Michael Cohen: Melania Trump came up with idea to spin "Access Hollywood" tape as "locker room talk"

Prosecutors in Donald Trump's hush money trial have sought to highlight the impact of the "Access Hollywood" recording on the 2016 campaign, in which the former president could be heard boasting of sexual assault, arguing that it was in the wake of that revelation that crimes were committed to prevent others from speaking out.

But testifying Monday, Michael Cohen, the one-time fixer for the former president, said that the argument that the recording merely reflected "locker room talk" came not from within the campaign but was suggested by Trump's wife, Melania.

"We needed to put a spin on this," Cohen explained Monday, per CNN. "The spin 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 it was — and use that in order to get control over the story and to minimize its impact on him and his campaign."

It was in the tumultuous aftermath of its release that Cohen paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet, a transaction that was falsely recorded — allegedly with Trump's knowledge — as a legal expense so as to avoid campaign finance reporting requirements. In 2018, Cohen received a three-year prison sentence for his role in the scheme.

Daniels last week testified that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, just months after Melania gave birth to his son, Barron. Trump, Daniels said, told her not to "worry" about his wife.