Michael Cohen reportedly secretly recorded a conversation with Trump about payments made to a former Playboy model shortly before the 2016 election

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former longtime lawyer, reportedly secretly recorded a conversation during which he and Trump discussed payments made to a former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, who says she had an affair with Trump.
The conversation reportedly took place in September 2016, two months before the November election.
Cohen is currently under investigation for bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign finance violations.
Trump's potential knowledge of the payments raises new questions about his role in quashing negative stories about him ahead of the election.

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former longtime lawyer, secretly recorded a conversation with Trump in September 2016 in which they discussed payments made to a former Playboy model who claims to have had an affair with the president, The New York Times reported Friday.

The report says that recording was among several that the FBI seized in April when it carried out a raid on Cohen's properties in New York. Cohen's attorneys are said to have discovered it while going through the trove of seized documents and records as part of a privilege review. They reportedly shared the recording with Trump's lawyers as well.

illegal lobbying

The woman at the center of this payment is former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, who The National Enquirer paid $150,000 in August 2016 for the rights to publish her story.

But the outlet never published the piece. That practice is known as "catch and kill," and it effectively silenced McDougal about her allegations of a 2006 affair with Trump. Federal investigators sought documents related to the McDougal payment and payments to other women when raiding Cohen's home, office, and hotel room earlier this year.

Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani confirmed to The Times that Trump discussed the payments with Cohen, but said they were ultimately not made.

"Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance," Giuliani said. He added that Trump had told Cohen that if he did pay McDougal, it should be in the form of a check instead of cash so that it could be properly recorded.

"In the big scheme of things, it's powerful exculpatory evidence," Giuliani added.

Election law experts say that if Cohen engaged in such activity in order to protect Trump's candidacy, it would likely violate campaign finance law.

American Media, Inc. is the publishing company that owns The National Enquirer. David Pecker, the head of the company, is a longtime friend of both Trump and Cohen.

Cohen is also under scrutiny for a $130,000 payment he made to the porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, in late October 2016 to stay silent about her allegation of a 2006 affair with the president, who has denied the affair.

In recent weeks, Cohen

In June, Cohen hired Guy Petrillo, a veteran prosecutor who previously worked for the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York. Legal experts told Business Insider Petrillo is who one would hire if they were considering cooperating with the government. More recently, he brought on Lanny Davis, a Washington lawyer and public relations consultant who worked for former President Bill Clinton amid the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

Michael Cohen reportedly secretly recorded a conversation with Trump about payments made to a former Playboy model shortly before the 2016 election

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