NYT -- WASHINGTON - President Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, escalated his dispute with the president on Tuesday by releasing a secret recording of a conversation in which Mr. Trump appears to have knowledge about hush money payments to a Playboy model who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.
The recording, which was broadcast by CNN, is sometimes muddled but provides details on payments to the model, Karen McDougal, but does not definitively answer the question about whether Mr. Trump directed Mr. Cohen to make them in cash or by check just two months before the 2016 presidential election.