A lot is being made recently of the tape where Donald Trump and Michael Cohen discuss the Karen McDougal payoff. Is what's being written in the news part of an Anti-Trump conspiracy by the news media bto ring Trump down, as Pirro alleges?
A copy of the recording may be found in
How Michael Cohen’s Audio Clip Unraveled Trump’s False Statements from today's New York Times. The recording appears after the article's 3rd paragraph. Let's examine this article paragraph by paragraph to see if it supports Pirro's thesis. It appears in the Times' politics section. It is not an opinion piece.
An annotated transcript of the tape can be found at
The Trump-Michael Cohen tape transcript, annotated.
The article is by Matt Apuzzo and Maggie Haberman. Matt Apuzzo is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist working for the Times. Maggie Haberman is the Times White House correspondent and a political analyst for CNN.
quote:
WASHINGTON Just before Election Day, when The Wall Street Journal uncovered a secret deal by the National Enquirer to buy the silence of a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Donald J. Trump, his campaign issued a flat denial.
The above paragraph is just a straight recounting of facts. In greater detail, it is saying that on November 4th, 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported that then presidential candidate Donald Trump had had an affair with Karen McDougal that AMI (parent company of the National Enquirer) had covered up by performing what is called in the business a "catch and kill," where the rights to a story are purchased with the intent of killing it. The Trump campaign issued a flat denial, spokeswoman Hope Hicks saying the report was "totally untrue." AMI also denied the story, saying in a statement, "AMI has not paid people to kill damaging stories about Mr. Trump." The Times is reporting facts.
quote:
We have no knowledge of any of this, Mr. Trump’s spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, told the newspaper. She said the claim of an affair was totally untrue.
The Times is reporting what Hope Hicks was reported to have said in the Wall Street Journal. It's just more facts.
quote:
Then last week, when The New York Times revealed the existence of a recorded conversation about the very payment Mr. Trump denied knowing about, Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, described the recording as exculpatory suggesting it would actually help Mr. Trump if it became public.
These are just more facts. It was indeed the Times that broke the story, and Giuliani did indeed describe the recording as "exculpatory."
The Times next includes a way to play the recording. The relevant portion begins at about 2:00. The article continues:
quote:
Finally, the tape has become public. And it revealed the statements by Ms. Hicks and Mr. Giuliani to be false. The recording, which was broadcast by CNN late Tuesday night, shows Mr. Trump directly involved in talks about whether to pay the Enquirer for the rights to the woman’s story.
This paragraph says that the statements from both Hope Hicks and Rudolf Giuliani were false. Is that true, or is it a conspiratorial lie designed to turn the country against a fine and upstanding president doing his best for God and country?
Hope Hicks statement that the Journal report was "totally untrue" would have occurred on November 3rd, 2016, the day before the article appeared in the Journal on November 4th, 2016. The Cohen tape records a discussion between Donald Trump and Michael Cohen that took place in September, 2016. Therefore Trump was discussing payoffs to McDougal at least a month before Hope Hicks declared the reports of the affair and a payoff "totally untrue." What she said was false.
Now let's get to Rudolf Giuliani. Was what Giuliani said false? By exculpatory Giuliani of course meant legally exculpatory, meaning that Trump had done nothing illegal. If Trump lied to the press, whether directly or through spokespeople, that would not be illegal, and Giuliani probably wasn't worried about that. It would be a lost cause denying Trump lied anyway, since he so obviously did.
But why the claim the tape was exculpatory? Does something on the tape imply that Trump did something illegal? Yes, it possibly does, depending on what is learned when all the facts come out. (Remember, we don't have to rely on the tapes alone - Michael Cohen was there and can testify about the conversation, and previous conversations.) Unreported payoffs could possibly be a violation of campaign financing laws. Giuliani was claiming that the tape is exculpatory about campaign finance law violations.
Giuliani provided his own transcript where instead of Trump saying "[unintelligible] pay with cash," he says, "Don't pay with cash." It makes little difference either way. The means of payment has nothing to do with campaign finance laws. Also, paying with cash might be worse, depending upon the means used to hide the money trail, since that might introduce charges of money laundering.
So Giuliani's statement that the tape is exculpatory is false. It is not exculpatory.
quote:
The recording, and the repeated statements it contradicts, is a stark example of how Mr. Trump and his aides have used falsehoods as a shield against tough questions and unflattering stories.
This is the first sentence in the article that Trump supporters will see as an indication of bias and a statement of opinion, rather than just a recitation of facts. But Trump, his campaign and his administration have now told so many documented lies, then doubled down on them, that is hard to see them as anything more than a strategy to defend against the truth when it isn't favorable. If this paragraph is just opinion, then why all the Trump lies?
quote:
Building upon his repeated cry of fake news, he told supporters this week not to believe the news. What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening, the president added.
This sentence is just straight reporting of the president's own words.
quote:
In a capital where politicians have made an art form of the nondenial denial, press secretaries typically reserve their on-the-record denials for stories that are outright false. Candidates can weather most embarrassing stories, and press officers know that getting caught in a lie only makes things worse.
This is just a statement about how politicians in general manage the truth when it is inconvenient, such as the "nondenial denial" and just waiting out the storm.
quote:
But Mr. Trump, both as a candidate and as president, has turned that thinking on its head. When faced with the evidence of its misstatements, the administration sidesteps and moves on. I’m not going to get into a back-and-forth, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said last month when confronted with her unequivocal, and false, denials that Mr. Trump had dictated his son’s misleading statement about meeting with Russians.
I disagree with this paragraph's assessment that Trump has "turned that thinking on its head." I think Trump's using the same techniques that politicians have always used, just more brazenly while combined with constantly churning the news cycle so there's never time to dwell on any particular lie.
The rest of the paragraph is factual, merely mentioning White House Press Secretary Sander's false denials that Trump had dictated his son's statement about the Trump Tower meeting with Russians.
quote:
The tape that surfaced Tuesday concerned the former model, Karen McDougal, who says she began a nearly yearlong affair with Mr. Trump in 2006. Shortly before the 2016 election, she sold her story for $150,000 to The National Enquirer. But the tabloid, which was supportive of Mr. Trump, sat on the story, a practice known as catch and kill. It effectively silenced Ms. McDougal for the remainder of the campaign.
This paragraph is just a factual recounting of events.
quote:
The legal implications of the taped conversation for Mr. Trump are unclear. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether Mr. Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, committed bank fraud or violated campaign finance laws by arranging payments to silence women critical of Mr. Trump.
This paragraph merely describes what crimes Cohen might possibly have committed, according to federal prosecutors.
quote:
The recording is potentially significant because it places Ms. McDougal in the context of the presidential campaign. Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen talk polling, surrogates, fending off journalists, and, finally, embarrassing deals. But it is not clear whether that creates legal problems for Mr. Trump.
This is just a factual recounting, concluding that it is unknown whether this creates legal problems for Trump.
quote:
The recording was among 12 handed over to prosecutors from a trove of Mr. Cohen’s material that F.B.I. agents seized in April. It is the only recording of substance between Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump, according to people familiar with the material. Others include Mr. Cohen speaking to broadcast media figures, according to the people.
Just another paragraph of facts.
quote:
In the recording, Mr. Trump does not appear surprised to hear about the arrangement with the Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc. Mr. Cohen describes the agreement with our friend David, a reference to the company’s chief executive, David Pecker.
From the tape it is clear that Trump is already familiar with the topic of McDougal. He even offers up himself the amount of the AMI payoff to McDougal, $150,000, so he must have discussed this before, else how could he know?
quote:
The tape surfaced as part of a widening rift between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen, his once-trusted adviser. Mr. Cohen has all but advertised his willingness to cooperate with federal prosecutors, an arrangement that could unearth many of the secrets that he helped bury in a decade of work as Mr. Trump’s fixer. No such cooperation deal has been reached, and prosecutors typically do not make such arrangements until they have finished reviewing the evidence they have collected.
Just more factual recounting.
quote:
The tape also shows how enmeshed the Trump Organization had become in politics and the effort to protect Mr. Trump’s image. Mr. Cohen can be heard telling Mr. Trump that he had consulted with the company’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, when it comes time for the financing of the payments to the Enquirer’s parent company.
More factual recounting. Cohen is telling Trump that he has already alerted the Trump Organization's CFO that the need for financing for the payments for the McDougal story rights may come soon.
quote:
Wait a sec, what financing? Mr. Trump is heard saying.
Well, I’ll have to pay him something, Mr. Cohen then says.
Cohen is probably gently reminding Trump that the money for the payoff has to come from somewhere. The "him" Cohen is referring to is probably the head of AMI, though of course the payment would actually be to AMI. Remember, they're not talking about paying off McDougal. She's already been paid off. They're talking about purchasing the McDougal story rights from AMI.
quote:
Mr. Weisselberg was also involved in structuring Mr. Cohen’s reimbursements of more than $400,000 after he parted ways with the Trump Organization. Those reimbursements to Mr. Cohen are said to have included money he spent to silence an adult-film actress named Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels. She also alleged a previous affair with Mr. Trump that he has denied.
Just more boring facts.
quote:
When the recording surfaced, Mr. Trump’s lawyers drafted a transcript and circulated it to reporters. In their version, Mr. Trump told Mr. Cohen don’t pay with cash and then says, check.
More facts. I mentioned the Giuliani version of the transcript earlier.
quote:
Mr. Cohen’s lawyers argued that Mr. Trump’s team manufactured a dialogue to make it more favorable for their client. They have been getting away with saying that a lie is the truth and don’t believe the media, said Lanny J. Davis, a lawyer for Mr. Cohen. But they walked into a trap here because a tape is a tape. It’s a fact. If you’re for Donald Trump, don’t believe me. I’m a Democrat. Believe your own ears.
Just describing what Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis said.
quote:
Repeated screenings of the tape do not clearly reveal Mr. Trump saying the words don’t pay with, an omission that would entirely change the meaning of his comment. That creates a chasm between what is heard on the tape, and what Mr. Trump’s aides say is heard on the tape.
Here the article is saying that Giuliani is making up what he says is on the tape out of whole cloth. I've listened to the tape several times and it seems obvious to me that at best Giuliani is hearing what he wishes were on the tape, not what is actually there. Listen yourself and make up your own mind. Again, the recording is after the third paragraph in the article.
But whether Trump said check or cash makes little difference. There's no disagreement about what the rest of the tape says. Trump friend AMI paid off McDougal to keep her quiet before the election, Trump lied about knowing anything about it, and he discussed with Cohen buying the payoff from AMI so they had complete control over it.
Given that the McDougal affair went on for about 10 months, McDougal might have a great deal of evidential documentation.
So there's the whole article analyzed paragraph by paragraph in a search for biased and inaccurate reporting that is part of a conspiracy designed to bring down Trump. No biased or inaccurate reporting was found.
--Percy
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