Cohen recorded Trump discussing payment to former Playboy model

Cohen recorded Trump discussing payment to former Playboy model

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BREAKING NEWS
Trump's former lawyer secretly recorded a conversation between himself and the future President discussing payments to Karen McDougal


Cohen recorded Trump discussing payment to ex-Playmate

By Evan Perez, Dana Bash and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
Updated 12:28 PM ET, Fri July 20, 2018

Washington (CNN) The FBI is in possession of a recording between President Donald Trump and his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, in which the two men discuss a payment to a former Playboy model who has alleged an affair with Trump, Rudy Giuliani and a source familiar with the matter told CNN Friday.

The recording was among the troves of documents and materials seized in the FBI raid of Cohen's hotel, residence and office earlier this year. A transcript of the recording was reviewed by the Trump legal team, which does not believe it is a legal problem for the President.

The revelation was first reported by The New York Times, which said Cohen secretly made the recording two months before the 2016 presidential election.

Speaking to the Times, Giuliani, a lawyer for Trump, confirmed that the payment was discussed. McDougal eventually signed a contract with the company that owns the National Enquirer, which barred her from publicly speaking about the alleged affair before the 2016 election. Trump has denied McDougal's allegations of an affair.

"Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance," Giuliani told the Times Friday, adding, "In the big scheme of things, it's powerful exculpatory evidence."

A lawyer for Cohen declined to comment to the Times.

In August 2016, McDougal signed an agreement with American Media Inc., which owns The National Enquirer, Us Weekly, Men's Journal and several other publications. She believed at the time the contract was a work agreement that would allow her to be photographed for and write pieces that would run in the companies' publications.

Her attorney for that negotiation was Keith Davidson. She told CNN she later found out Davidson was in contact with Cohen.

McDougal later realized she could face a financial penalty for speaking to the media about her story. In April, she reached a settlement with AMI that allows her to discuss the alleged affair.

Speaking with CNN's Anderson Cooper in March, McDougal alleged that she and Trump were together "many dozens of times" and answered in the affirmative when asked if they were intimate.

McDougal described the alleged affair from 2006 to 2007 as a consensual, loving relationship, and said she did not know Trump might have seen other women at the time besides his wife -- and that throughout their relationship, he did not use protection.

"I didn't know he was intimate with other ladies," she said on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" at the time. "I thought I was the only one."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny-n...719-story.html

"The FBI is in possession of a recording between President Donald Trump and his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen,"

And how many more recordings do they have?

How many tapes of Trump did Michael Cohen have?

by Philip Wegmann
| July 20, 2018 12:49 PM

The president’s lawyer had a tape recorder and that’s a problem in more ways than one.

The New York Times reports that Michael Cohen secretly taped a discussion with then-candidate Trump, his boss, about making payments to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model. Now the FBI has seized the tapes.

This places the president in legal jeopardy because those payments may amount to illegal campaign contributions made by Trump to quiet the model and thereby influence the election. Rudy Giuliani, now the president’s personal attorney, confirmed the recording to the New York Times but insisted that the payment in question never actually happened.

“Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance,” Giuliani said before insisting somehow that the record was “powerful exculpatory evidence.”

Normally this would also be a moral quandary for the president. Once upon a time, people used to frown on married men cheating on their pregnant wives. But this president has advanced the sexual revolution for powerful politicians so the infidelity probably won’t matter much.

What will matter is whether Cohen recorded frequently. The president’s allies certainly don’t think it was an isolated incident. One source told the New York Times earlier this year that it was “standard practice.” And when the lawyer’s offices where raided earlier in the year, those same people started to worry that federal investigators had seized recordings.

“We heard he had some proclivity to make tapes,” said one Trump adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. “Now we are wondering, who did he tape? Did he store those someplace where they were actually seized? ... Did they find his recordings?”

It is obvious now that the FBI did find the recordings and it seems likely that, if there are more, we will find out more about them soon.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/o...did-cohen-have

When informed about the 2016 recording discussing Karen McDougal, the President said, 'I can't believe Michael would do this to me,' a source tells CNN

It's a bizarre thing that Cohen would record conversations with his client without their knowledge or permission. I don't think he did it to hurt Trump, it's probably for convenience and referring back to make sure he has it right. Still it's odd. Even so, I don't think there's going to be anything illegal on any of them, maybe something embarrassing, but nothing illegal.

You have no possible way to actually know what is on any tapes.

More Tapes! Trump Shocked To Learn Cohen Recorded Number Of Their Calls

By Allegra Kirkland | July 20, 2018 2:00 pmSHARE

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Lordy, there are (lots of) tapes.

CNN reported Friday that President Trump’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen secretly recorded multiple conversations between the two, including one about a payment made to a former Playboy model who says she slept with Trump.

According to CNN, the President had no idea the calls were being recorded. When he learned this week about the tapes, which are now in the possession of the FBI, he reportedly said, “I can’t believe Michael would do this to me.”

The New York Times broke the news earlier Friday that Cohen had recorded a fall 2016 call in which he and Trump discussed paying Karen McDougal to keep her quiet about her alleged 2006 affair with the president.

All of the recordings were seized in April when the FBI executed search warrants on Cohen’s premises as part of a criminal investigation into his finances. Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani confirmed the existence of the McDougal tape, but said the two-minute call showed no wrongdoing on Trump’s behalf and was actually “powerful exculpatory evidence.”

The McDougal tape appears to be the only Trump-Cohen recording “of substance,” according to a source of CNN’s Dana Bash.

But Bash noted on air that Cohen apparently recorded his calls not just with Trump but with “people around the president” and other “significant individuals.” CNN did not name any of those other individuals.

In addition to working as a longtime fixer for Trump and the Trump Organization, Cohen arranged a hush money deal for powerful GOP donor Elliott Broidy and did legal work for Fox News host Sean Hannity.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckra...mp-cohen-tapes

The Michael Cohen tapes story is just getting started

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 4:28 PM ET, Fri July 20, 2018

(CNN)The story, on its face, seems to be this: In the waning months of the 2016 election, Donald Trump and Michael Cohen talked about paying off former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal, who alleged an affair with Trump, to keep her quiet.

Pretty big news, right? (Kudos to The New York Times for breaking it.)

And it is! But the bigger story here isn't that one conversation between Trump and his fixer. After all, we know that Cohen did this sort of dirty work for Trump; Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 11 days before the 2016 election to ensure her silence about an alleged tryst she says she had with Trump in the 2000s. And we know, despite the initial denials from Cohen and Trump, that Trump paid Cohen back for that payout.

The big story here -- and it is a B-I-G story -- is that Cohen secretly recorded a conversation with Trump. And that this wasn't the only conversation with Trump he taped. And certainly not the only conversation that might be of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller that Cohen taped. These two paragraphs, from CNN's report on the taping, hit the nail on the head:

"Cohen has other recordings of the President in his records that were seized by the FBI, said a source with knowledge of Cohen's tapes and Giuliani, who described the other recordings as mundane discussions.

"There are other tapes of Cohen and other "powerful" individuals that the FBI seized beyond the President that could be embarrassing for the people on the tape and for Cohen, according to a source familiar with the tapes. The source said the people are of "significance and consequence."

First of all, mundanity is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe the rest of the Cohen-Trump tapes are just the two of them talking about the dismal state of the Knicks. Or about "Hamilton." Or whatever.

But maybe they are slightly less innocuous than that. That's not to say there is anything illegal contained in the tapes -- but remember that Cohen was Trump's longtime fixer, the Michael Clayton-figure in Trumpworld. Cohen was so valuable to Trump because he was willing to do what had to be done -- whatever had to be done -- to take pressure or problems off of his boss's plate. That means any recorded conversations between him and Trump are potentially problematic for Trump.

It also means that Cohen's conversation with other "powerful" individuals has the potential to contain a bombshell or two as well. It's not clear whether those revelations -- if they are indeed on tape -- would boomerang back onto Trump or anyone else in the President's inner circle. But, given Cohen's reputation as a secret-keeper willing to walk very, very close to the line of what's legal -- the fact that he secretly recorded a series of conversations with the man who is now President of the United States (and other "powerful" people) is a very big deal.

The fact that the existence of the recorded calls leaked should also be worrisome to the Trump White House and anyone else who said anything to Cohen over the phone that might be problematic if it went public. The news that the FBI is in possession of these audio records -- likely obtained in the massivesearch and seizure operation conducted against Cohen's hotel, house and office in April -- almost certainly came from one of two places: The FBI or Cohen (or one if his allies).

If it came from the Cohen side, that's yet more evidence that the man who once said he would take a bullet for Trump may be softening in his commitment to his former boss amid the possibility of significant jail time. Earlier this month, Cohen told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that "my wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will. I put family and country first."

Lanny Davis, Cohen's newly hired attorney, made very clear what Cohen meant. "This is a new Michael Cohen with a new attitude about speaking his mind," Davis said in an interview with The Hill.

A Cohen freed from his almost-sycophantic relationship with Trump could be a dangerous thing for Trump -- not to mention the likes of Donald Trump Jr. and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. And that Cohen with possession of recordings he secretly taped of conversations with Trump as well as other "powerful" people is a prospect that should send a shiver of fear through Trump world.

That's the real story here. Don't miss it.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/20/polit...gal/index.html

Trump says he didn’t know about payment to Stormy Daniels
President Trump on April 5 said he didn’t know that his personal attorney paid adult-film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 days before the presidential election.

April 5, 2018



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M8YYSTznKU

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stoptheinvaders

Trump says he didn’t know about payment to Stormy Daniels
President Trump on April 5 said he didn’t know that his personal attorney paid adult-film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 days before the presidential election.

April 5, 2018



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M8YYSTznKU

---

You're confusing the two women. This one is about the Playbunny, not Stormy Daniels.

Mueller team wants to talk to 'Manhattan Madam' Kristin Davis

Stormy Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti on Trump-Cohen tape: 'I know this is the tip of the iceberg'

• Michael Avenatti had alleged the existence of Cohen's recordings in May during court proceedings involving materials seized from Cohen in FBI raids a month earlier.
• Avenatti told CNBC on Friday: ”I know this is the tip of the iceberg."

Kevin Breuninger | @KevinWilliamB
Published 8 Hours Ago Updated 6 Hours AgoCNBC.com

https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnb...g?v=1529084752Getty Images
Michael Avenatti, attorney for Stormy Daniels, speaks to reporters following a court proceeding.

The lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels told CNBC on Friday that he knows secret recordings reportedly made by President Donald Trump's ex-attorney Michel Cohen about paying off a Playboy model are "the tip of the iceberg."

That lawyer, Michael Avenatti, had alleged the existence of Cohen's recordings in May during court proceedings involving materials seized from Cohen in FBI raids a month earlier.

"Back on May 30, in front of the federal courthouse, I demanded the release of the Trump tapes and disclosed their existence at that time, and I am once again demanding the release of all audio recordings made of Donald Trump," Avenatti said.

At that time, Avenatti suggested the recordings could potentially relate to his client Daniels, who is suing Trump and Cohen to void a contract she signed that prevents her from discussing an alleged affair with Trump from years earlier.

When asked whether he believes tapes made by Cohen related to Daniels exist, Avenatti indicated that he did.

"I think this is the tip of the iceberg," he said. Asked to clarify, Avenatti rephrased: ”I know this is the tip of the iceberg."

Avenatti was reacting to a new report from The New York Times on Friday that said Cohen recorded a conversation with Trump two months before the 2016 election in which Trump and Cohen discussed payments to ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal. She had alleged she had an affair with Trump.

A lawyer for Cohen, as well as Trump's outside counsel, Rudy Giuliani, did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment on Avenatti's claims.

But a person familiar with the president’s legal strategy told CNBC that Trump's legal team is aware of other recordings, though not of any "substantive" tapes. The person added that Trump was "unaware" that he was being recorded during the reported discussion related to McDougal.

One of the reporters on the Times' story, Maggie Haberman, tweeted that the McDougal tape "appears to be the only one" between Trump and Cohen and adding in a follow-up that she's "not sure" how Avenatti "would know" that there are multiple recordings.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images...WPG_normal.jpgMaggie Haberman

✔@maggieNYT

Lordy, there’s a tape. Appears to be the only one. ⁦@nytmike⁩ ⁦@mattapuzzo⁩ and me https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/us/politics/michael-cohen-trump-tape.html …

8:43 AM - Jul 20, 2018
https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/10203...g&name=600x314


Michael Cohen Secretly Taped Trump Discussing Payment to Playboy Model

The F.B.I. seized the recording in a raid. Its existence recording highlights the potential legal and political danger that Mr. Cohen represents to the president.
nytimes.com

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https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images...WPG_normal.jpgMaggie Haberman

✔@maggieNYT

Not sure how he would know what exists between Trump and Cohen, but that’s what we are referring to.

Jesse Rodriguez

✔@JesseRodriguez


Well, @MichaelAvenatti says there are definitely more tapes. @MSNBC https://twitter.com/maggienyt/status...33479761006592 …



9:56 AM - Jul 20, 2018

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Asked about Haberman's tweet, Avenatti said:

"There is definitely more than one."

In an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell shortly after the Times published its story, Avenatti declined to detail his knowledge of what he called "multiple audio recordings."

He also called Cohen "one of the world's great evidence hoarders," which he characterized as being a "very, very bad thing for the president."

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/20/stor...e-iceberg.html

"Once upon a time, people used to frown on married men cheating on their pregnant wives."

Related?

Tabloid Company, Aiding Trump Campaign, May Have Crossed Line Into Politics

UPDATE

Feds have 12 Michael Cohen audio recordings

Okay, if all that comes out of these tapes is evidence Trump was a lowlife womanizing wife cheater .... well, we pretty much already knew that when we voted on him. Additionally, pretty much everyone knew he was a fathead narcissist with the moral values of a pimp working girls in the red light district. And that's why I supported Cruz in the primary (that and Trump's many inconsistencies).

However, many of us on ALIPAC didn't vote on Trump because we were under the illusion he was a wholesome all-American hero. What we did vote on was his campaign promises on border security and illegal immigration. Of course he's already disappointed my twice on that. Once when he failed to keep his promise to immediately end DACA and the other time when he came out in support of an illegal alien amnesty. Just my two cents worth. ;)

How a conspiracy theory explains the Michael Cohen secret tape