Getty Michael Cohen
The news that an audio tape was made by Michael Cohen of his conversation with his then-client Donald Trump in reference to, at least, hush money paid to a Playboy model the now-President was alleged to have had an affair with had heads spinning.
Monday it was discovered that based on a court document filed District Court of the Southern District of New York, there are actually 12 audio tapes.
Michael Cohen has 12 audio tapes? To hear Maggie Haberman tell it, it was one tape and just 20 seconds on a Columbia House version of The Go-Go’s “Vacation.” #DonaldTrump
This despite a tweet by a New York Times reporter that there was just one tape.
Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti has been asserting there were a number of tapes for weeks.
@maggieNYT Maggie, wouldn’t you say that @MichaelAvenatti has been a step or 2 ahead of both reporters and investigators on Michael Cohen’s activities? I’m going to go with Michael on the “more tapes” angle.
Special Master Barbara S. Jones was tasked with going through every piece of evidence seized from Cohen’s home, office and hotel room by the FBI to ensure the documents, or recordings in this case, were not privileged. She has determined they were not.
Jones ordered all 12 audio recordings be handed over to the government and they were on Friday July 20.
BREAKING: There isn’t just one audio file in the Michael Cohen matter.
There are at least 12, and prosecutors got them on Friday – when the Times story ran on one of them.
The New York Times reported that there was a surreptitiously-recorded dialogue between Trump and his longtime attorney Cohen where the two discussed a payoff to a Playboy ‘Playmate’ with whom the then Trump had an affair. The tape was recorded when he was candidate Trump.
Karen McDougal said had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006. The National Enquirer bought her story for $150,000 as its ‘catch and kill’ method of buying incriminating information that it may never use, rather they kill the story to protect someone, in this case Trump, a longtime good friend of Enquirer publisher David Pecker.
Pecker is also being looked at by federal investigators for possibly violating federal election laws for purchasing the story on Trump’s behalf acting as supporter instead of news media organization when it kept the story from public view in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election.
It’s not clear if these 12 audio recordings are related to the Playmate payoff or similar hush payments, like the one to porn actor Stormy Daniels.
Her lawyer Avenatti has been saying for quite some time, on Twitter and cable and anywhere he has a mic, that there are tapes, plural.
Just a day ago, Avenatti was tweeting that not only were there a number of tapes, they should all be made public. It’s unlikely that would happen officially in the middle of a law enforcement investigation, but when it’s wrapped, they may be public. Or, they could be leaked. It’s happened.
The tapes are already dubbed the #DirtyDozen.