That FBI raid of former Donald Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is starting to reveal itself in terms of what exactly was seized.
According to the New York Times, the FBI has came across a phone recording Cohen and Trump discussing a payout to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Earlier this year, McDougal claimed to of had a long-term sexual relationship with Trump which may raise some questions pertaining to campaign finance violations considering the discussion was made just a couple of months prior to the November 2016 presidential elections.
The F.B.I. seized the recording this year during a raid on Mr. Cohen’s office. The Justice Department is investigating Mr. Cohen’s involvement in paying women to tamp down embarrassing news stories about Mr. Trump ahead of the 2016 election. Prosecutors want to know whether that violated federal campaign finance laws, and any conversation with Mr. Trump about those payments would be of keen interest to them.
Trump’s lawyer and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani meanwhile has tried to spin these latest developments as good thing alluding to Trump not knowing of any payments being made in advance and that McDougal would be receiving a check rather than cash to ‘stay above board’.
“Nothing in that conversation suggests that [Trump] had any knowledge of it in advance.”
In February, McDougal claimed that her relationship with Trump began back in 2006 around the time his son Barron was born. Ironically enough it was around the same time too that Trump was allegedly involved in a sexual relationship with Stormy Daniels. Additionally though when it comes to McDougal, multiple payments were said to be offered in an effort to keep the affair quiet.
McDougal eventually sold her story to the Trump friendly National Enquirer who attempted to bury it.
The tapes though go beyond Trump. CNN has cited sources claiming that there are more tapes of Cohen and “powerful” individuals in the FBI’s possession.
There are other tapes of Cohen and other “powerful” individuals that the FBI seized beyond the President that could be embarrassing for the people on the tape and for Cohen, according to a source familiar with the tapes. The source said the people are of “significance and consequence.”