Sean Hannity May Have Talked Himself Into a Congressional Subpoena While Interviewing Trump

Sean Hannity May Have Talked Himself Into a Congressional Subpoena While Interviewing Trump

Did Fox News host and owner of the second-largest head on the right Sean Hannity open himself up to a subpoena from Congress during his interview with President Trump on Thursday night?

Trump was grousing about Michael Cohen, his former lawyer who aired much of the president’s dirty laundry to Congress on Wednesday. Hannity, who also briefly employed Cohen as his own lawyer for some real-estate transactions, told Trump, “I can tell you personally, he said to me at least a dozen times, that he made the decision on the payments and he didn’t tell you.”

The payments were payoffs to adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence before the 2016 election about her alleged affair with Trump. Cohen has claimed that Trump directed him to use his own money to pay Daniels, after which the president paid him back in about a dozen installments of $35,000. As proof, he brought along a copy of one of the checks, written on Trump’s personal account and dated months after his inauguration.

Trump is already considered an unindicted co-conspirator in the original payoff to Daniels, which violated campaign finance laws. If he was still paying Cohen back after he took office, that could be an impeachable offence.

Now Hannity has admitted on national television that he had relevant conversations about the payoff scheme with Cohen, and that those conversations directly contradict Cohen’s sworn testimony. Various legal authorities are likely interested in this information, including Congress and the prosecutors of the Southern District of New York who charged Cohen with the crimes that are sending him to prison for three years.

If Hannity is subpoenaed and repeats the charge he made on television Thursday night, and investigators determines he is not telling the truth, he would presumably face felony charges for lying to Congress. All because he was trying to cover for Trump.

Cohen’s warning to Republicans on the committee that anyone who covers for Trump will only bring misery on himself looks truer and truer every day.

Watch Hannity make his comments in the video at the top of the post, via Fox News.

Gary Legum

Gary Legum has written about politics and culture for Independent Journal Review, Salon, The Daily Beast, Wonkette, AlterNet and McSweeney's, among others. He currently lives in his native state of Virginia.

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