Trump slams his former personal attorney Michael Cohen who was revealed to have secretly recorded the President discussing a payment to playboy model
WASHINGTON, U. S. – Slamming his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who was revealed to have secretly recorded the President discussing a payment involving an ex-Playboy model, Donald Trump called the act “inconceivable.”
A day after it was revealed that one of the 3.7 million pieces of evidence seized by the FBI from the raid conducted on Cohen’s home, office and hotel room in April this year, contained a secret recording Cohen made of a 2016 phone call where Trump discussed a possible payment to a Playboy model – Trump fumed on Twitter on Saturday.
The U. S. President denied any wrongdoing and referring to the April FBI raid, he tweeted, “Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer’s office (early in the morning) – almost unheard of.”
He added, “Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client – totally unheard of & perhaps illegal. The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!”
Trump’s attack on Cohen comes a day after reports revealed that the recording was amongst the 3.7 million documents, emails, tax documents, tape recordings, financial records seized by the FBI from Cohen’s home, office and hotel room on April 1 this year.
The U. S. President’s fiercely loyal former attorney, who fashioned himself as Donald Trump’s « fix-it man,” was first announced to be under criminal investigation in April this year.
After working at the Trump Organization for over ten years, Cohen left the company in 2017 only to serve as Trump’s personal lawyer.
However, Cohen faced the possibility of landing severe charges in April, when his $130,000 hush-money payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) was revealed.
It was revealed that Cohen made the payment to Daniels just weeks before the 2016 presidential election to deter the porn star from going public about her accusations against Trump’s efforts of trying to cover up an affair she had with him in 2006.
Subsequently, FBI agents overseen by federal prosecutors in New York raided Cohen’s office, apartment, and a hotel room and seized evidence related to his $130,000 payment to Daniels.
The recording in reference is from a conversation that is said to have taken place two months before the 2016 U. S. election, in which Trump reportedly discussed payments to a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with the future president.
A report in The New York Times first revealed that the FBI seized the recording along with scores of others, including Cohen’s cell phones and computers during the April raid.
At the time, citing violation of attorney-client privilege, Cohen entered a legal battle against the seizure of his records by federal investigators.
On Saturday, in his first public comments since the series of explosive reports made the revelation, Trump claimed that it was « inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client — totally unheard of & perhaps illegal. »
Reports noted that laws on taping private conversations differ from state to state, and so far, it remains unclear where Cohen recorded Trump.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the conversation took place in September 2016, a month after American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, had purchased the rights to ex-Playmate Karen McDougal’s story of the alleged extramarital affair for $150,000.
The tabloid was alleged to have killed the story at the time.
According to reports, Cohen has suggested that he and Trump consider buying the rights to her story themselves, which would have effectively reimbursed the Enquirer for its payments to McDougal.
The Journal report stated that it is unclear so far, why they didn’t buy the rights.
McDougal has said that AMI agreed to pay her $150,000 for her story but then did not publish it and has filed a lawsuit seeking the right to speak publicly about her alleged affair with Trump.
McDougal has claimed that she and Trump had a year-long affair in 2006, which is the same year that porn star Stormy Daniels claims to have had a one-night stand with Trump – which was also shortly after Melania Trump, gave birth to their son.
Meanwhile, on Friday, when the revelations related to the recording first emerged, the Times report quoted Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani as saying that the president had discussed the hush money payments with Cohen on the two-minute recording — but that no payment was ever made.
He reportedly said, “Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance,” adding that the President had told Cohen that if he were to make a payment to the woman, he should write a check instead of sending cash so it could be documented.
Giuliani also argued, “In the big scheme of things, it’s powerful exculpatory evidence.”
Under U. S. election law, presidential candidates have to disclose campaign contributions, which are defined as things of value given to a campaign in order to influence an election.
Legal experts have warned that if campaign funds were used, that could run afoul of federal election law.
However, Giuliani has argued that no campaign funding was involved in the discussion between Trump and Cohen.
