Trump in fresh mess over hush money paid to Playboy model
News & Trends •
trumps current personal attorney rudy giuliani confirmed to the times that the cohen tape existed but claimed the president had done nothing wrong1 multiple reports claimed that president donald trump was secretly taped two months before the 2016 election discussing a hush money payment over an alleged affair with a playboy model and the fbi has the recording1 the republican commander-in-chief on friday did not answer questions shouted out by reporters about the cohen tape as he prepared to fly out of the white house en route to his new jersey golf club1 the new york times broke the story saying the fbi seized the recording during a raid on cohens office earlier this year quoting lawyers and others familiar with the recording. cohen has not yet been arrested or charged1 former playboy model karen mcdougal claims she had a months-long affair with trump after they met in 2006 shortly after trumps wife melania gave birth to their son barron. she told cnn previously that he tried to pay her for sex1 the wall street journal said the september 2016 conversation between trump and cohen was about buying the rights to mcdougals story which she sold a month earlier to the national enquirer for 1500001 the tabloid ultimately sat on it preventing it from becoming public. the chairman of its parent company american media is a trump friend1 fridays reports raise questions about why trumps campaign denied knowledge of the deal between mcdougal and american media when it became public as well as fan speculation about how much damage cohen can inflict on the president1 the tape was reportedly made by his former longtime lawyer michael cohen who is under federal investigation in new york for his business dealings. investigators are probing whether the hush payments violated campaign finance laws1 the recording was less than two minutes and gave no indication that trump had prior knowledge about the media payment to mcdougal giuliani told the times1 it helps us rather than hurts us he was quoted as saying by the journal1 cohens lawyer lanny davis declined to comment friday1 the fbi raided cohens home and office in april on a referral from special counsel robert mueller who is looking into russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the trump campaign colluded with moscow1 michael cohen donald trumps former personal lawyer secretly taped the president talking about a payment to a former playboy model who says she had an affair with the real estate mogul-turned us leader1 the justice department says cohen has been under investigation for months for criminal conduct largely centred on his personal business dealings1 prosecutors are apparently interested in payments he made on trumps behalf to porn actress stormy daniels and other business dealings related to trump1