Fox News host Sean Hannity’s legal claim is getting torn to pieces on his own network.
On Monday, Hannity was revealed as the “mystery client” of Michael Cohen, the personal attorney to President Donald Trump who is now embroiled in a federal investigation.
Hannity claimed he never hired Cohen but also insisted he had a right to privacy in his conversations with him under attorney-client privilege.
Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano, a former judge, isn’t buying it.
“I love him and, you know, I’ve worked with him for 20 years,” Napolitano said Tuesday. “He can’t have it both ways.”
He told “Outnumbered Overtime” host Harris Faulkner:
“If he was a client, then his confidential communications to Mr. Cohen are privileged. If Mr. Cohen was never his lawyer, then nothing that he said to Mr. Cohen is privileged.”
Hannity had also claimed he “may have” paid Cohen $10 to get that privilege, a strategy that is often used as a plot device on shows such as “Breaking Bad.”
But Napolitano said it doesn’t work that way in the real world.
“I must tell you that that is a myth,” Napolitano said. “The attorney-client privilege requires a formal relationship reduced to writing for a specific legal purpose,”
“So anything that is there regarding Sean Hannity can be revealed?” Faulkner asked.
“In my view, yes,” Napolitano said.
See the full clip below.