US President Donald Trump‘s former lawyer Michael Cohen secretly recorded his client discussing payments to a former Playboy model, US media report.
The tapes were reportedly discovered during an FBI raid on Mr Cohen’s property earlier this year in New York. The New York Times reports that on the recording Mr Trump and Mr Cohen discuss paying Karen McDougal, who says she had an affair with Mr Trump. The tape was reportedly made two months before the election.
The Department of Justice is looking into alleged hush money paid to women who claim they had a relationship with Mr Trump. Mr Cohen – who has not been charged – is reportedly under investigation for possible bank and tax fraud, as well as potential violation of election law. On Friday, another Trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, confirmed to the New York Times that the president had discussed the payments with Mr Cohen on the tape. But he said no money was actually ever transferred, and the recording itself amounted to “powerful exculpatory evidence”.In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, Ms McDougal sold her story to the National Enquirer, which is owned by a personal friend of Mr Trump. She says the $150,000 (£115,000) agreement gave the supermarket tabloid exclusive story rights and banned her from talking publicly about the alleged affair. But the Enquirer did not publish her kiss-and-tell, and she says she was tricked. Federal investigators have reportedly demanded the tabloid’s records on the McDougal payment.
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