Trump and Cohen's secret hush money tape released: CNN

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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 CNN he released the recording to dispute an assertion by Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani that the tape would show that Trump made it clear that, if there was 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." Cohen counters by repeatedly saying, "No."

The entire exchange between the two men was unable to be verified because of the poor sound quality of the recording. Davis and Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Trump responded hours later on Twitter, lashing out at Cohen as a "bad" lawyer. The president, however, did not answer directly if the alleged affairs was true.

Screenshot from Trump's twitter handle

"What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before?" Trump tweeted.

The discussion of any payment supports 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 US election laws.

February 6, 2010: Model Karen McDougal attends Playboy's Super Saturday Night Party at Sagamore Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. /VCG Photo

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.

It was turned over to federal prosecutors on Friday, according to a filing in federal court in Manhattan on Monday.

In the conversation, recorded in September 2016 at Trump Tower in New York, Cohen discusses setting up a company to make a payment apparently involving David Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc (AMI) and a close friend of Trump's.

Cohen was proposing to pay AMI, which owns the National Enquirer, for the rights to McDougal's story. AMI had bought them from McDougal for 150,000 US dollars, but AMI did not publish her story.

"I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, so that I'm going to do that right away," Cohen says in the recording.

AMI acknowledged holding those rights when it relinquished them in April after McDougal had filed a lawsuit against AMI. The company could not be immediately contacted for comment on whether it held any discussion about the transfer of the rights to Trump.

Federal prosecutors in New York are investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, and for possible campaign law violations linked to a 130,000 US dollars payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels and other matters related to Trump's campaign, a person familiar with the investigation has told Reuters.

Cohen has not been charged with any crime.

Source(s): Reuters