What Was Said

Kellyanne Conway: “Christopher, in April of 2018, Donald J. Trump, the president, and everybody else were told about the payments.”



Chris Cuomo, CNN anchor: “He knew about it from its inception. He came up with the plan.”



Ms. Conway: “No, no, no, hold on. You’re saying incontrovertible based on the testimony of people who are trying to get a better deal and a lighter sentence for themselves. Be fair here. Don’t call incontrovertible because you imbue credibility on individuals ——”



Mr. Cuomo: “I have a tape of him discussing what to do with Michael Cohen.”

— in an interview with CNN on Thursday

False.

Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty in August to breaking campaign finance laws when he arranged payments to two women during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep them from talking about affairs they said they had with Mr. Trump.

Ms. Conway is a counselor to Mr. Trump. Her suggestion that the president did not know about these payments until this year is not credible, given the audio recording, news reports and statements from Mr. Trump’s current lawyer.

American Media Inc., the parent company of The National Enquirer, has admitted that it purchased the story of one of the women, Karen McDougal, to suppress it, prosecutors said this week.

The tape that Mr. Cuomo referred to is a recording between Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump in which they discussed the payment to Ms. McDougal, a former Playboy model. The recording was made in September 2016, according to CNN, and was publicly released this summer.