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A taped conversation between Donald Trump and his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, discussing financial payments has been released ... and this is going to get interesting.

CNN just released an audio recording it obtained of the Prez talking to Cohen, which it says is a convo between the 2 about buying the rights of former Playboy model Karen McDougal's story of an alleged affair with Trump.

On the tape, you hear Cohen say ... "I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David," who CNN suggests is a reference to David Pecker, the head of America Media, which publishes National Enquirer.

Then, after some more financial discussions, Trump is heard saying what sounds like either "Pay with cash" or "Don't pay with cash" ... and the debate over what this all means is born.

Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer’s office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of. 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! @realDonaldTrump

The audio's release comes on the heels of reports that Cohen had recorded them talking about the Karen McDougal situation, followed by Trump tweeting it was "perhaps illegal" for a lawyer to record a client.