President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, reportedly had a penchant for recording conversations with associates, and that has Trump allies are concerned.
Following the FBI’s raid on Cohen’s house, hotel and office this week, Trump associates are questioning whether agents seized those tapes, which he was known for saving digital copies of, The Washington Post reported.
According to people who interacted with Cohen and who spoke to the Washington Post, Cohen would record business and political conversations, save the tapes and often play them for colleagues. He was also reportedly known for using taped business calls for leverage. Trump campaign staffers often avoided him because of his reputation for secretly recording discussions, according to the Post’s sources.
While it is unknown whether Cohen recorded conversations with Trump, the President has a times baselessly bragged that he had recordings of conversations, as he did after he fired former FBI director James Comey.
As the Post noted, when The New York Times reported last year that Trump had asked Comey for loyalty during a one-on-one dinner and Comey declined, Trump tweeted suggesting that he may have “tapes” of their conversation. After raising speculation over whether he actually recorded the conversation with Comey, Trump tweeted, after a full month, saying he he didn’t know if there actually were tapes.
During the Cohen raid, FBI agents reportedly seized documents related to payments made to two women — Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal — who have alleged affairs with Trump, just before the 2016 election.
