President Trump's Former Personal Lawyer Says He'll Put Family First

Courtesy: MGN, CNN

The New York Times says President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer secretly recorded him discussing payments to an ex-Playboy model who said she had had an affair with him.

The newspaper says the FBI seized the recording during an April raid on attorney Michael Cohen's office.

The Times cited lawyers and others familiar with the recording and reported Friday that Cohen made it two months before Trump's 2016 election.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani tells the newspaper Trump did discuss the payments to Karen McDougal with Cohen on the less than two-minute recording but a payment was never made.

Giuliani says Trump told Cohen if he did make a payment to do it by check so it could be documented.

McDougal accepted $150,000 from American Media Inc. (AMI), the parent company of tabloids including the National Enquirer. She sold her story with the expectation that she would write for the Enquirer, but AMI didn't publish the story, a process sometimes called "catch and kill."  

Cohen hasn't responded to text and email messages seeking comment. His lawyer Lanny Davis declined to comment to the Times.

A White House spokesperson said in a February statement that Trump denies having had an affair with McDougal. 

"This is an old story that is just more fake news," the spokesperson said at the time. "The President says he never had a relationship with McDougal."

(The Associated Press, CBS News contributed to this report.)