President Trump on Saturday responded to reports of Michael Cohen taping their conversation.
President Trump took to Twitter on Saturday and reacted to reports that his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, recorded a conversation between the two about paying a former Playboy model.
"Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer's office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of. Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client - totally unheard of & perhaps illegal. The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!" Trump tweeted.
The news about the Cohen tape surfaced on Friday.
The Washington Post reported: "Two months before the 2016 election, longtime Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen secretly taped a conversation with the then-GOP presidential nominee about whether to purchase the rights to Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal's account of her alleged extramarital affair with Trump, according to three people familiar with the conversation."
While the Trump team has downplayed the significance of this recording, Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor and currently a partner at Thompson Coburn, told Business Insider that "it's hard to spin taped conversations between the president and Cohen being good for the president."
It remains to be seen what impact this development will have on Trump's presidency.
A piece in The Atlantic asserts that "unless there is direct evidence on this or other tapes of his culpability in illegal activity," the recording likely won't significantly impact Trump's standing with his supporters who "seem to understand that he is an extremely flawed man but still love him."
