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That backstory, in true Trump-tabloid fashion, features the friendship between Mr. Falwell, his wife and a former pool attendant at the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach; the family's investment in a gay-friendly youth hostel; purported sexually revealing photographs involving the Falwells; and an attempted hush-money arrangement engineered by the president's former fixer, Michael Cohen. [...]

At around the same time, Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump were arranging with The National Enquirer and its chief, the Trump ally David Pecker, to buy and bury stories about Mr. Trump and women that could harm his political prospects. Mr. Cohen's confessed role in two such deals -- one with The Enquirer to silence the former Playboy model Karen McDougal, the other with the pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, whom he initially paid out of his own pocket -- contributed to the three-year sentence he is now serving at the federal prison in Otisville, N.Y.

Mr. Cohen, a longtime fixer for Mr. Trump, described an effort to buy and bury embarrassing photos involving the Falwells.CreditJohn Taggart for The New York Times

By Mr. Cohen's account, the Falwells appeared to be in need of just that sort of help.

By late 2015, the lawsuit over ownership of the hostel had devolved into a fight over compromising photos, according to several people involved in the case. It was understood that between Mr. Granda, the Fernandezes and their lawyers, one or more people were in possession of photographs that could be used as leverage against the Falwells.

And so Mr. Cohen tried to play the fixer for his friends.

In a recent legal filing, Mr. Fernandez Jr. said he was forced to change his name because of the case. He became Gordon Bello. His father, Mr. Fernandez, Sr., became Jett Bello. Their name changes took place after Mr. Cohen intervened.

Mr. Cohen described his involvement in his conversation with Mr. Arnold, which was first reported last month by Reuters.

"There's a bunch of photographs, personal photographs, that somehow the guy ended up getting -- whether it was off of Jerry's phone or somehow maybe it got AirDropped or whatever the hell the whole thing was," Mr. Cohen told Mr. Arnold in the recording, which Mr. Arnold shared with The Times. Mr. Cohen never identified "the guy."

"These are photos between husband and wife," Mr. Cohen added, joking that "the evangelicals are kinkier than Tom Arnold." 

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