Trump lawyer recorded talk onhushpayment
In the audio, the billionaire talked about Playboy model Karen McDougal
Michael Cohen secretly recorded a discussion of potential payment to stop a former Playboy model from talking about an extramarital affair with US President Trump, lawyers said.
NEW YORK— President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen secretly recorded a discussion of potential payment to stop a former Playboy model from talking about an extramarital affair with him, lawyers said on Friday.
Cohen recorded Trump discussing a possible payment to excenterfold Karen McDougal, who had earlier claimed that she had an affair with trump from 2006 to 2007.
‘Giuliani: No crime’
Current Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said the payment was never made and the brief recording shows Trump did nothing wrong.
“The transaction that Michael is talking about on the tape never took place, but what’s important is: If it did take place, the president said it has to be done correctly and it has to be done by check” to keep a proper record, Giuliani said.
One of Cohen’s lawyers, Lanny Davis, said “any attempt at spin cannot change what is on the tape.”
“When the recording is heard, it will not hurt Mr. Cohen,” Davis said in a statement.
Before the election
Cohen surreptitiously made the recording two months before the 2016 election.
The conversation between Trump and Cohen came weeks after the National Enquirer’s parent company reached a $150,000 deal to pay McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair, which it never published.
The payment of American Media Inc. effectively silenced McDougal through the election, though days beforehand news of the deal emerged in The Wall Street Journal.
The company is run by Trump friend and supporter David Pecker, but Trump has repeatedly denied having an affair.
But in the recorded conversa- tion, Trump and Cohen appear to be discussing buying the rights to McDougal’s story from the Enquirer’s parent company, the source told AP.
The FBI raided Cohen’s office, home and hotel room in April, searching in part for information about payments to McDougal and porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Daniels received a $130,000 payment from Cohen before the election to keep quiet about a sexual relationship she says she had with Trump.
What crime?
The Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission have been asked to investigate whether American Media’s payment to McDougal was an unreported and illegal corporate campaign contribution.
Cohen hasn’t been charged with any crime but the federal investigation is separate from an ongoing inquiry by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.—