outs one of the item -- it's involved a former playboy play mail karen mcdoogle who claims she had an affair with donald trump around 2006, around the same time that he allegedly had a relationship with stormy daniels. maggie, thanks very much for your excellent reporting. walk us through the information you're getting. >> this was a recording that was among the many, many documents and audio repocordings that wer seized from michael cohen, his hotel, his home and his office. and it is our understanding that it is a brief record iing, i thk it was early september, in which they can be heard discussing, it was a conversation between the two, they can be heard discussing the payments by ami to karen mcdoogle for the rights to her story where she claimed to have an affair with president trump before he ran for office. they never commented on that story. they claimed it was an additional payment for her silence. apparently on the audio, you can hear mr. trump saying it should be done through a check, and not by cash. what his lawyer said to us, rudy giuliani is that shows that he wasn't t

cohen to karen mcdoogle. his lawyer rudy giuliani said he had on the recording apparently instructed that it be done by check, so that it was done properly, instead of cash, and that payment was apparently not made. and we have all sorts of questions about why the campaign would say they knew nothing about this when clearly donald trump neweknew very well about before the "new york times" made it public. >> but to your point there, i'm reading the rudy giuliani quote, in your article, he says in the big scheme of things, it's powerful exculpatory evidence, rudy giuliani is the president's lawyer, but he also helps to spin things. how can he say it's exculpatory and not incredibly damming. >> he's saying that he found out about the ami bill several months later. if it was a check, a check could be subpoenaed, it was not cash, so therefore he's afraid of this being learned of. it's walking a bit of a fine line there, as you correctly know. we will see what else the president has to say about this as time goes o

it appears to confirm that donald trump knew of the effort to pay off karen mcdoogle. the trump campaign denied that. hope hicks says there was no knowledge of any of this. in fact she said we have no knowledge of any of this, and the campaign and the then president, and you hear his voice on the tape talking about it, seems to be a lie. and it was a lie told just before the election. the reporting also raises questions about whether or not the president was trying to cover his tracks with cash payments. what is clear is that it is definitively not -- i should say not definitively exculpatory. it is spinning our knowledge of what he was trying to do. and donald trump laying the release. and the mere fact of this release tells us there is no turning back for michael cohen, this indicates a full flip. it looks like a bill clinton of works, a trough, or a truckload. >> that's right, that conversation with donald trump that michael cohen secretly recorded is no longer a secret. thanks to this audio that cnn exclusively obtained last night, we can listen to the exchange. yo

ami paid karen mcdoogle, they paid her in august. this conversation was taped on september 6th. again, it is not clear cut as to who said what about how it should be dealt with welcome be there is other stuff there. >> on the bigger picture about reality. i'm curious what you think about people around the president, they're deleting things that we have seen. they're delightieting the porti that vladimir putin confirmed that he wanted president trump to win. they deleted that so that you don't exactly know what he is saying when he says yes, i did, yes, i did. so the people around -- and they're also not going to give the public any more readouts of the president's conversations with world leaders. so the transparency, if it ever did exist in the white house, is evaporating. are the people around the white house okay with the changing reality? are they going along with this? >> no, they don't seem to be burglarly understanding about it. i'm sure there are things we're getting wrong because every account that we have we have basing our information on sources, i mean the collective

but also karen mcdoogle, certainly, was hood winked here my cohen, probably by her lawyer, probably with the knowledge or possibly with the knowledge of the president. it's possible there were banks that were used here and that cohen was not completely truthful to them. these could give rise to wire fraud and bank frauds charges and if there is an agreement here, there could be the possibility of conspiracy, including with the national inquirer and david pecker, who did this very remarkable thing of just smothering a story and telling karen mcdoogle she was going to have a writing contract really intending that the story never see the light of day. that's fraud and it is possibility criminal. >> so there is competing explanations right now about what is said on the tape. some people, rudy giuliani are saying that donald trump discussed cutting a check to pay for this, which would mean there is a paper trail. there are folks around michael cohen it is reported that is saying, no, that's michael cohen saying that and maybe they would buy it back from american media and david pecker. here i

and you are not alone if you believe former playboy model karen mcdoogle is telling the truth when she said she had a yearlong affair with donald trump along the same time. you are part of an overwhelming majority of the american people. only 21% believe that donald trump did not have sex with those women. and that poll was taken before this week. and now those 21% who believe donald trump might be a smaller number tonight after 24 hours of exposure to the audio recording of donald trump creating a company specifically to make payments to karen and buy her silence and prevent her from telling her story. we don't know if melania trump was in the 21% who believed donald trump and we don't know if her mind was changed by hearing her husband talking to michael cohen on an audio recording that made its debut last night on what is melania trump's favorite cable news network. "the new york times" reported on the first couple's recent trip overseas, melania trump's television was tuned to cnn. president trump was not pleased. he raged at his staff for violating a rule that they should be tuned

now this is karen mcdoogle, who previously said she had a 10-month long affair with donald trump a while that "new york times" is reporting as part of the raid that the fbi made on michael cohen's home, office and hotel room. we already know they had taken lots and lots of documents and recordings. now again, we're learning that one of those recordings is a phone conversation that michael cohen had with donald trump explicitly discussing payments to a former playboy model. now what is really interesting and important in this breaking news story is that rudy giuliani, donald trump's lawyer is confirming on the record that this telephone conversation happened and that donald trump did in fact discuss the payments with michael cohen on the tape, but he also says this, let me just read what giuliani said to the times. he says nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance. he also said in the big scheme of things, it's powerful, it's culpo cu cull patory evidence. it's a big deal story. it dismantles this narrative that's been going on for a while that micha

trump two months before the election talking about former playboy model karen mcdoogle. she alleges she had a month-long affair with donald trump around the time his wife gave birth to their son barron. trump denies the affair and in the tape cohen and trump discuss buying the rights to mcdoogle's story. >> davis abced the tweet with his own. obviously there's an ongoing investigation and we are sensitive to that but suffice it to say when the recording is heard it will not hurt michael cohen. any attempt to spin cannot change it what is on the tape. >>> for the first time in fbi history, the agency has made public it's highly classified application for a fisa warrant, this arizona a result of the freedom of information act, the news media forced this to happen. fisa standing for foreign intelligence surveillance act. and the warrant allows the fbi to conduct surveillance on a suspect. in this case it was this man, former trump campaign adviser carter page. >> the warrant states that the fbi believes page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the russian govern

confirm to abc news that cohen recorded a conversation with trump about a former playboy play mate karen mcdoogle claims to have had an affair with president trump. the approximately two-minute long in person conversation, the tape made secretly by cohen undercuts those denials. the recording among items seized in that fbi raid of kcohen's home, office and hotel room. according to sources, mr. cohen outlined a scheme to reimburse publishers of the "national enquirer" $150,000 it paid for mcdoogle's story. the sources familiar with the tape says that it fails to document any payment. but a source close to giuliani says the payment never happen. a lawyer taping a client is not illegal, it is the equivalent of retaining notes, and it is privileged but it is the client who owns privilege. the president's legal team waiving privilege, giuliani in a statement said that it was already out there, so there's no reason to object except on principle. . comie . >>> coming up this week, the legal panel including the attorney for stormy daniels michael >>> this afternoon, it's san jose yu -- >>> also a chance

>> if the southern district is only looking at the payments to stormy daniels and karen mcdoogle, yess the conduit through which payments are made. if f this is broader, than his role welcomes even that issue more important. starting with fred trump way wac when and continuing on. we don't know what the southern district is looking at it yet. we talked earlier about why hasn't cohen been before the southern district, nanny this case, the documents they seized from his property and his computers went through a master process where she determined what they could look at. now they're just really getting access to that information. they may not be ready to talk to cohen because they have not yet digesting all of the stuff they have. so what is important for them to learn is what is it that the scope includes, and if it is broad, than weisselberg will be a witness in this investigation. >> i'm not sure it matters in terms of legal jeopardy, because she going -- she is going to testify under oath. they said this is an area that is a red line, i don't think the president will like to wake up

trump just before the election talking about this woman, former playboy model karen mcdoogle. he denies having an affair with her. >> after that, the president turned his attention to another topic. ryan has more on that. >> reporter: the president is spending the weekend at his golf course in bedminster new jersey and his twitter feed was busy on saturday. he took the opportunity to suggest that the investigation into his campaign's potential ties to the russian government during the 2016 election could end up having an effect in the election in 2018. the president tweeting, quote, no collusion, no obstruction but that doesn't matter because the 13 angry democrats were only after republicans and totally protecting democrats want this witch-hunt to drag out till the november election. republicans better get smart fast and expose what they're doing. now, the president's tweet storm comes against the backdrop of increasing criticism for his decision to have this summit with president vladimir putin of russia in helsinki and subsequently his decision to invite president putin to

. >> and that would be a previously undisclosed, not karen mcdoogle, correct? >> correct. >> so i'm joined by ken delanian, and jonathan allen, good morning to all of you. ken, i'm going to start with you here, let's talk about avanati who says he has three additional clients that were paid you shall money by trump, is there anything to substantiate these claims. >> we don't have anything to substantiate the claims at the moment. a lot of it has come to pass, they say look if there was two women paid to hush alleged affairs with donald trump it stands to assume there are more. >> let's talk about this, a source is telling nbc news that cohen is willing to tell robert mueller that president trump knew in advance about the 2016 meeting in trump tower. is the release of the recording, could that backfire on cohen's credibility at all? >> credibility is all about context in these cases. one murderer was found credible when he was testifying because there was evidence. he may have that in the form of text messages, e-mails, and other testimony. that remains to be sc

they are claiming the tape of expressing payment to karen mcdoogle is probably not the only recordinghink he recorded a lot of things. some people would say don't go into michael's office, he is recording everything. >> i think this will be very, very propmatic. he is the one guy who has more information on potential m misdeeds of the president than anyone else. >> joining my is host of podcast woke af. good morning to the three of you, rick to you first here, you have rudy giuliani confirming that yes, the tape exists, but the payment was ultimately never made. so give me the political fallout implications of all of this for the president. any risk here? >> i don't really know that there is a lot. we have not learned much. the wall street journal contradicts what giuliani 15id. i think the journal is sticking by their story that the payment was made to ami. in the end i think the violation is campaign finance reform. but michael cohen has recorded a lot of conversations and if this was leaked, or for what purpose, this is probably not a single one off recorded of he and the candidate

earlier this year during a raid on cohen's office, it was about a payment to former playboy model karen mcdoogle the 2016 meddling to include questions about whether or not payments were made by cohen for the president violating federal campaign finance laws. >>> people ask, how is a tape recording allowed to be used if it is between a client and attorney, right? so the point there if it is in for a crime, it is for the attorney client privilege. >> rudy giuliani said he never made any payments, but the national -- >>> the republicans will hold their convention in charlotte north carolina, the queen city beat out vegas, this is the second time charlotte is going to host a convention in recent years the city hosted the dnc in 2012, officials played down pointing out that the 2016 convention in cleveland was fairly tame. >>> democrats have not selected a location for their 2020 convention, they have narrowed their choices to houston, milwaukee and miami. >>> first lady will reportedly campaign for the trump administration, kimberly had been working at fox news but the network announced they have n