Cohen recorded Trump discussing Karen McDougal

[_MeDotOrg]

From the New York Times:

President Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, secretly recorded a conversation with Mr. Trump two months before the presidential election in which they discussed payments to a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump, according to lawyers and others familiar with the recording.

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.

The recording’s existence further draws Mr. 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 Mr. Cohen represents to Mr. Trump. Once the keeper of many of Mr. Trump’s secrets, Mr. Cohen is now seen as increasingly willing to consider cooperating with prosecutors.

The former model, Karen McDougal, says she began a nearly yearlong affair with Mr. Trump in 2006, shortly after Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, gave birth to their son Barron. Ms. McDougal sold her story for $150,000 to The National Enquirer, which was supportive of Mr. Trump, 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 Ms. McDougal for the remainder of the campaign.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, confirmed in a telephone conversation on Friday that Mr. Trump had discussed payments to Ms. McDougal with Mr. Cohen on the tape. He said the recording was less than two minutes long, said Mr. Trump did not know he was being recorded and claimed that the president had done nothing wrong.

Mr. Giuliani said there was no indication on the tape that Mr. Trump knew before the conversation about the payment from the Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., to Ms. McDougal.

“Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance,” Mr. Giuliani said.

The men discussed a payment from Mr. Trump to Ms. McDougal — separate from the Enquirer payment — to buy her story and ensure her silence, Mr. Giuliani said. That payment was never made, Mr. Giuliani said, adding that Mr. Trump had told Mr. Cohen that if he were to make a payment related to the woman, to write a check rather than send cash, so it could be properly documented.

I'm looking forward to the Sarah Huckabee Sanders' walkback on this: "What the President and Mr. Cohen were discussing was raising money to establish 'The Donald Trump Home for Wayward Women".

Sounds like a job for the Trump Foundation.

[_honorentheos]

Rumor is that this is not the only tape. Giuliani has said their content is mundane and perhaps it is. What may be more significant here is this may be the thread that reties the Cohan investigation back to the Mueller investigation and not just the FBI's investigation into the payments made by Cohan to Stormy Daniels and McDougal.

[_Kishkumen]

Yep. Trump is a creep.

[_Kevin Graham]

Wonder how long before Melania cracks? At some point you just have to think she's on the edge and about ready to go off on her husband in public. He gets caught in so many lies, and if we know for a fact he lied about this one then why believe his denials about Stormy or any of the other women who claim he was with them while married to Melania.

[_Kishkumen]

Wonder how long before Melania cracks? At some point you just have to think she's on the edge and about ready to go off on her husband in public. He gets caught in so many lies, and if we know for a fact he lied about this one then why believe his denials about Stormy or any of the other women who claim he was with them while married to Melania.

I don’t know. Their marriage is most likely a business arrangement, like Charlie Crist of Florida (R), who, when he though John McCain might pick him as his running mate, got married even though it is well known in Florida that he is gay. That marriage was a business arrangement. I would be very surprised if the president’s marriage is not such a thing too. She is probably well compensated to keep up appearances.

[_Kevin Graham]

I don’t know. Their marriage is most likely a business arrangement, like Charlie Crist of Florida (R), who, when he though John McCain might pick him as his running mate, got married even though it is well known in Florida that he is gay. That marriage was a business arrangement. I would be very surprised if the president’s marriage is not such a thing too. She is probably well compensated to keep up appearances.

I agree but if I were Melania I would see this as a great business opportunity too. Divorce the prick, take half his wealth, become a friggin hero of the people in the process. The sky is the limit for her future finance wise.

[_Jersey Girl]

Trump-Cohen tape. Have a listen.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/24/politics ... index.html

[_MeDotOrg]

The recording is not entirely clear when Trump talks about cash, but to me it sounds like Trump wants the payment made in cash. The other things that should be obvious is that several people made denials at the time that Trump had the affair or knew anything about the payoff.

But I think the area that will be heavily debated is Cohen's coy allusion to "our friend David", (David Pecker, head of American Media, the parent company of The National Enquirer, the company that paid $150,000 to 'catch and kill' the McDougal story). It sounds to me like they are discussing that the story is only frozen as long as Pecker remains at the helm (Trump said something about him being hit by a train or a truck). So buying the rights gives them the story in perpetuity.

So if a man is rich enough, should he be able to buy up all the bad news in his past? If you are wealthy enough, you can lead you life as a non-disclosure agreement? And is the whole idea of a company dedicated to (ostensibly) journalism buying up stories that are harmful to their friends with the sole purpose of NOT publishing the stories a violation of that company's journalistic obligations?

Nah, that's what the fake news media wants you to think about. Don't worry. Stick with Donald.

[_Kevin Graham]

The recording is not entirely clear when Trump talks about cash, but to me it sounds like Trump wants the payment made in cash. The other things that should be obvious is that several people made denials at the time that Trump had the affair or knew anything about the payoff.

But I think the area that will be heavily debated is Cohen's coy allusion to "our friend David", (David Pecker, head of American Media, the parent company of The National Enquirer, the company that paid $150,000 to 'catch and kill' the McDougal story). It sounds to me like they are discussing that the story is only frozen as long as Pecker remains at the helm (Trump said something about him being hit by a train or a truck). So buying the rights gives them the story in perpetuity.

So if a man is rich enough, should he be able to buy up all the bad news in his past? If you are wealthy enough, you can lead you life as a non-disclosure agreement? And is the whole idea of a company dedicated to (ostensibly) journalism buying up stories that are harmful to their friends with the sole purpose of NOT publishing the stories a violation of that company's journalistic obligations?

Nah, that's what the fake news media wants you to think about. Don't worry. Stick with Donald.

Two points.

First, 'David' could be referring also to the pseudonym Donald Trump regularly used during these transactions.

Second, I actually disagree with what the media is saying about this being hard "cash" in the sense of paper currency. In context, they were contrasting "financing" with a one time payment.

In the real estate business we often refer to people buying a house without financing as paying "cash" even though we've never seen anyone bring a huge back of currency to the closing table. The White House explained this was the meaning and I tend to agree.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Note: I fully expect this information to have exactly ZERO impact on Trump supporters, but I thought I'd share this nice summary copied over from Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comme ... ?context=3

Has been posted before, but just a great breakdown of the first released Trump-Cohen Tape:

Seth Abramson ‏Verified account @SethAbramson

(THREAD) TEN REASONS THE FIRST COHEN TAPE IS MUCH WORSE THAN ANYONE YET REALIZES. Early coverage of this bombshell exclusive on CNN has missed almost the entirety of this story, which could shape Trump's presidency. Read on for more. And I hope you'll share this with others, too. 7:24 PM - 24 Jul 2018

REASON #1: THERE ARE MORE TAPES. Team Trump is playing defense tonight as though this is all Cohen can hurt them with. It's not—Cohen only released this tape as a defense against false information about the tape leaked by Team Trump. And if Cohen taped Trump once, he did it many times.

REASON #2: A BAD PRIVILEGE WAIVER. Trump waiving attorney-client privilege to let Giuliani spread false information about the tape not only backfired by convincing Cohen's lawyer to release the tape, it could also hamstring Trump's claims of privilege on the McDougal matter later on.

REASON #3: COHEN IS FLIPPING. By preemptively burning Cohen—making up a lie about the McDougal matter which had Cohen suggesting a payment in cash—Team Trump has absolutely ensured what previously was just very likely: Cohen will flip on Trump. And he has many stories to tell.

REASON #4: THE AUDIO ESTABLISHES MOTIVE. CNN edited the audio to exclude some inculpatory moments—notably, Trump telling Cohen, of damning information on his past relationships, "all you've got to do is delay it for [inaudible]." That helps establish this as an election-related plot.

REASON #5: IT ADDS NEW WITNESSES TO THE CASE. In the audio, a woman's voice—possibly Rhona Graff's—is heard, meaning we now know someone else besides Cohen can testify about what Trump said in this conversation. An assistant gets him a Coke, too, so she may also be a witness now.

REASON #6: THE FULL AUDIO ESTABLISHES CONTEXT. CNN appears to have wrongly attributed a reference to "David" as meaning David Pecker, head of AMI. But when Cohen talks about "information regarding our friend 'David'" he's referring to Trump's alias for adulteries, David Dennison.

REASON #7: TEAM TRUMP DOUBLED THE DECEIT QUOTIENT. The audio puts Trump at the center of a pre-election plot to lie to voters about information that could have swayed their votes, but now it's even worse, as Trump sent Giuliani out to lie to voters about a tape they can hear themselves.

REASON #8: TRUMP CLEARLY PROPOSES AN ILLICIT CASH PAYMENT. Trump's state of mind—one-half what makes up a crime—is established by his comment about Ivana's divorce filings, but also by his clear attempt to propose an untraceable cash payment rather than (as Cohen says) a check.

REASON #9: IVANA'S RAPE ALLEGATIONS WILL NOW RETURN. That Team Trump was terrified, pre-election, of Ivana's divorce filing getting out—and Trump's muffled reference to "a woman" (likely Ivana) not wanting it out—will raise new questions about whether Trump paid Ivana off, too.

REASON #10: THE TAPE SUGGESTS MANY WOMEN, NOT JUST A FEW. Cohen repeatedly says that he needs to set up a company to deal with "all the stuff, all the stuff," which tells Americans that many more women than Karen McDougal were paid off by Trump pre-election—as Bannon has said.

BONUS REASON #1: SHELL CORPORATIONS. The calmness and ease with which Cohen and Trump discuss setting up shell corporations suggests this was a common method for hiding inculpatory evidence. Cohen is going to spill the beans on all such corporations to Robert Mueller, and soon.

BONUS REASON #2: A WOMAN. Though this is a very minor point, Trump's comment about Ivana—"you've got a woman who doesn't want it unsealed"—underscores how he speaks about women in private. Calling his first wife and the mother of three of his kids "a woman" is unsettling to hear.

BONUS REASON #3: MARK BURNS. The audio reveals that Trump wanted to continue to use as a campaign surrogate Mark Burns, who was found in early September 2016 to have lied about his military service, education, and more. Cohen shuts him down on that, but the exchange is telling.

BONUS REASON #4: GIVE IT TO ME. When Cohen raises using a shell corp to handle "all the information regarding our friend David [Dennison]"—the lies Trump told about his adulterous affairs—Trump says, cryptically, "give it to me," underscoring how involved he was and wanted to be.

BONUS REASON #5: ALAN WEISELBERG. We now have reason to think—due to what Cohen says on the tape—that Trump Org exec Alan Weiselberg was involved in Trump's conspiracy to violate election laws. So this tape has up to four witnesses who'll confirm Trump is lying about all of this.

CONCLUSION: Don't believe Trump's surrogates, stooges, or clandestine adviser-pundits: this is hard evidence of an election felony. The tape establishes motive, context, and state of mind for hiding from the FEC and voters unreported campaign contributions made by Cohen to Trump.

NOTE: A reader observes that Cohen's choice of outlet for this exclusive—CNN—was also a hostile message (of disloyalty) to Trump. Likewise, this event brought cartoon character Lanny Davis into view; he's just the sort of theatrical guy Trump doesn't do well with—e.g. Avenatti.

NOTE2: A second reader observes, correctly I think, that "a woman" could just as easily (and creepily) refer to Melania as Ivana. I'll also note—on the subject of women—we don't know if Rhona merely stuck her head in (and was the one getting the Coke) or was there the whole time.

NOTE3: My admiration for @ChrisCuomo remains unchanged. I think this was a tough situation all around—Lanny Davis shoveled CNN the tape, and who knows how long they had to get their segments, graphics, and panels together. In the next 24 hours everyone on CNN will get this right.

NOTE4: Different news outlets seem to be spelling the name of the Trump Organization executive mentioned on the Cohen tape in about a hundred different ways. It looks like the proper spelling could be—if the Wall Street Journal is to be believed—"Allen Weisselberg." Just an FYI.

NOTE5: The possibility remains Cohen and Trump were discussing David Pecker—but whether it was Pecker or Dennison doesn't change the fact that the story Pecker killed was about McDougal, and he may've killed other stories, too. IAC, I'm on the fence on the Pecker/Dennison issue.

NOTE6: I forgot to make one of the most obvious points: this clearly isn't the first conversation between these two men on this topic, as Cohen is able to use shorthand in directing Trump to what "information" he's setting up a corporation to "transfer." Like I said: other tapes.

NOTE7: by the way, if "David" is David Pecker, and if Trump's "bus" comment refers to him, it reveals a startling fact: Trump thought his catch-and-kill deal with Pecker was so special (read: unethical) that no one else in journalism would be willing to do it if Pecker were unavailable.

Edit1: added link to tape audio

Edit2: Thank you kind internet person!

Trump really could murder someone on 5th Avenue and it wouldn't make a difference to his base. Crazy times we live in...

- Doc