INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE:

On Friday, Wood had instructed Cohen's lawyers to provide a list of his clients no later than Monday morning. She had added that she intended to make the names public unless doing so would in itself signal why exactly they had needed representation.

The document filed by Cohen's lawyers reported that he had exactly three legal clients since leaving the Trump organization in 2016.

"Mr. Cohen has more attorneys of his own than he has clients," prosecutor Tom McKay observed.

The three most prominently included President Trump, whom Cohen had once described as his only client. A second client had become known on the same day Wood asked for the list. Cohen the fixer had performed about as well keeping things confidential for GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy as he had for the president.  

As reported in The New York Times, Cohen facilitated a $1.6 million payment to a former Playboy model named Shera Bechard, who had become pregnant during a liaison with Broidy. The money was to be spaced out over two years, but could not have been for child support, as the woman is said to have chosen not to have the child. The contract Cohen drafted for Broidy and Bechard is said to have used the same aliases--"David Dennison" and "Peggy Peterson"--as in the contract between Trump and the woman who now sat in the courtroom within sight of the fixer who was supposed to have made it all go away.

That left a third client, but Cohen's lawyers had declined to name him in the document despite the judge's instructions. Cohen's lawyers had written:

"As to the one unnamed legal client, we do not believe that Mr. Cohen should be asked to reveal the name or can permissibly do so."

Now in court, Cohen's chief lawyer, Stephen Ryan, informed that judge that he was reluctant to reveal the name even under seal. Ryan said he had consulted over the weekend with the third client, who had asked to remain anonymous "because of the notoriety."

"At this point, no one would want to be associated with the case in that way," Ryan said. "I can give you the name right now in a sealed envelope and provide it to the court."

Ryan noted, "This client is a publicly prominent individual."

A word jumped out regarding how Ryan said the client would feel if he were associated with the case.

"Embarrassed."

The judge remained the judge.

"I understand he doesn't want his name out there," she said. "That's not enough under the law."

Anybody who had heard the judge's instructions on Friday could not have been surprised by the words that followed.

"I rule that it must be made public now," Wood said.

Ryan asked if he should submit the name in an envelope as he had proposed or just announce it himself in open court.

"Whichever you are most comfortable with," Wood said.

Ryan rose.

"Your honor, the client's name is Sean Hannity," he said.

Then came the gasp and murmurs, joined in the next instant by laughs, joined by the thought that the ultimate Trump booster Hannity was embarrassed to be associated with a case involving President Trump's fixer.

Could a step of shame have entered Hannity's march of fame?

Hannity was quick to get on Twitter and deny that Cohen had ever really been his lawyer:

"Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective."

Hannity may have realized that a good many people were wondering if maybe there was a third contract, maybe even with those same pseudonyms, with Hannity as David Dennison.

"I assumed those conversations were confidential, but to be absolutely clear they never involved any matter," Hannity then tweeted.

Had Cohen instructed his lawyers to comply with the judge's order and named Hannity in the document submitted Monday morning, there no doubt would have been a bit of buzz. That would have been nothing compared to the attention generated by a Perry Mason moment complete with gasps seldom heard in real life.

The Fixer had struck again.

Cohen was now either zero-for-three or three-for-three, depending how you score it. The least secret of secret deals for the first client had been followed by the loudest of hush money for the second client and now the least anonymous of anonymities for the third.

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