20 July 2018•Update: 20 July 2018
By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump's long-time lawyer secretly recorded a conversation with Trump in which they discussed a possible payment to a former Playboy model who alleges an affair with Trump, according to multiple reports published Friday.
The recording, first reported by the New York Times, was seized during an FBI raid on Michael Cohen's office in April. Cohen formerly served as Trump's personal attorney for the better part of the past decade.
It was made roughly two months before the November 2016 presidential election, according to multiple reports.
Karen McDougal alleges Trump had an affair with her beginning in 2006 while he was married to current first lady Melania Trump. She sold her story to the National Enquirer for $150,000, but the Trump-friendly publication did not publish it, effectively killing it.
McDougal claims Cohen worked to have the Enquirer hold the story from publication.
Trump's current personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, confirmed the existence of the recording to the New York Times, but maintained his client did nothing wrong.
"Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance," he told the Times.
The payment discussed in the recording was an effective reimbursement for the newspaper's payout to McDougal, according to the Times.
Giuliani told the newspaper the payback was never made.
The recording could be used as potential evidence in the FBI's investigation of possible campaign finance violations involving Cohen, including one such payment to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, who is also known as Stormy Daniels.
Like McDougal, Clifford alleges an affair with Trump beginning in 2006, shortly after Melania Trump gave birth to Trump's son, Barron
