The lawyer for Michael Cohen said Wednesday a secret tape recording of President Donald Trump and his client discussing a payoff involving Playboy model Karen McDougal disproves the Trump campaign’s "lie" that the commander in chief knew nothing about it.
"Ultimately Donald Trump is going to be done in by the truth," Lanny Davis, who represents Trump’s former personal attorney, told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s "Good Morning America."
Davis’s proclamation came a day after he released a September 2016 tape made by Cohen that appears to contradict the Trump campaign's claim that Trump knew nothing about payments to a media company to keep McDougal's claim she had an affair with Trump from becoming public.
The tape captures the soon-to-be elected president and his lawyer discussing logistics of financing and whether to "pay with cash," although the sound is muffled and what is said is being disputed by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Davis said he released the tape – which the feds also have a copy of as they proceed with a criminal probe of Cohen’s business dealings – to show Americans the truth after "an intense campaign of disparagement and lies and smears against Michael Cohen from the Trump camp."
"I say to everybody who voted for Donald Trump don't believe me, I'm a Democrat. Listen to the tape … No matter what Giuliani invents … for a president who's been known to lie, don't believe me, listen to the tape the way John Dean had a tape that did in Richard Nixon."
"[Trump] lied denying about knowing about the McDougal issue when we know from the tape he did know … This is about truth versus lying and ultimately Donald Trump is going to be done in by the truth.
Davis said the tape proves Trump knew "exactly" what Cohen was talking about the McDougal issue was raised.
"And two months later right before the election his press spokesman denied he knew anything about Karen McDougal. If you are a Trump voter you know what a lie is. You don't have to believe me. I repeat, listen to the tape," Davis said.
"We know Trump used the word ‘cash’ and people who use the word cash, Rudy Giuliani knows when he’s U.S. attorney, are either drug dealers or mobsters."
Asked why Cohen recorded Trump, Davis replied: "Michael Cohen has an answer as to why he taped conversations and I think he'll have to give that answer himself. I can't reveal that, but will say Michael Cohen has turned a corner in had is life, and he's now dedicated to telling the truth to everyone …"
Davis also said that there were "certainly more" tapes Cohen recorded and that his client was not seeking a pardon from Trump.
The release of the tape suggests Cohen – who once vowed he’d "do anything" to protect Trump -- is turning against him.
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