The news site Gawker is reporting it has “received an anonymous email with an attachment that purported to contain recordings from Donald Trump’s voicemail inbox.” Among them are what sound like messages from liberal media celebrities.

This follows a recent report of an off-the-record conversation Trump had with The New York Times where he allegedly said his position on illegal immigrants is far more flexible than he has led voters to believe in his campaign for president.

Gawker’s Ashley Feinberg and Andy Cush write that Gawker hasn’t independently verified the authenticity of the voicemails, but “the recordings appear to be genuine.” The article continues:

Donald Trump’s primary rivals for the Republican nomination, Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, have both called on Trump to authorize the New York Times to release a transcript or recording of an interview he conducted with the newspaper, a portion of which was off the record. They think the recording will reveal that Trump is not the version of himself he presents to Republican voters — politically incorrect and unafraid of offending liberal elites — but in fact that the authentic Trump is a creature of elite Manhattan society, who counts among his personal friends many members of the decadent liberal media, and whose natural habitat is an Upper East Side cocktail party. As Cruz has put it, Trump has “New York values.”

 If authentic, these voicemails buttress that argument. They indicate that Trump maintains friendly personal relations with members of the elite political press, even as he demonizes them. While Trump and some of his journalistic interrogators play oppositional roles on the public stage, the voicemails suggest that they are in fact favor-trading pals when the cameras are off.

The voicemails, if authentic, also suggest that Trump and certain liberal media icons may be trading favors. “Voices that seem to belong to Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the co-hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, also appear in one voice message, the date of which is not clear,” Gawker said. “The message suggests that Trump has given them some sort of favor or gift, or perhaps contributed to some sort of public or private charity event involving children.”

BRZEZINSKI: Hi, Donald. It’s Mika and Joe calling. Say hi, Joe.

SCARBOROUGH: Hey there, Donald. How you doing?

BRZEZINSKI: We’re just leaving you a message because we’re trying to get in touch with you, but you must be, like, on your jet or something. We’d love to talk to you, so call one of us. What’s your other number, Joe?

SCARBOROUGH: I’m at [REDACTED]. And the kids want to scream “Thank you,” to you, Donald. Say, “Thank you, Donald.”

CHILDREN: Thank you!

SCARBOROUGH: We are so, so grateful for everything, Donald, and we just want to call you and tell you how much it means to us.

BRZEZINSKI: It was amazing. Thank you, Donald. Hope to talk to you soon. Bye.

(We have redacted the voices of the children from the audio presented above.)

This gets more interesting in light of criticism Scarborough and Brzezinski have faced for being overly chummy with Trump as they covered his race for the GOP nomination. “After it was reported that the Morning Joe hosts visited Trump in his hotel room as the New Hampshire primary results were arriving, CNN reported that there was “widespread discomfort” at NBC about the relationship,” Feinberg and Cush write. “NBC and Scarborough have since denied any impropriety.” But there’s more:

Less than a week later, Scarborough and Brzezinski conducted an extended “town hall” interview with Trump, which was broadcast live on MSNBC. Audio which was apparently recorded during the event’s commercial breaks was subsequently leaked to the internet radio host Harry Shearer, who broadcasted a clip on his own show.

When the cameras weren’t rolling, the trio let down their guard. At one point, Brzezinski discussed the types of questions the hosts planned to ask in the next segment, and Trump responded, “That’s right. Nothing too hard, Mika.” At another, he remarked that a segment from that day’s Morning Joe made him seem almost like a “legendary figure.” It wasn’t until late last month, when Trump declined an opportunity to categorically disassociate himself from the Ku Klux Klan, that Scarborough finally attempted to distance himself from the candidate.

Gawker added that they have reached out to MSNBC, and to Trump’s campaign, and that MSNBC didn’t immediately respond while a Trump campaign spokeswoman provided this statement: “We don’t know whether or not this is authentic because this is a public phone, not a private phone. As you know, it is illegal to break into phones. We will hold you and all other parties involved responsible.”

The full story is here.

Update: Joe Scarborough himself responded to the Gawker story Friday afternoon in a series of tweets:

Oh my God. I just read the transcripts! Trump must have contributed to a children's charity. Scandalous!!! https://t.co/BxcZCdSkQb

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) March 4, 2016

Through the years, we asked Trump (and many others) to contribute to various charities, including David Axelrod's CURE charity for epilepsy.

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) March 4, 2016

I don't remember leaving any voice mails with him, but it certainly appears to be regarding a children's charity. https://t.co/BxcZCdSkQb

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) March 4, 2016

And for the record, we knew Trump as a fellow NBC employee. We always asked colleagues for charitable gifts. https://t.co/BxcZCdSkQb

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) March 4, 2016