美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Attorney Michael Cohen's Secret 3rd Client: Fox News Host Sean Hannity

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

President Trump¹'s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, was in court today in New York City. And we learned that Cohen doesn't just represent the president. A federal judge ordered Cohen's attorney to identify another client as part of a battle over the evidence seized from Cohen's home and office. That client is Fox News host Sean Hannity.

NPR's Ryan Lucas has been following this story and joins us now with more. Hi, Ryan.

RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE²: Howdy.

SHAPIRO: What was the background here that led us to learn about this additional client?

LUCAS: Well, the background here is the government, President Trump and Michael Cohen are arguing over the evidence that the FBI seized last week in raids on Cohen's home, his hotel room and office in New York. Now, agents seized a lot of material in that raid. We're talking boxes worth of documents, more than 12 electronic devices, according to Cohen's attorney.

Now, Cohen and Trump say that this material is protected by attorney-client privilege. The government says, no, no, it's not. That was basically the subject of this hearing today. Now, Cohen's attorneys had said that Cohen had been working with three clients, but in a court filing in the past 24 hours said that he only wanted to identify two of them. That would be Trump and a Republican fundraiser, Elliott Broidy. The judge said that to know about attorney-client privilege I have to know about all of Cohen's clients, so the attorney told the judge that the third client is Sean Hannity.

SHAPIRO: And what does the Fox News host say about that?

LUCAS: Hannity talked about it on his radio show this afternoon. He said that Cohen has never represented him in any matter. He's never retained Cohen as a lawyer. He's never received an invoice³ from Cohen. Hannity said he did occasionally have - he said it as brief discussions with Cohen about things that he wanted legal advice on and that Cohen would oblige. But evidently the relationship was formal enough for Cohen's attorney to identify him in this context in court. Now, Hannity said he spoke⁴ to Cohen - the issues that he spoke to Cohen about never involved a third party, tweeted later that it was almost exclusively about real estate. Hannity appeared to be kind of trying to set himself apart from the sort of work that Cohen did on behalf of Trump and Broidy. Those of course involved cases in which Cohen allegedly arranged payments to women following alleged⁵ sexual encounters.

SHAPIRO: What about the broader questions here about who will handle this evidence that was seized by the FBI?

LUCAS: That was the core question of the hearing here today. Now, attorneys for Trump and Cohen say that they should be able to go through what the FBI seized and determine what is protected by attorney-client privilege and what isn't. The government says not the case. There's a so-called clean team or filter team that would normally do this. It can go through the material, separate the evidence that protected - that is protected by privilege from the evidence that could be used in court, and then it would give that evidence to prosecutors⁶.

It's important to point out that while attorney-client privilege is a very important part of the U.S. legal system, it does have exemptions⁷. It doesn't shield attorney-client communications related to future crime or fraud. So even if the FBI did recover some evidence, hypothetically, that suggested Cohen might have discussed future criminal activity with one of his clients, it could still be evidence in a future court case. Now, the hearing just wrapped up. It just finished. The judge is weighing exactly how she still wants to deal with this question of evidence.

SHAPIRO: Briefly⁸, what is Michael Cohen actually charged with here?

LUCAS: He's not charged with anything at this point. The U.S. Attorney's Office said on Friday that it has been investigating Cohen for several months. It's a grand jury investigation⁹. It has clandestine¹⁰ warrants that look at his multiple email accounts. They've had those for a while. But prosecutors also have said in court documents that they can't reveal anything about this case at this point in time. It's still ongoing¹¹. There hasn't been any sort of indictment¹² that specifies¹³ what crimes these could be. All that prosecutors will say is that their investigation isn't about Cohen's legal work. It's about his private business dealings.

SHAPIRO: Lots more to come from NPR's Ryan Lucas. Thanks so much.

LUCAS: Thank you.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 invoice   

vt.开发票；n.发票，装货清单

参考例句：

• The seller has to issue a tax invoice.销售者必须开具税务发票。
• We will then send you an invoice for the total course fees.然后我们会把全部课程费用的发票寄给你。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

6 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

7 exemptions   

n.（义务等的）免除( exemption的名词复数 )；免（税）；（收入中的）免税额

参考例句：

• The exemptions for interpretive rules, policy statements, and procedural rules have just been discussed. 有关解释性规则、政策说明和程序规则的免责我们刚刚讨论过。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• A: The regulation outlines specific exemptions for some WPM. 答：该规定概述了某些木质包装材料的特定的例外情形。 来自互联网

8 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

9 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

10 clandestine   

adj.秘密的，暗中从事的

参考例句：

• She is the director of clandestine operations of the CIA.她是中央情报局秘密行动的负责人。
• The early Christians held clandestine meetings in caves.早期的基督徒在洞穴中秘密聚会。

11 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

12 indictment   

n.起诉；诉状

参考例句：

• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
• They issued an indictment against them.他们起诉了他们。

13 specifies   

v.指定( specify的第三人称单数 )；详述；提出…的条件；使具有特性

参考例句：

• The third clause of the contract specifies steel sashes for the windows. 合同的第三款指定使用钢窗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The contract specifies red tiles, not slates, for the roof. 合同规定屋顶用红瓦，并非石板瓦。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》