Donald Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen testified on Monday that Melania Trump advised him on how to "spin" the Access Hollywood tape controversy ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The former president is on trial in New York City on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the election. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged that the payment was meant to prevent her from going public with her claim that she had a sexual encounter with the former president in 2006.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has denied having the encounter with Daniels and pleaded not guilty to all criminal charges. He has accused Bragg and other prosecutors of targeting him for political purposes and says the trial is election interference.
Cohen testified Monday that Melania Trump came up with the idea to downplay the audio recording of Donald Trump using vulgar language to discuss women as "locker room talk" after the tape leaked ahead of the 2016 election, according to Newsweek reporter Katherine Fung, who has been covering the trial from inside the courtroom.
"The spin that he wanted put on it was that this is locker room talk, something that Melania had recommended, or at least he told me that's what Melania had thought, and use that in order to take control over the story to minimize its impact over him and his campaign," he said.
He recalled finding out about the tape while in London to celebrate his wedding anniversary and his daughter's 21st birthday. He told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to call him because he wanted to "assure that things were being properly taken care of to protect Mr. Trump."
Newsweek reached out to a spokesperson for Melania Trump via email for comment.
The Washington Post published the 2005 audio recording on October 7, 2016, less than a month before the presidential election. The audio recording has Trump saying that as a celebrity he was able to "grab" women by their genitalia, drawing criticism from those who said the remark was unacceptable for a presidential candidate.
Trump, however, said the recording was simply locker room talk and did not accurately reflect the way he treats women.
On October 17, 2016, Melania Trump defended Trump's remarks, telling CNN he was engaging in "boy talk and he was led on—like, egged on—from the host to say dirty and bad stuff" in the conversation with the Access Hollywood host at the time, Billy Bush.
In a separate interview with Fox News, she said, "Those words, they were offensive to me and they were inappropriate. And he apologized to me. And I...accept his apology. And we are moving on."
Update 5/13/24, 2:50 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information and background.
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Andrew Stanton is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in Maine. His role is reporting on U.S. politics and social issues. ... Read more
