US President Donald Trump has fired back against his former lawyer after the release of a recording of him discussing buying the rights to a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair Trump had with her.
"What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad!" Trump said on Twitter.
He also asks in the same tweet why the tape cut off "while I was presumably saying positive things?"
In the recording, first obtained by CNN and then subsequently released by other US media, lawyer Michael Cohen and Trump are heard talking about a proposal to buy the rights to the story of Karen McDougal in a confidential conversation that took place weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
The former Playboy model has alleged she had an extramarital affair with Trump in 2006.
Cohen can be heard on the tape saying he must open a company "for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David" in an apparent reference to David Pecker, head of American Media.
File image of Playboy playmate Karen McDougal with magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Source: Reuters
McDougal sold her story about the alleged affair to the National Enquirer, a tabloid owned by American Media. The alleged payment Cohen refers to allegedly was meant to keep the story under wraps.
Trump can be heard instructing Cohen to "pay with cash" but the sound quality is poor and it's unclear whether he suggests paying with cash or not paying.
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump's current lawyer, said on Fox News that no payment from Trump was ever made and there is no evidence of any crime.
