0s4sQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_issue-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","_ef_editorial_meta__first-draft-date":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"post_tag":[423806838],"company":[423806755],"channel":[423868943,423874673],"location":[423943031],"nyo_column":[],"person":[294983,423894899,423894898,423802949],"nyo_post_hidden":[],"coauthors":[423886332],"class_list":{"0":"post-1055866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-fbi","8":"observer_company-fox","9":"channel-politics","10":"channel-national-politics","11":"location-united-states","12":"nyo_person-sean-hannity","13":"nyo_person-stormy-daniels","14":"nyo_person-michael-cohen","15":"nyo_person-donald-trump"},"acf":{"homepage_position":"null","homepage_title":"","homepage_excerpt":"","alternative_og_image":null,"headline":{"seo_headline":""},"subheadline":{"optimized_seo_description":"","optimized_social_excerpt":""}},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/observer.com\/2018\/04\/fox-news-sean-hannity-downplay-michael-cohen-relationship\/","meta":[],"rendered":"","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/observer.com\/p.js"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/observer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/04\/gettyimages-947035670.jpg?quality=80","coauthors_byline":"By Davis Richardson","display_channel":"","thumbnail":"\"\"