A recording of then-candidate Donald Trump talking about a payment to a woman who claimed theyd had an affair is just one of a dozen audio files released to prosecutors last week, a court filing on Monday revealed.
Court-appointed Special Master Barbara S. Jones, a former judge, is overseeing the review of materials the FBI seized during a raid on former Trump attorney Michael Cohen s office in April. Jones announced in a filing dated July 23 that shed granted prosecutors access to 12 audio files from the raid.
BREAKING: There isnt just one audio file in the Michael Cohen matter.
There are at least 12, and prosecutors got them on Friday - when the Times story ran on one of them. pic.twitter.com/FrZNaawVt5
BREAKING: There isnt just one audio file in the Michael Cohen matter.
Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) July 23, 2018
There are at least 12, and prosecutors got them on Friday - when the Times story ran on one of them. pic.twitter.com/FrZNaawVt5
Cohen, Trumps longtime personal attorney, taped and stored conversations with his associates and has argued that the seized recordings and documents are protected under attorney-client privilege. But in a separate filing on July 19, Jones determined that Out of 4,085 items designated privileged by the Plaintiff and/or Intervenors [...] 1,452 items are not privileged.
The following day, Jones ordered that 12 of those files be released to prosecutors, including the recording of Trump and Cohen discussing a payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal , who claims she began a nearly yearlong affair with Trump in 2006.
Jones filing did not indicate the content of the other tapes.
In the recording of Trump and Cohen, first reported by The New York Times on Friday, the men reportedly discussed $150,000 that the National Enquirer paid McDougal for the rights to her story. Thereafter, the tabloid prevented her claims from becoming public in a practice known as catch and kill.
The Enquirer is owned by American Media Inc whose CEO, David Pecker, is a friend of Trumps. According to the Times, the Justice Departments raid on Cohens office was partly meant to investigate whether payments to women who said theyd had affairs with the president constituted illegal campaign contributions or violations of federal campaign finance laws. The AMI payment to McDougal, for example, could be considered an illegal campaign contribution.
Asked about the deal just days before the 2016 election, the Trump campaigns then-spokeswoman Hope Hicks told The Wall Street Journal : We have no knowledge of any of this.
Yet the recording suggests that Cohen and Trump had discussed McDougals payment two months before the election.
In a tweet on Saturday , the president denied any wrongdoing and expressed surprise at the tapes existence.
Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyers office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of. 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!
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2018","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Donald J. Trump","author_url":"https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump","cache_age":86400,"description":"Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyers office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of. 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! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2018\n\n","provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Donald J. 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Trump","slug":"donald-trump","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/donald-trump","permalink":"https://action.news/topic/donald-trump","mobileWebLink":"https://action.news/topic/donald-trump"},"relegenceId":2789214,"department":{"name":"Latest News","slug":"politics-news"},"section":{"title":"Politics","slug":"politics"},"topic":{"title":"Donald Trump","slug":"donald-trump","overridesSectionLabel":false},"url":"https://action.news/news/topic/donald-trump"},{"name":"Michael Cohen lawyer","slug":"michael-cohen-lawyer","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/michael-cohen-lawyer","permalink":"https://action.news/topic/michael-cohen-lawyer","mobileWebLink":"https://action.news/topic/michael-cohen-lawyer"},"department":{"name":"Latest News","slug":"politics-news"},"section":{"title":"Politics","slug":"politics"},"topic":{"title":"Michael Cohen","slug":"michael-cohen","overridesSectionLabel":false},"url":"https://action.news/news/topic/michael-cohen"},{"name":"investigation","slug":"investigation","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/investigation","permalink":"https://action.news/topic/investigation","mobileWebLink":"https://action.news/topic/investigation"},"url":"https://action.news/topic/investigation"},{"name":"Karen McDougal","slug":"karen-mcdougal","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/karen-mcdougal","permalink":"https://action.news/topic/karen-mcdougal","mobileWebLink":"https://action.news/topic/karen-mcdougal"},"url":"https://action.news/topic/karen-mcdougal"},{"name":"FBI Raid","slug":"fbi-raid","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/fbi-raid","permalink":"https://action.news/topic/fbi-raid","mobileWebLink":"https://action.news/topic/fbi-raid"},"department":{"name":"Latest 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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!
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2018
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