The following article by Matt Apuzzo and Maggie Haberman was posted on the New York Times website July 25, 2018:
WASHINGTON — Just before Election Day, when The Wall Street Journal uncovered a secret deal by The National Enquirer to buy the silence of a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Donald J. Trump, his campaign issued a flat denial.
“We have no knowledge of any of this,” Mr. Trump’s spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, told the newspaper. She said the claim of an affair was “totally untrue.”
Then last week, when The New York Times revealed the existence of a recorded conversation about the very payment Mr. Trump denied knowing about, Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, described the recording as “exculpatory” — suggesting it would actually help Mr. Trump if it became public.