(CNN) Lawyer Michael Cohen told a journalist, "I will take you for every penny you still don't have," in 2015 after the reporter wrote a story about President Donald Trump and his first wife, Ivana Trump.

Audiotapes of Cohen making legal threats to reporter Tim Mak were released by Mak on Thursday. Mak, who now works for NPR, wrote a story for The Daily Beast where he resurfaced an account from the book "Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump," by Harry Hurt III, in which Trump's first wife recalls a "violent assault" and alleged she was raped by Trump.

Cohen defended his former client in a telephone call with Mak, claiming that "you can't rape your spouse."

"You're talking about the front-runner for the GOP, presidential candidate, as well as a private individual who never raped anybody. And, of course, understand that by the very definition, you can't rape your spouse," he said.

The assertion that it is not illegal to rape your spouse is false. Spousal rape has been illegal in New York City, where the couple lived, since 1984. Ivana Trump's account is from 1989.

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