Audio released of Michael Cohen threatening a journalist

President Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, fancies himself a tough guy, as evidenced by a phone call he had with journalist Tim Mak, which was filled with threats, expletives, and falsehoods.

In 2015, Mak, then at The Daily Beast and now with NPR, spoke with Cohen regarding an article he was writing about Trump and his first ex-wife, Ivana Trump. Mak was focusing on a book about Trump called Lost Tycoon, which included something the author said Ivana shared during a sworn deposition: that she had been raped by her husband. Trump has denied the claim, and after Lost Tycoon came out, Ivana said she did not mean "rape in a criminal or literal sense," Mak wrote.

At the time, Mak wrote about the phone call, which included Cohen saying spousal rape is not a crime and that Mak should "tread very f—king lightly because what I'm going to do to you is going to be f—king disgusting." On Thursday, the audio was made public for the first time, and can be heard in all of its loud, vulgar glory below. Catherine Garcia

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