Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen taped talk about paying off Playboy model – and FBI has the recording
Cohen recorded himself and Trump discussing paying off Karen McDougal before the 2016 elections – and the FBI seized the recording in its April raid
US President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and self-described fixer, Michael Cohen, secretly taped a conversation with Trump two months before the 2016 election about paying off ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, it has emerged.
The call about McDougal – who was at the time threatening to go public with claims she had an extramarital affair with the soon-to-be president – was seized by FBI agents who raided Cohen’s Manhattan office, hotel room and home in April, a person familiar with the recording said on Friday.
Cohen is under federal investigation for possible campaign finance violations as it relates to hush payments he issued shortly before the election to women who alleged they had had sexual relationships with Trump.
The revelation that there’s a recording of Trump and Cohen discussing a potential payment could implicate the president, as his having any knowledge of such a payoff would open him up to campaign finance violations as well.
McDougal, 47, a two-time Playboy Playmate, says she begun a year-long affair with Trump in 2006, just months after first lady Melania Trump had given birth to their son, Barron.
The ex-model sold her story to the National Enquirer for US$150,000 during the final weeks of the 2016 campaign, but the Trump-friendly tabloid never published a story, effectively barring McDougal from going public with her claims – a practice known in media circles as “catch and kill”.
