Trump ire at recording claim

President Donald Trump has responded furiously to reports that his former lawyer recorded their conversation about payments to a Playboy model over an alleged affair, describing the taping as ‘‘totally unheard of and perhaps illegal’’.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer for a decade, is being investigated by federal prosecutors in New York for possible bank and tax fraud.

‘‘Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer’s office (early in the morning) – almost unheard of,’’ Trump tweeted yesterday, in an apparent reference to an FBI raid on Cohen’s office in April.

‘‘Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client – totally unheard of and perhaps illegal. The good news is that your favourite president did nothing wrong!’’

It emerged on Saturday that Cohen recorded a conversation with Trump two months before the 2016 election, in which they discussed buying the rights to a story by a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump.

Karen McDougal has said she began a nearly year-long affair with Trump in 2006, shortly after the property developer’s wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron.

McDougal sold her story for

US$150,000 (NZ$220,000) in August

2016 but it was never published by The National Enquirer, a practice known as ‘‘catch and kill’’ to prevent a potentially damaging story from becoming public.

David Pecker, the chairman of parent company American Media Inc (AMI), is a friend of Trump’s.

Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, confirmed the authenticity of the tape and said the discussion of payment did not mean that McDougal’s claim of an affair was true.

He said the proposed payment was a personal matter and not subject to campaign finance law, adding that it was simply an attempt to resolve false allegations.

Giuliani said the money was ultimately not paid. But the revelation of the conversation proves that previous assertions by members of Trump’s campaign that they were unaware of any discussion of a payment were false.

Cohen said last year he would ‘‘take a bullet’’ for Trump. But he told ABC News in an interview broadcast this month that he now puts ‘‘family and country first’’ and won’t let anyone paint him as ‘‘a villain of this story.’’

It came at the end of a torrid week for the president, who returned to Washington to a storm of criticism after his summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, when he raised doubts about conclusions by America’s intelligence regarding Russia’s election interference. - Telegraph Group

‘‘Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer’s office (early in the morning) – almost unheard of.’’ President Donald Trump