President Trump Says It's 'Sad' Cohen Recorded Him
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - President Donald Trump is firing back at his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen after the release of a recording Cohen secretly made of a conversation between the two men.
"What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad!" the president tweeted Wednesday. "Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!"
What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2018
The tape, made two months before the 2016 presidential election, captures Trump discussing a potential payment for a former Playboy model's account of having an affair with him.
COHEN: "So I'm all over that. And I spoke to Allen about it when it comes time for the financing which will be..."
TRUMP: "Wait a sec, what financing?"
COHEN: "We'll have to pay him something."
TRUMP: (INAUDIBLE) "cash."
COHEN: "No, no, no I got it. No, no, no..."
TRUMP: "Check" (inaudible, tape cuts off)
The tape appears to contradict the Trump campaign's later claim that Trump knew nothing about payments to a media company to keep model Karen McDougal's story from becoming public.
Trump suggested Wednesday that the tape cuts off when he was "presumably saying positive things" and that other clients and reporters were taped by Cohen.
The president's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said the tape shows Trump did not want to pay cash as part of an agreement.
But Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, says the recording actually disputes Giuliani's claim.
The FBI seized a total of 12 tapes during a raid of Cohen's home and office back in April in its investigation of whether campaign finance laws were violated.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
