Trump- lawyer conversation discussing payment to ex-playboy model caught

A lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump admitted Friday that a conversation between then presidential candidate Trump and his embattled lawyer Michael Cohen regarding paying an ex-playboy model was caught on tape.

"Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance," Rudy Giuliani told The New York Times after the paper reported the existence of the tape.

"In the big scheme of things, it's powerful exculpatory evidence," Giuliani said, adding the discussed payment was never made to the model, Karen McDougal, who alleged she had an affair with Trump.

The tape lasted less than two minutes, Giuliani said.

The New York Time earlier reported that the tape was seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on an earlier raid on Cohen's office.

In the run-up to the 2016 election, Trump's campaign denied the affair with McDougal existed, and a Trump ally has reportedly purchased story from McDougal but never ran the piece.

The FBI in April raided Cohen's office as part of an investigation into his involvement with porn star Stormy Daniels, whom he allegedly paid 130,000 U.S. dollars to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.