5 THINGS FROM THE COHEN-TRUMP TAPE

1 WHAT IS THE TAPE?

Two months before the 2016 election, Donald Trump and his former lawyer discussed plans to pay for a former Playboy model’s story of an alleged affair, according to the secretly recorded tape of the conversation released amid an escalating feud between the president and his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen, pictured. The taped conversation between Trump and Cohen came weeks after the National Enquirer’s parent company reached a US$150,000 deal to pay Karen McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair, which it never published.

2 WHO RELEASED THE RECORDING?

The tape was provided to CNN on Tuesday by Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, and signals a new level of open hostility between the president and the man who once described himself as Trump’s “fixer.”

3 WHAT DOES TRUMP SAY ON THE TAPE?

The tape captures the soon-to-be elected president and his lawyer discussing logistics of financing and whether to “pay with cash,” although the sound is muffled and Trump’s instructions on that are unclear. Lawyers for Trump and Cohen are disputing what was said.

4 WHY DOES IT MATTER?

The audio recording appears to contradict the Trump campaign’s later claim that the president knew nothing about a media company’s purchase of McDougal’s story and any efforts to keep it from becoming public.

5 HOW HAS TRUMP’S TEAM RESPONDED?

On Wednesday, Trump vented on Twitter about the release of the surreptitious tape. “What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad!” he said. “Is this a first, never heard of it before?”