Cohen secretly recorded Trump talking about paying off Playboy model

[SueEllenRules!]

Michael Cohen Secretly Recorded Donald Trump Talking About Paying Playboy Model: Report

President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer secretly recorded a conversation with him discussing a payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal, according to a report in the New York Times.

The article cites lawyers and others who are familiar with the recording saying that it was seized by the FBI during a raid on Michael Cohen’s office earlier this year and includes Trump discussing payments to McDougal.

Current Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani confirmed the existence of the tape to the Times but said that it exonerates Trump because nothing in it suggests that Trump knew about the payment in advance and the payment was never made.

McDougal says she had a nearly yearlong affair with Trump in 2006. She sold the rights to her story for $150,000 to the National Enquirer, which is run by Trump ally David Pecker. She then spoke out shortly before the election when the tabloid did not run the story.

In April, McDougal settled a lawsuit against American Media Inc., owners of the Enquirer, which allowed her to keep the money and now speak publicly about the affair.

Michael Cohen Secretly Recorded Donald Trump Talking About Paying Playboy Model: Report - TIME https://apple.news/A03s_qkrWSQepAcqINe1qiQ

 

[Gabriel Maxwell]

It turns out the tape was a part of a handful of documents the Special Master ruled privileged and as such was not made available to the prosecutors (per Vanity Fair reporting). As such, this could only have been leaked by Trump's people. Why? MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and CNN's Chris Cuomo break it all down.

One must remember - it's TREASON WEEK. Though some have been screaming about it for 2 years, it is only after Monday's Helsinki summit and the ensuing hot mess some have seriously started considering the possibility their president may really be a Russian puppet.

 

[SueEllenRules!]

Trump says he 'did nothing wrong' after Cohen tape revelation

President Trump on Saturday broke his silence about the revelation that his former longtime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen secretly recorded one of their conversations before the 2016 election dealing with a payment over the story of a former Playboy model's alleged affair with Trump.

"Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer's office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of. Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client - totally unheard of & perhaps illegal. The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!" Trump tweeted.

The New York Times had reported Friday that Cohen taped a conversation he had with Trump, then the GOP presidential nominee, in 2016 about paying former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who says she had a yearlong affair with Trump starting in 2006 after he married now-first lady Melania Trump.

The Washington Post later reported that the FBI had seized a tape of Cohen's involving a conversation between Trump and his lawyer in September 2016 on whether to purchase the rights to McDougal's account of her alleged affair with Trump.

In the 90-second audio recording, according to the Post, Cohen can be heard urging Trump to buy the rights to the woman's story after it was purchased by American Media Inc. (AMI), the parent company of the National Enquirer.

AMI had purchased the rights to McDougal's story in August 2016 for $150,000 but never ran a piece. The former model sued the company over the deal earlier this year and reached a settlement in April.

"I think we need to bring this in-house," Cohen tells Trump in the recording, a source told The Post.

The recording was reportedly seized by federal agents investigating whether Cohen violated bank and campaign finance laws.

Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani confirmed to the newspaper that the recording existed but declined to discuss details and said a payment was never made. He also claimed that nothing in the tape shows that Trump "had any knowledge of it in advance."

"Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of [the AMI payment] in advance," Giuliani told the Post. "In the big scheme of things, it's powerful exculpatory evidence."

http://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...thing-wrong-after-cohen-tape-revelation?amp=1