President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani has said that he believes a tape released by Michael Cohen may have been tampered with.
Guiliani made the claim on Saturday evening in a phone interview with Fox News, saying two experts and retired FBI agents who have examined the secret recording believe it was ‘played’ with.
The tape was recorded covertly by Cohen in 2016 prior to the election, and involves discussion of a payment to the National Enquirer to ensure former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal’s claims of an affair with Trump did not get out.
Giuliani said he believed that the tape released on Wednesday in a leak to CNN is a recording of a recording, which would mask any signs that Cohen had turned the recorder on and off during the conversation, or had later erased portions.
Rudy Giuliani has said that he believes a tape released by Michael Cohen may have been tampered with
Cohen (center) secretly recorded a meeting with Trump to discuss a payment to suppress an affair allegation from Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal
‘Since we don’t have the original, we asked for it,’ Giuliani told Fox News. ‘Our expert analysis [isn’t] done until we get the raw copy, which we are seeking.’
The president’s lawyer confessed that his hopes for actually obtaining the original tapes were thin. The version released by CNN is of notably poor quality and seems to end after a brief and abrupt cut.
‘Now that we’ve seen the full scope of [Michael] Cohen and Lanny Davis’ deception, we don’t trust anything,’ Giuliani said, referring to Cohen’s lawyer.
Cohen is under a federal investigation probing allegations of bank fraud, wire fraud and violations of campaign finance law, and prosecutors are said to have seized many covert recordings in an April raid on his Manhattan office and hotel room.
However, Giluliani said that the tape released on Wednesday is the only one that involves a substantive conversation with Trump.
The others involve conversations with third parties regarding payments connected to claims from McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels that they had prior sexual affairs with Trump.
Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal is seen with Trump over a decade ago
Cohen formed a shell company in September 2016 in order to pay the National Enquirer for the rights to McDougal’s story, after the tabloid paid the Playmate $150,000 for exclusive rights to the tale.
However, Trump and Cohen never ended up making the payment, when fears proved unfounded that Trump ally David Pecker, CEO of the Enquirer’s parent company, would be stepping down.
The most controversial part of the brief recording released on Wednesday was Trump’s mention of ‘cash’ when Cohen raised the subject of ‘financing’.
Giuliani has said that cash merely refers to a one-time payment as opposed to ongoing ‘financing’ over time. In the event, no payment was made.
Cohen’s legal team did not respond to Fox’s inquiries about the tape-tampering allegations on Saturday night.
Earlier in the week, Cohen’s attorney Davis tweeted: ‘Just as Richard Nixon learned, tapes don’t lie!’