--- title: Michael Cohen Taped Donald Trump About Karen McDougal description: President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer secretly recorded a conversation with him discussing paying a Playboy model. canonical: https://time.com/5344315/donald-trump-michael-cohen-karen-mcdougal-tape/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-20T16:09:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:54:45.101Z article:section: Politics og:title: Michael Cohen Secretly Recorded Donald Trump Talking About Paying Playboy Model: Report og:description: According to a report in the New York Times. og:url: https://time.com/5344315/donald-trump-michael-cohen-karen-mcdougal-tape/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44eb2b5407f533be/698935daab6d7732bd6b33b2/trump-playboy-recorded.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4317 og:image:height: 2428 og:image:alt: Trump-playboy-recorded og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Michael Cohen Secretly Recorded Donald Trump Talking About Paying Playboy Model: Report twitter:description: According to a report in the New York Times. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44eb2b5407f533be/698935daab6d7732bd6b33b2/trump-playboy-recorded.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Michael Cohen Secretly Recorded Donald Trump Talking About Paying Playboy Model: Report > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Jul 20, 2018 4:09 PM UTC  Playmate Karen McDougal attends the Playboy's Super Saturday Night Party during Super Bowl Weekend in Phoenix, Arizona on February 2, 2008. Playmate Karen McDougal attends the Playboy's Super Saturday Night Party during Super Bowl Weekend in Phoenix, Arizona on February 2, 2008. Jeff Kravitz—FilmMagic by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Jul 20, 2018 4:09 PM UTC President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer secretly recorded a conversation with him discussing a payment to _Playboy_ model Karen McDougal, according to a [report in the New York _Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/us/politics/michael-cohen-trump-tape.html). The article cites lawyers and others who are familiar with the recording saying that it was seized by the FBI during a raid on Michael Cohen’s office earlier this year and includes Trump discussing payments to McDougal. Current Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani confirmed the existence of the tape to the _Times_ but said that it exonerates Trump because nothing in it suggests that Trump knew about the payment in advance and the payment was never made. McDougal says she had a nearly yearlong affair with Trump in 2006\. She sold the rights to her story for $150,000 to the _National Enquirer_, which is run by Trump ally David Pecker. She then [spoke out shortly before the election](https://www.wsj.com/articles/national-enquirer-shielded-donald-trump-from-playboy-models-affair-allegation-1478309380) when the tabloid did not run the story. In April, McDougal [settled a lawsuit](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/us/politics/karen-mcdougal-american-media-settlement.html) against American Media Inc., owners of the _Enquirer_, which allowed her to keep the money and now speak publicly about the affair. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5344315/donald-trump-michael-cohen-karen-mcdougal-tape/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5344315/donald-trump-michael-cohen-karen-mcdougal-tape/"},"headline":"Michael Cohen Secretly Recorded Donald Trump Talking About Paying Playboy Model: Report","datePublished":"2018-07-20T16:09:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:54:45.101Z","description":"President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer secretly recorded a conversation with him discussing paying a Playboy model.","url":"https://time.com/5344315/donald-trump-michael-cohen-karen-mcdougal-tape/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44eb2b5407f533be/698935daab6d7732bd6b33b2/trump-playboy-recorded.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44eb2b5407f533be/698935daab6d7732bd6b33b2/trump-playboy-recorded.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump-playboy-recorded","caption":"Karen McDougal","creditText":"Jeff Kravitz—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5344315/donald-trump-michael-cohen-karen-mcdougal-tape/","name":"Michael Cohen Secretly Recorded Donald Trump Talking About Paying Playboy Model: Report"}}]}] ```