Back in January of 2017, Fox News host Sean Hannity revealed that he had remained in regular contact with Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort through the entirety of the election, even after Trump had fired Manafort. This remained under the radar until Manafort was arrested in November of 2017, and we learned that there had been a FISA surveillance warrant against him for much of the campaign. Now it’s more relevant than ever.

After Manafort was arrested, Palmer Report pointed out that Hannity was continuing to defend Trump in cartoonishly histrionic fashion, even as his criminal scandals worsened, and even when most of this Fox News colleagues weren’t quite so willing to go so far out on a limb. We suggested that Hannity seemed to think he’d been caught on the Manafort wiretap, as it would explain his consistently desperate attempts at using his on-air position to protect Trump.

Yesterday it was revealed in court that Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen was also Sean Hannity’s attorney on some level. Cohen is claiming that Hannity was a full fledged client, while Hannity is downplaying the role, but they’re both rather desperate to prevent the Feds from getting their hands on seized communications between the two of them. We still don’t know why Hannity kept in regular contact with Trump’s campaign chairman Manafort even after Manafort left the campaign, nor do we truly know why Hannity was using Trump’s attorney Cohen for legal advice. But we’re guessing the answer to both questions is the same.

So even as we watch the court battle play out over the seized communications between Sean Hannity and Michael Cohen, it’s worth keeping in mind that Special Counsel Robert Mueller already has the Paul Manafort surveillance recordings. We don’t know if Hannity is on those tapes, or what he might have said. But he sure has been acting like he has something to hide.



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