--- title: Michael Cohen Prosecutors Get 12 Audio Recordings to Review description: Prosecutors have 12 audio recordings seized in a raid of properties of President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen. canonical: https://time.com/5346383/michael-cohen-prosecutors-audio-recordings/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-23T22:02:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:55:54.957Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.S. Prosecutors in Michael Cohen Probe Get 12 Audio Recordings to Review og:description: One recording disclosed Friday reveals Trump and Cohen discussing Karen McDougal og:url: https://time.com/5346383/michael-cohen-prosecutors-audio-recordings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt610c6ee25b89358a/698936020a4a2235cd9d342b/michael-cohen-trump-tapes.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Former Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Prosecutors in Michael Cohen Probe Get 12 Audio Recordings to Review twitter:description: One recording disclosed Friday reveals Trump and Cohen discussing Karen McDougal twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt610c6ee25b89358a/698936020a4a2235cd9d342b/michael-cohen-trump-tapes.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Prosecutors in Michael Cohen Probe Get 12 Audio Recordings to Review by [Bob Van Voris and Christian Berthelsen / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Bob Van Voris and Christian Berthelsen / Bloomberg Jul 23, 2018 10:02 PM UTC  Michael Cohen, longtime personal lawyer and confidante for President Donald Trump, leaves the United States District Court Southern District of New York on May 30, 2018 in New York City. Michael Cohen, longtime personal lawyer and confidante for President Donald Trump, leaves the United States District Court Southern District of New York on May 30, 2018 in New York City.Spencer Platt—Getty Images by [Bob Van Voris and Christian Berthelsen / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Bob Van Voris and Christian Berthelsen / Bloomberg Jul 23, 2018 10:02 PM UTC (Bloomberg) — U.S. prosecutors probing Michael Cohen are reviewing 12 audio recordings seized in an April raid of the home, office and hotel room of President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer. The retired judge who is deciding whether prosecutors may review the seized material said in a Monday filing that “the parties” — presumably Trump and perhaps Cohen — no longer object to the government listening to “12 audio items.” The parties had previously claimed that the 12 items were “privileged” and couldn’t be seen by the government. On Friday, Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, confirmed that Cohen had secretly recorded a conversation in which he and Trump discussed payments to a former Playboy model who claimed she’d had an affair with Trump. The disclosure spurred speculation that Cohen had made other recordings of Trump. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are probing Cohen’s business dealings and his involvement in paying women to keep quiet about their alleged relationships with Trump. The recordings were given to the government on Friday, Barbara Jones, the retired judge and so-called special master overseeing the review, said in her one-page order. “On July 20, 2018, the parties withdrew their designations of ‘privileged’ as to 12 audio items that were under consideration by the special master,” Jones said. “The special master released the 12 items to the government that day.” The order doesn’t specify what’s in the tapes. Michael Avenatti, who represents adult film star Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit against Trump and Cohen, said in an email that Monday’s filing “confirmed” what he said in May: that “there were multiple recordings.” In the recording disclosed Friday, Trump and Cohen can be heard discussing a plan to buy the rights to the story of the Playboy model, Karen McDougal, from American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer tabloid, the Washington Post reported. AMI had spent $150,000 for her story. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5346383/michael-cohen-prosecutors-audio-recordings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5346383/michael-cohen-prosecutors-audio-recordings/"},"headline":"U.S. Prosecutors in Michael Cohen Probe Get 12 Audio Recordings to Review","datePublished":"2018-07-23T22:02:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:55:54.957Z","description":"One recording disclosed Friday reveals Trump and Cohen discussing Karen McDougal","url":"https://time.com/5346383/michael-cohen-prosecutors-audio-recordings/","keywords":["Courts","Bloomberg","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt610c6ee25b89358a/698936020a4a2235cd9d342b/michael-cohen-trump-tapes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bob Van Voris and Christian Berthelsen / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt610c6ee25b89358a/698936020a4a2235cd9d342b/michael-cohen-trump-tapes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Former Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen","caption":"Former Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Returns To Court In New York City","creditText":"Spencer Platt—Getty Images","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/courts/","name":"Courts"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5346383/michael-cohen-prosecutors-audio-recordings/","name":"U.S. Prosecutors in Michael Cohen Probe Get 12 Audio Recordings to Review"}}]}] ```