President reels off rebuttals to lawyer’s Playboy model ‘affair’ tape

A SECRETLY recorded tape of Donald Trump discussing a hush-money payment to a Playboy model over an alleged affair has led to a public row between the US president and his former lawyer.

The audio, released to US media by representatives for Michael Cohen, confirms Mr Trump discussed buying the rights to the story two months before the 2016 election.

Mr Trump hit out yesterday at Mr Cohen for surreptitiously recording their conversation, writing on Twitter: “What kind of a lawyer would tape a client?” He also claimed the tape had been “cut” while he was “saying positive things”. It reopens questions over whether the payment constitutes an undeclared election campaign expense.

The public split comes as Mr Cohen faces an FBI investigation and will fuel suggestions the lawyer could “flip” and provide information to investigators in exchange for leniency. The audio recordings were seized in an FBI raid on Mr Cohen’s office and home in April.

In the tapes, Mr Trump and Mr Cohen can be heard discussing a potential payment for a Playboy model’s story about an alleged affair and whether to “pay with cash”. The audio is muffled and both sides dispute whether Mr Trump is suggesting a cash payment or saying “don’t pay with cash”. Weeks earlier, the National Enquirer had agreed to pay $150,000 (£114,000) to Karen Mcdougal, a former Playboy model, for the rights to her story of a 10-month “affair” with Mr Trump in 2006. The story was never published.

David Pecker, the president of American Media Inc (AMI), the National Enquirer’s parent company, is a friend of Mr Trump. Mr Trump and Mr Cohen appear to be discussing buying the rights to Mcdougal’s story from AMI, referring to “our friend David”.

Mr Trump denies the affair ever happened and his campaign has stated he knew nothing about the payment.