How Michael Avenatti knows about the Trump-Cohen tapes
Michael Cohen thought he had a clever idea for turning public opinion in his favor, and perhaps tainting the jury pool in the process. He’s apparently been cherry picking portions of the conversations he secretly recorded with various people, and leaking them to friendly media, in an effort at getting certain journalists to shift the narrative in his favor. Not only has Michael Avenatti caught him in the act, Avenatti has fired back by revealing that there are indeed tapes of Cohen and Donald Trump.
Here’s what Avenatti tweeted about the matter, while posting the letter he submitted to the judge in the case: “If [Cohen] is going to release audio tapes, he should release ALL of them, including those with Mr. Trump.” Wait a minute here. It doesn’t take much parsing to figure out that Avenatti just confirmed there are indeed tapes of Cohen and Trump that were seized into evidence during the FBI raid of Cohen’s home and office.
Just in case there’s any doubt, Avenatti went on to spell it out again in his posted letter: “Here is a letter we just filed relating to the select alleged leaks of audio tapes by Mr. Cohen. If he is going to release audio tapes, he should release ALL of them, including those with Mr. Trump.”
So how does Michael Avenatti know for sure that the FBI seized recordings that Michael Cohen made of his conversations with Donald Trump? Based on our reading of his letter, we’re not sure if the seized evidence has yet been distributed to him. But one way or the other, Avenatti has learned that Cohen was recording his conversations with Trump, which paints quite an interesting picture. Was Cohen recording secretly recording Trump just for kicks, or was Cohen trying to protect himself for when this all inevitably blew back on him?
