Members of the Jury in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Thursday were played a recording found on Attorney, Michael Cohen’s phone, in which the two appeared to be discussing the alleged plan to settle a former Playboy model who claimed to have had an extramarital affair with Trump.
The conversation, which took place on Sept. 6, 2016, was played on Thursday as part of the testimony by expert witness Douglas Daus, who handles the processing of electronic devices for the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Cohen, who is Trump’s former attorney, secretly recorded the conversation, which has a duration of about two minutes, where he and Trump discussed about making a $150,000 payment to keep the model quiet.
In the summer of 2016, American Media Inc. paid the model $150,000 to stay silent about her story.
Trump, however, did not reimburse them, as they’d originally discussed.
In his defense, Trump attorney Emil Bove attempted to raise doubt about the integrity of the material on Cohen’s phone, insisting that it has been ‘subject to the risk of manipulation’ somewhere in the chain of custody.
Bove also questioned Daus on the recording, inquiring why it unexpectedly ends.
“You don’t have firsthand knowledge of why it cuts off,” Bove said.
Meanwhile, Daus told the prosecutor during questioning that he did not see any evidence of tampering with Cohen’s phone.
The recording is expected to come up again during the trial, as Cohen would be called to testify.