The news of a tape featuring Donald Trump discussing payment covering former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story of an affair is garnering scrutiny from across the political spectrum this Friday. Trump was talking to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who made the recording that is now in the possession of the government.
As the walls of Trump’s claimed defenses of having no knowledge of at least one hush money situation continue to close in around him, his current lawyer Rudy Giuliani has admitted that there are more tapes of the president. These tapes were seized by authorities in raids on Cohen earlier this year carried out as a part of a criminal investigation into his activities.
‘Cohen has other recordings of the President in his records that were seized by the FBI, said both a source with knowledge of Cohen’s tapes and Giuliani, who described the other recordings as mundane discussions.’
What constitutes a “mundane discussion” to Giuliani is not immediately fully fleshed out. Seeing as the tapes are in the possession of government prosecutors, the force of the law will be deciding what’s “mundane” and what’s not.
A source speaking to CNN added that the president was taken aback by the existence of the recording of the conversation about McDougal, quipping:
‘I can’t believe Michael would do this to me.’
His paranoia continuously reeks of hidden guilt. Reporters MJ Lee and Kaitlan Collins pointed out in a CNN roundtable discussion Friday that issues including Trump’s repugnance as a boss coming out into the open could weighing on his reaction. He seems to have blamed Cohen, but at this point, Lee noted:
‘These things are out of Michael Cohen’s control.’
In other words, Trump is vulnerable.
Watch CNN cover the revelations below.
The president was, in fact, hiding a key aspect to the story for some time, claiming to have had no knowledge of a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels that he actually reimbursed Cohen for. It’s Giuliani, of all people, who revealed that Trump had reimbursed Cohen; he shared as much during an appearance on Fox shortly after being taken on as a member of the president’s legal team.
Now, Giuliani is again growing scrutiny of the president thanks to confirming the existence of more than one tape featuring him. Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti has already rushed to call for the tapes to be released publicly.
Giuliani told CNN that he has already reviewed transcripts of, apparently, all of the tapes and has concluded that his client — the president — is in no legal jeopardy because of them. There are other tapes Cohen made of talks with “powerful” individuals besides the president, according to a source speaking to CNN, who added that the individuals Cohen was speaking with are of “significance and consequence.”
As the scandal continues to play out, one of the questions to be answered is whether or not Cohen will flip and cooperate with prosecutors, a prospect Trump has already proven averse to just as he did this week to the existence of the tape of him talking about buying McDougal’s story.
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