yakov_a_jerkov

Сложно сейчас сказать, насколько это важно, но я думаю, что если Коэн записал этот разговор с Трампом, то, вероятно, это не единственное, что он записал.

P.S. Я согласен с Nate Silver:

Finally the Russia story arc seems to be heading somewhere and the *2018* writers reintroduce the Playboy models subplot?

P.P.S. Now that seems important. Джулиани говорит, что есть и другие tapes Трампа, записанные Коэном. И, если я правильно расслышал, Джулиани также говорит, что ФБР имеет эти записи. Последнее важно, потому что непонятно подпадают ли эти запись под attorney client privilege.

Нет, не ФБР имеет, а seized by FBI. То есть неочевидно, классифицировал ли их special master как подпадающие под attorney client privilege или нет. Но интересно, что Джулиани сам говорит об этих записях, что может противоречить attorney client privilege.

Michael Cohen Secretly Taped Trump Discussing Payment to Playboy Model

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.

[...]

Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, confirmed in a telephone conversation on Friday that Mr. Trump had discussed the payments with Mr. Cohen on the tape but said the payment was ultimately never made. He said the recording was less than two minutes and demonstrated that the president had done nothing wrong.

“Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance,” Mr. Giuliani said, adding that Mr. Trump had directed Mr. Cohen that if he were to make a payment related to the woman, write a check, rather than sending cash, so it could be properly documented.

“In the big scheme of things, it’s powerful exculpatory evidence,” Mr. Giuliani said.

Mr. Cohen’s lawyers discovered the recording as part of their review of the seized materials and shared it with Mr. Trump’s lawyers, according to three people briefed on the matter.

“We have nothing to say on this matter,” Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny J. Davis, said when asked about the tape.

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 to The National Enquirer for $150,000 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.

David J. Pecker, the chairman of The Enquirer’s parent company, is a friend of Mr. Trump’s, and Ms. McDougal has accused Mr. Cohen of secretly taking part in the deal — an allegation that is now part of the F.B.I. investigation.