George Zimmerman's Legal Team Cites Zimmerman's Phone Call To Sean Hannity As They Withdraw From The Case
April 10, 2012 5:53 pm ET by Media Matters staff
During a press conference today, George Zimmerman's attorneys Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig told the media that they will no longer be representing Zimmerman, who has admitted shooting Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. Sonner said they have "lost contact" with Zimmerman. Uhrig went on to say that Zimmerman had "called Sean Hannity of Fox News directly, not through us. "
Uhrig added that "we believe that he spoke directly with Sean off the record and he's not even willing to tell us what our client told him."
On the April 9 edition of his Fox News and radio shows, Hannity said that he had an "off the record" conversation with Zimmerman.
UPDATE: On the April 9 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show Hannity said: "People are trying to make this all about George Zimmerman. And I spoke to George Zimmerman, and I'm not going to reveal the contents of that conversation, but I have confirmed yes, he was a mentor to minority children. Now if you were racist, I don't think you'd be a mentor to minority children."
UPDATE II: Tonight on his Fox News show, Hannity addressed the comments made about him by Zimmerman's former legal team:
HANNITY: I want to set the record straight about a couple of things. Now for a few weeks we have been pursuing an interview with Mr. Zimmerman to give him a chance to tell his side of the story. Now yesterday I was contacted by an individual that we in fact believe was George Zimmerman. He reached out to me, we spoke on the phone about his case, and I agreed not to report on the contents of that conversation. That's it. I know nothing about his relationship with his now former attorneys.
And of Hannity and Abner Louima
And of Hannity and Terry Schivo
"Jeez, what other right wing believing nutcases are going to go out and shoot and unarmed person in 'self defense' hoping for a chance to talk to their hero Hannity..."
Stand! Your! Ground!
Yes, that's right. All of your speech was protected, but then he scared you. So pull out that gun and:
Stand! Your! Ground!
Ain't America great? We are the most free people in the world. We're even free to kill anybody we want.
Unfortunately, even police can justifiably kill unarmed people when they think their lives are threatened.
http://www.naacp.org/press/entry/self-defense-leads-to-a-life-sentence-in-georgia/
Great sarcasm Oadas. Or is it satire??? Irony??
If this were true am radio would be full of democrats and not the other way around. Take Hannity for instance, his entire show is conservatives awesome, everyone else unpatriotic socialists. That's not "hearing another side". You should consider your opinions before you type them out, that whole Mark Twain "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
And if MSNBC were SOOOOO liberal, why did they fire Olberman? Donahue? And so on?
oadas, of course misses the point.
from the article:
There's more to the quote but nothing that changes context. Sean Hannity wants this to be about Sean Hannity. He's meddling to boost his rating and his own massive ego on the back of a guy who murdered a teenager.
You are a moron.
And you are dead wrong! Repuglicans in power DO want everyone to be poor. All you need to do is look up their voting record. Have you ever, ever done that? I don't walk around arguing what do repugs "think" I can point to their actions and prove it. If repugs don't want everyone to be poor, why are they VOTING to destroy unions? (even and especially good ones?)Why is their "jobs bill" a bill to destroy 200,000 govt jobs? Why do they want to destroy Medicare and Social Security? All that makes EVERYONE poorer. Why do they wan't to raise taxes on ALL THE POOR AND MIDDLE CLASS to pay for billionaire tax cuts? Your arguments just don't hold water.
It very amusing to read a scree about how unintelligent "lefties" and "dems" are, when your entire post reflects that you didn't even pay attention in 4th grade English class.
Zimmerman can be Sean Hannity and Roger Ailes' all new, Florida version of Bo Dietl.
And two lawyers bailed on such a high-profile case? Interesting.
Not really. They've been representing him for free, now they can't get him to answer a phone, he has set up a web site to "pay" for his legal fees and "living" costs, and he is in communication with an opinion (ahem) journalist.
If I were them I would step aside as well, if for no other reason than to get Zimmerman's attention. If he wants them as his lawyers he needs to say so.
Gee, wonder if this is a pattern for him?
Wow, oadas. Have you completed 5th grade yet? How many times have you tried?
I can't even begin to imagine how wrecked I would be after shooting an unarmed teenager – especially if I had to live with the knowledge that the shooting was entirely my fault. I think it would just about destroy me.
Zimmerman’s irrational actions may be how a person tries to come to terms with a crime as heinous as his. However, I like to think that if it were I in his shoes, the guilt, and what little character I have, would have forced me to come clean with the truth long ago.
Indeed, I doubt I could handle shooting an unarmed teenager. That's why I don't follow people around with a gun.
I don't deny sympathy to people who have taken lives, but if Zimmerman cannot handle the consequences of shooting someone, then perhaps he shouldn't have been carrying a gun on patrol in the first place.
Well, things being what they are, don't expect us to spontaneously start reciting, "The quality of mercy is not strained," from The Merchant of Venice anytime soon. It might be different if Zimmerman had accidentally struck Martin with his SUV, but even under those circumstances I think many would have expected Zimmerman, at the very least, to have faced a failure to control his vehicle charge.
But, of course, that's not what happened. This wasn't a random, freak occurrence. He stalked someone who was doing nothing wrong. There was a confrontation. A gun was very intentionally aimed. A trigger was very intentionally pulled. A young man is dead.
So it's unlikely that we're going to give a nod to the idea that poor, poor George Zimmerman needs a "timeout" to gather his thoughts.
When did Zimmerman go into hiding? Most of the country learned of this death about a month after it occurred. Was he walking the street during that month? Was he in hiding? Who was out to get Zimmerman for those days following this tragedy?
Concerning the meanest, most unjust people you've had the misfortune to know, my name is Jack and you don't know me...if you know what I mean.
You've got to be kidding. It should be abundantly clear that your comment flew so far over oasdas' head that it might be mistaken for a U2. (oasdas will now be wondering what Bono has to do with this)
You're so ridiculous, I shouldn't even respond to you.
Zimmerman is scared because the State Prosecutor his former state magistrate/former DA father got to shoot down the investigating officer's request for a manslaughter warrant stepped down and people started paying attention to the fact that he shot an unarmed kid who he had STALKED first by car and then on foot. This was after he was told by the dispatcher that they didn't need him to do that. The person with the right to self defense was the unarmed kid he was stalking. Zimmerman knows this and so does his father. Looks like Daddy may not be able to get Zimmerman out of this mess like he has every other brush with the law.
You poor pittiful thing you. It's pointless to even try to explain anything to you.
Theres's a bunch of folks over at the Fox News site spewing all kinds of lies and hate. Wouldn't you be more at home there?
Personally I don't know, but I bet President Obama might know.
I know I'm casting pearls before swine here, but let me in on a little principle that comes in to play. When you create a situation of doubt, you do not get the benefit of the doubt. For instance, imagine you're playing pool with someone, and they take a shot where the cue ball looks like it's about to fall into a pocket, but they grab it and set it on the felt. Then they say "it wasn't going to drop". That's a scratch. Because they created a situation of doubt, and they can't profit from it.
The same idea applies here. Zimmerman created this situation. He didn't have to follow Martin (which he was told). He didn't have to get out of his vehicle. He wasn't required to be armed. He didn't have to get into an altercation where there was any chance of anyone getting shot. He didn't have to go into hiding. He didn't have to break contact with his attorneys. The whole damn thing stinks to high heaven. If he's innocent, then let the system play it out, but otherwise, he gets no sympathy from me or any other thinking person.
But wouldn't that be an ethics violation? Oh wait, this is Fox News and Hannity. Never mind.
I'm pretty sure that's how those are awarded...
Go to Fox for all your legal and emotional needs when the rest of the sane world has turned their back on you.
I hope the prosecutors demand that Sean tells them what Zimmerman said to him, and if he doesn't, lock him up in jail until he talks. That's what I would do.
The foxbots will eat it up and it'll make Hannity a Republican Media Superstar on par with Rusty.
I'm Calling Sean Hannity, of coarse !
Hannity and Zimmerman - birds of a feather flock together.
Especially vultures.
That still leaves us with the fact that he was told not to follow Trayvon Martin, ignored that directive, and shot and killed an unarmed 17-year old.
So, let Hannity have his media whoring, let him have his self-righteous indignation at what he perceives to be all the race baiting coming from the left, and ask him instead to defend the case on just the facts of what Zimmerman actually did.
The racism factor is that if Trayvon had been a white teenager the case would have been handled differently.
Isn't being anti gun also pro life which they say is their core belief.
Which is why it's been so entertaining ( OK, maybe not the right word to use in connection with a tragedy like this) to see the right trying to focus and distort these peripheral points. And you mentioned one that is one of the most desperate and ridiculous bits they're trying to spin-
Yes, to any adult English-speaker. That was when the operator said "We don't need you to do that."
But one of the trolls here the other day tried, sadly, to argue this point, that he wasn't told not to follow Martin, only that it wasn't necessary.
Which was pretty pathetic for some anonymous FoxBot on the internets, but a righty acquaintance today linked to an item on facebook. It was the Breitbart site, trying to use the same spin in attacking NPR ( with, believe it or not, a Breitbart headline bemoaning the loss of journalistic integrity - I kid you not).
This is what they're going with. Zimmerman pursued an unarmed kid, who wasn't committing a crime. The 911 operator told him he didn't need to follow Martin, but Zimmerman ignored this, confronted Martin, and killed him.
And the Personal Responsibility people want to absolve Zimmerman because the operator didn't word his instructions forcefully enough. It's pretty sick.
A more direct statement would have made no difference. It's hard to be more direct than "Thou shalt not kill" and that seems to be taken as more a guideline than a rule.
As I got closer, I saw a crowd of people all looking up at the building on the corner. Naturally, I looked up as well and saw a person perched on the ledge of the building, 20 floors up. The sidewalk was roped off with police tape, so I couldn't cross the street to get home. I admit that my baser instincts took over and I stood, waiting for the outcome.
After a few minutes, a police officer walked over to our little crowd and said, "I know this is something to see, but we really don't need all of you standing here[emphasis mine] giving this woman an audience. She's more likely to jump with all of you here, and that's something you really don't want to see. Trust me."
That sobered all of us up, and we all understood perfectly what the police officer was saying to us, so we all left. Nobody had the stupidity to say, "Well, you didn't actually tell us to leave, you only said you didn't need us to stand here gawking, so we're going to stay." My guess is if hilighter were there, he'd have encouraged the woman to jump, because the police officer never said not to.
They were able to talk her down, I later learned.
(Sorry for the prose-y story, but it helped illustrate that you actually have to deliberately interpret those words wrong to get the message you want to get from them.)
I listened to the 911 call after becoming aware of this sad spin. It's not just the words, but the tone of voice, that make the operators intent perfectly clear. It really is sick that some people have that little shame, that they're trying to argue this ridiculous 'exact words' semantics bit in excusing the killing of Trayvon Martin.
Even with the evidence construed in Zimmerman's favor, even if Martin attacked him...
Zimmerman responded to an open handed attack with a firearm. Self defense laws simply do not permit repelling force with grossly disproportionate force. It's highly questionable no matter how you slice it.
And Florida's law doesn't change that.
Also, if and when a gag order is put on everyone involved with this case, SeannietheThief will have to take a hiatus or not talk about this subject. By then, he and Ailes will have wished he never got involved.
Can Zimmerman be so dumb to recruit the help of Hannity.
P.S. Dick Morris can also smell the green.
I'm willing to bet that maybe Hannity reached out to Zimmerman.
He should just resign the representation and shut up.
I can't stand Zimmerman, but he would have a valid complaint against this lawyer shooting his mouth off.
I would have no ethical difficulty in doing exactly as they did.
Unless he cleared the statements they made, which clearly can only be viewed as adverse to him going forward, those statements were not consistent with the canons of ethics.
Zimmerman has acted in a manner wildly at variance with counsel's learned advice and is behaving like an arrogant, immature adolescent. In such a situation it is appropriate for counsel to take the action they did and incumbent on them to explain their reasons.
What a way to try to erect a real live straw man. Some slave owners slept with their female slaves, the slaves had babies, and the masters sold their own kids into slavery, so this is BullStank! The masters were still racists!! Mentoring minority kids is no guarantee that Zimmerman wasn't/isn't a racist. Millions of people interact with other people they don't respect and don't think are their equals every day.
-NBPP
-Spike Lee
-Zimmerman's family member protesting police's mistreatment of African Americans
Just like every racist clown on the internets likes to tell us his wife isn't white. It's always BS, but meaningless even if it was true. I think it was even at this site that one of these told me about his imaginary non-white wife, and asked if I still thought it was possible that he was racist.
I asked him if he thought it was possible for a guy married to a woman to be sexist. Sometimes answering a question with a question is pretty effective.
If he ever goes to jail, hopefully he'll get his "plumbing" fixed in a certain way.
"Zimmerman--Just another case of the brother trying to keep a man down."
Commit the crime...do the time. This idiot shouldn't have been allowed out at night alone - let alone with a gun.
Hannity however is a subhuman predatory scum. Because of him, Zimmerman isn't communicating with his lawyers - which doesn't help anyone, in case that point needs to be made.
Just when you thought this case couldn't get any more screwed up, Hannity proves you wrong.
a person looking for a wide receiver, in prison!!!!
And if anyone believes right off the bat that Zimmerman reached out to Hannity (and not the other way around), I have a bridge to sell you in Manhattan.
Prosecuters insert subpeona in Hannitys' yap.
Hannitys' defense will be that he was 'acting' as a journalist. To that, we will all agree.
I wonder if Hannity will 'man up' and refuse a court order to talk about this conversation and happily go to jail...I don't think so. Therefore, if Mr. Zimmerman actually spilled some beans to Seannie, he'll fry for sure.
So where does Zimmerman go after shooting a black guy who was not guilty of anything? Who does Zimmerman turn to for understanding and sympathy in those circumstances? To his priest? To his attorneys? to his family? No, after shooting an unarmed black guy for no reason, he seeks understanding from a Fox News employee. Go figure.
A gun-toting,paranoid, police state, deputy wanna-be kills an unarmed black kid, and what's his first instinct in searching out friendly turf ? Fox, no-brainer.
Oh, Sean will disclose the contents of that communication, only it will be in open court and under oath!
Sean, the sooner you sit down for a three-course, lead paint dinner, the better off society will be.
Blacks and/or Laitnos? "Minority" is a very braod term, Sean.
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IMHO
UTOPIA
I know they're lawyers, but... they have to realized that they're basically f---ed if this thing ever goes to trial.
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IMHO
UTOPIA
Also, if you are trying to get an interview with a subject, and that person contacts you, how in the world do you not report the contents of that conversation? What if Zimmerman admitted guilt? Would Sean still refuse to disclose the conversation? What right of confidentiality is Hannity invoking in order to protect an admitted killer?
That day is today . . .
Since he is Roger Ailes' most devoted disciple, one of Sean's first duties is to coach Zimmerman on how to say "fuching koons" without actually using those words.
Sean does it all the time.
Per Roger Ailes' edict, Luntz's tricky-talk words are required reading by all FOX NEWS teleprompter readers.
Or else.
If he can get an 'exclusive' with Sean then GZ may think he'll also have an opening to the Hannity resources and contacts on the uber right. People like 'skull' should be worth at least $15-$20 every payday, unemployment, or welfare check. Lots of folks over at stormfront, redstate, and teh Blaze will gladly chip in to the GZ 'defense' fund.
Homicide in Florida
Second Degree Murder in Florida
Manslaughter in Florida
Self Defense in Florida
See you in court, Sean.
good to know their are
good-thinking people out there.
or that the person who called him was an imposter.
Funny how that happens when you kill someone and then claim self-defense. Suddenly, people all up in your business, wanting to know about your motive and your state of mind at the time of the shooting.
Now it's not really a big deal. Now it's just something I started noticing recently. Now thank you.
shortsighted-hannity