Trump’s Lawyer Secretly Recorded Him Discussing Payout to Playboy Model

President Donald Trump’s attorney secretly recorded a conversation with him 2 months before he was elected to the highest office in the United States — the conversations relate to payments from Trump to a Playboy model.

The model in question — Karen McDougal — claims that she had an almost year-long affair with Trump right after Melania gave birth to Barron.The Dallas News reports that “McDougal sold her story to The National Enquirer for $150,000 during the final months of the presidential campaign, but the tabloid sat on the story, which kept it from becoming public. The practice, known as ‘catch and kill,’ effectively silenced McDougal for the remainder of the campaign.”

Though Trump has repeatedly denied making these payments, Michael Cohen apparently has a recording of a conversation in which they discuss these payments.

The Dallas News has more:

The FBI seized the recording this year during a raid on Cohen’s office. The Justice Department is investigating Cohen’s involvement in paying women to tamp down embarrassing news stories about Trump before the 2016 election. Prosecutors want to know whether that violated federal campaign finance laws, and any conversation with Trump about those payments would be of keen interest to them.

The recording’s existence further draws Trump into questions about tactics he and his associates used to keep aspects of his personal and business life a secret. And it highlights the potential legal and political danger that Cohen represents to Trump. Once the keeper of many of Trump’s secrets, Cohen is now seen as increasingly willing to consider cooperating with prosecutors.

Well, that complicates Trump’s story.

Rudy Giuliani — who is, among other things, Trump’s personal lawyer — admits that Trump was discussing this matter on the phone.  However, the 2 minute call — according to Giuliani — proves that Trump has nothing to hide.

“Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance,” Giuliani said.  “In the big scheme of things, it’s powerful exculpatory evidence.”

Giuliani explained that Trump told Cohen to make any potential payments to the woman via check instead of cash.  That, according to Giuliani, shows that Trump wanted the payment to be properly documented.

This caused pundit David French to tweet, “Legit question: What level of sexual misconduct is “priced in” with Trump? In other words, what revelation would actually cause serious degradation in his support?”

Legit question: What level of sexual misconduct is “priced in” with Trump? In other words, what revelation would actually cause serious degradation in his support?

— David French (@DavidAFrench) July 20, 2018

One of the responses was that the only thing that Trump could do to impede his support is to have an affair with Hillary Clinton.