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Playboy model at heart of Trump tape storm

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Trump lashes out at ex-lawyer, who had tapes of them discussing payment to hush up alleged affair with Karen McDougal

WASHINGTON Former Playboy model Karen McDougal is again the woman in the centre of a storm surrounding US President Donald Trump.

The New York Times reported on Friday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized a recording of Mr Trump and his then lawyer, Mr Michael Cohen, discussing payment to hush up an alleged affair with Ms McDougal.

The tape was seized in April when the FBI raided Mr Cohen's office amid an investigation of possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia, AFP reported.

On Saturday, Mr Trump lashed out at Mr Cohen, saying he may have acted illegally in secretly taping their discussion.

Ms McDougal claims she had an affair with Mr Trump after they met in 2006, shortly after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son Barron.

Ms McDougal gave her first television interview about the affair in March.

She said she first met Mr Trump during the filming of Celebrity Apprentice at the Playboy Mansion in 2006.

Mr Trump invited her to dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel on his birthday, the Times reported.

She said she was surprised when they entered the grounds from a rear entrance and went directly to a private bungalow.

"We were talking about his birthday, and as the night ended, we were intimate.

"After we had been intimate, he, he tried to pay me - and I actually didn't know how to take that," she told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "I looked at him and said, 'That is not me. I am not that kind of girl.'"

She said she was hurt by what Mr Trump tried to do and cried when she was driven home.

Despite that, she kept seeing Mr Trump. They went on plenty of dates, most of which ended in sexual encounters.

At one party, she met his son, Eric, and took a photo with him, she said. At another, she posed for a picture with Mr Trump, his wife, his daughter, Ivanka, and other people, keeping her distance from Mrs Trump as best she could, she said.

Ms McDougal said she ended the relationship when she could no longer bear the guilt.

But that did not stop her from trying to sell her story. She sold it for US$150,000 (S$204,000) in August 2016, but it was never published by the National Enquirer.

The tabloid used a practice known as "catch and kill" to prevent a potentially damaging story from becoming public. Mr David Pecker, the chairman of the tabloid's parent company American Media, is a friend of Mr Trump, Reuters reported.

Before the election, the Trump campaign denied knowledge of payment to Ms McDougal, but the taped conversation could undermine those denials.

Mr Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump's personal attorney, confirmed to the Times that the Cohen tape existed, but said it showed the president had done nothing wrong, AFP reported.

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