26 Jul 2018

Another day, another drama in Trump world - McCarthy

From Morning Report, 7:42 am on 26 July 2018

A recording of President Trump discussing a payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal with his attorney Michael Cohen has been made public. The recording raises questions about whether Mr Trump knew about efforts to silence the adult actress in September 2016. In the recording Mr Trump and Mr Cohen can be heard discussing purchasing the rights to McDougal's story. The key part of that audio is Michael Cohen saying: "We'll have to pay," and Mr Trump appearing to respond with the words: "Pay with cash." The rights to the story were eventually purchased for $150,000 by the National Enquirer, which did not publish it in a practice known as "catch and kill". The tabloid media's parent company is owned by David Pecker who is a close associate of President Trump. Michael Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis released the tape to CNN and said he did so because it proved the President knew about the payments. Our correspondent in Los Angeles, Mary McCarthy, breaks down the details with Guyon Espiner.