Tape out: Trump discusses hush money on affair story
: A lawyer for Michael Cohen, US President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney, released an audio recording of a conversation between Trump and Cohen in which they discussed paying for the rights to a Playboy model’s story about an alleged affair with Trump.
The recording was played on CNN Tuesday night. Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis told the network he released the recording to dispute an assertion by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani that tape would show that Trump made clear that if there were going to be a payment, it should be done by check, which would be easily traced. Giuliani has said the payment was never made.
According to Giuliani, in his transcript of the recording displayed by CNN on Tuesday, Trump says on the tape: “Don’t pay with cash. Check.”
In the recording, Trump can be heard saying “pay with cash.”
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Cohen counters by repeatedly saying, “No.”
Reuters was unable to verify the entire exchange between the two men because of the poor sound quality of the recording. Davis and Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The discussion of any payment could support claims by Trump’s critics, including groups like Common Cause, that a payment benefited his presidential campaign and the failure to document it was a potential violation of U.S. election laws.
Karen McDougal, the model, alleges she began a 10-month affair with Trump in 2006. Giuliani denies that Trump had an affair with McDougal.
Davis said the tape is among audio recordings that were seized by the FBI in a raid of Cohen’s home and office in April.