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.

On Tuesday, Fox executives pressed Hannity to provide more information about his Cohen connection. Hannity told them what he’d already said publicly. The network issued a statement saying it was “surprised” by the news, but Hannity “continues to have our full support.”

The choice not to discipline Hannity frustrated some staffers. “Who makes decisions about this crap?” one told me. Fox News president of programming Suzanne Scott oversees Hannity’s show, and perhaps was reluctant to confront the network’s biggest star. Hannity’s closeness with Trump has given him immense power at the network, and he’s not afraid to show it. When he visited Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, Hannity bragged to a guest: “I’m the only thing holding this network together.” (Hannity denies saying this.)