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Fox News host Sean Hannity assembled a real estate portfolio spanning 870 homes in seven states over the past decade, according to a report by the Guardian. A sizable portion of Hannity's holdings were financed through the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration.
This raises more questions about the nature of Hannity's relationship with President Donald Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, after Cohen revealed Hannity as his mystery third client in a New York state court last week. Hannity has downplayed his relationship with Cohen and said the pair's interactions were limited to real estate advice.
Hannity has said his preferred investment strategy is real estate, a fact confirmed by thousands of documents obtained by the Guardian. The records link Hannity to more than 20 shell companies formed in Georgia that have purchased single-family homes and apartment complexes in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Vermont. The quality of the homes range from units priced as low as $50K in poor suburbs, which Hannity obtained at a discount from banks, to multimillion-dollar properties.
The most valuable properties in Hannity's portfolio are two apartment complexes in Perry, Georgia, and Brunswick, Georgia. Hannity obtained $17.9M in financing for those properties through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which insured the loans under a program created by the National Housing Act. Those loans were recently increased by $5M under Ben Carson's HUD stewardship. The popular conservative commentator did not disclose the connection when he had Carson on his program last June and praised privatization plans championed by the Trump administration.
HUD and Fox both declined to comment for the Guardian's story. Hannity's real estate attorney, Christopher Reeves, told the Guardian Hannity's real estate holdings were "highly confidential."
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