July 20, 2018

There’s a Tape of Trump Discussing Hush Money

Go Nakamura/ZUMA

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Um, what?

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.

And of keen interest to the rest of us!

On the other hand, Rudy Giuliani says this is a big nothingburger, and he’s a pretty reliable guy. So maybe the nation really doesn’t care much about its president paying off Playboy models to hide affairs. I suppose we could probably find out by putting it up on YouTube and seeing if anyone bothers listening to it.

It would be massively unfair if, in the end, it was some stupid hush money scandal that finally brought down Trump. But at this point I don’t care. Any port in a storm.

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