AUDIO: CNN airs secret recording of Trump and his lawyer discussing payment over mistress

CNN's Chris Cuomo aired Tuesday the much debated recording secretly made of President Donald Trump and Michael Cohen, his former lawyer, from before the 2016 election.

Here's what the audio recording contains 

The conversation was recorded by Cohen in September 2016 just ahead of the election, and it details the effort to set up a company to buy the story of Karen McDougal, a former Playboy playmate who claims she and Trump had an extramarital affair.

"I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David," Cohen says on the recording, apparently referring to David Pecker, the owner of the National Enquirer.

"What financing?" Trump says, interrupting Cohen.

"We'll have to pay," Cohen responds.

Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis says the tape shows Trump saying that they should pay in cash, to which Cohen responds, "no no."

Davis told Cuomo that he wanted the public to hear Trump say that he wanted to pay in cash, in contrast to statements from the president's lawyer Rudy Giuliani that it was Cohen who said they should pay in cash.

There is no evidence the payment was ever made. Trump has also denied that there was an extramarital affair with McDougal.

Here's a portion of the recording between Cohen and Trump

'New war between Trump and Cohen'

Alan Dershowitz said on CNN that the release of the tape was the clearest indication that Cohen was going to "flip" and testify against the president. CNN's Manu Raju opined on Twitter, "This opens up a new war between Trump and Cohen."

Democrat Rep. Ted Lieu pounced on the news to accuse the president of committing a felony.

"This tape is more evidence that [President Trump] himself was directly involved in a campaign finance law violation," he claimed in a tweet. "And because the amount exceeded $25,000, it would be punishable as a felony."

"#TrumpTapes also show Rudy Giuliani lied. But that's not news," he joked.

'Your favorite President did nothing wrong!'

President Trump had also tweeted about the tape recording on Saturday.

"Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer’s office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of," he tweeted. "Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client - totally unheard of & perhaps illegal."

"The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!"