All the President’s Hush Money
Not since Richard Nixon discussed paying off E. Howard Hunt for the Watergate burglary has a president been caught on tape seeking to muffle the emergence of negative stories with cash. But in a recording released Monday evening, the then-candidate Donald Trump is heard speaking with his former personal attorney Michael Cohen about making a payment to prevent the story of an extramarital affair with the model Karen McDougal from emerging.
“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,” Cohen says on the recording, apparently referring to David Pecker, a longtime Trump ally and the CEO of American Media (AMI). “We’ll have to pay.”
“Pay with cash,” Trump replies.
The recording , which obtained it from Cohen’s attorney
