Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, said Tuesday that the revelation that Fox News host Sean Hannity was a client of Michael Cohen took the air out of the room.
“All the air was sucked out of the room. You could not breath in the room,” Mr. Avenatti said on ABC’s “The View.”
“All I could do as I was sitting there was think to myself, ’I wonder what Sean Hannity is doing right now because his world just came crashing down,’ ” he added.
Mr. Avenatti was at the hearing Monday to decide how the legal documents obtained in the raid of Mr. Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer, could be used by the government. Mr. Cohen became the subject of criminal inquiry after a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr. Mueller is investigating Mr. Trump’s campaign for alleged collusion with Russia, but discovered a payment made to Ms. Daniels for $130,000, which she says was for her silence about the affair.
The porn actress, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, claimed she and the president had a sexual encounter in 2006 and that Mr. Cohen paid her to keep silent about it in the final weeks of the campaign.
“What I do for a living should not matter. What I do for a job doesn’t impact my ability to know right from wrong, or my ability to tell the truth,” said Ms. Daniels on ABC’s “The View.”
Mr. Hannity said he had legal conversations with Mr. Cohen but denied using him for legal services.
“I never paid Michael Cohen for legal fees,” Mr. Hannity said on his radio show after the news broke.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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