Rudy Giuliani said Saturday that somebody "played around" with the tape released by President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
Saying that the recording played on CNN appears "doctored" and incomplete, Giuliani told Fox News Channel's Jeanine Pirro that Cohen "abruptly ended that recording" as soon as Trump said the word "check" during a conversation about paying a Playboy model who alleges she had an affair with Trump over a decade ago.
"What we are investigating is how did that happen?" Giuliani said. "What was eliminated?"
Giuliani, who is currently serving as one of the president's lawyers asked, "How many of them did he play around with? He has 180 tapes."
Earlier Saturday Giuliani told ABC News Saturday that Trump’s legal team warned Michael Cohen about violating attorney-client privilege before his lawyer, last week, provided CNN with a private recording between the pair.
They have also cautioned Cohen against speaking publicly.
Cohen, who is under investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for his role in paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 before the election to keep her quiet about an affair she alleged to have with Trump, in early July told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that his first loyalty is to his own family.
"My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will," Cohen told Stephanopoulos.
"I put family and country first," he added, signaling that he is willing to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller and prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, even if it does put Trump in jeopardy.
Giuliani’s comments come days after Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis provided a tape to CNN where Trump is overheard discussing with Cohen how they would purchase the rights to a Playboy model’s story about an alleged affair with Trump.
"We've indicated to them that they should respect the client and attorney privilege in different ways," Giuliani said. "We have complained to them that he's violated the attorney-client privilege, publicly and privately."
Davis said Saturday evening that Giuliani "seems to be confused."
"He expressly waived attorney-client privilege last week and repeatedly and inaccurately — as proven by the tape — talked and talked about the recording, forfeiting all confidentiality," he said.
Giuliani also defended his prior comments calling Cohen an "honest, honorable lawyer."
"I don't know what happened to him," Giuliani said. "A few months ago he wasn't telling all of these lies" a few months ago, I didn't know he was a lawyer who recorded his clients secretly.
"I didn't know him very well."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.