Donald Trump Denies That He Posed as His Own Spokesman

— -- It has become one of the more bizarre questions asked during this highly unusual campaign cycle: Did Donald Trump once masquerade as his own spokesman?

An audio recording obtained from The Washington Post only leads to more speculation.

In 1991, Sue Carswell, then a reporter at People magazine, called Trump’s office to get some background on a story she was filing on Trump’s messy divorce from first wife, Ivana, his relationship with Marla Maples, and his rumored involvement with other women including model Carla Bruni. Carswell managed to speak with a man who identified himself as a media spokesman for the real estate mogul. This man said his name was John Miller.

“I’m sort of new here," Miller told Carswell.

Miller's voice sounds strangely familiar in the recording: a brusque New York accent, that famous Trumpian lilt...one could easily assume that voice belongs to the presumptive Republican nominee. Even some of the terminology echoes the bombast Trump utters out on the trail. “He’s starting to do tremendously well financially,” Miller said at one point in the recording.

The People interview was published with the headline: "Trump Says Goodbye Marla, Hello Carla ... And a Mysterious PR Man Who Sounds Just Like Donald Calls to Spread the Story."

The Washington Post said it "obtained the recording from a source who asked to be identified only as a person with whom Carswell shared the microcassette of the call shortly after the interview."

This morning on NBC’s “Today Show,” Trump was asked about the interview.

"I don't know anything about it. You're telling me about it for the first time and doesn't sound like my voice at all. I have many, many people that are trying to imitate my voice," he argued. "You can imagine that and this sounds like one of the scams, one of the many scams. Doesn't sound like me.”

Trump continued: "Wow. You mean you’re going so low as to talk about something that took place 25 years ago, about whether or not I made a phone call?”

But the question is not entirely out of bounds. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, several New York-based reporters said they received calls from Miller or a “John Barron" (on occasion the last name was spelled "Baron"), The Post reported. In 1984, New York Magazine cited Trump "spokesperson" John Barron in its reporting on the sale of a property Trump had hoped to develop in Manhattan.

According to The Washington Post, Trump testified in a 1990 court case that “I believe on occasion I used that name," referring to "John Miller." Trump even named his son with third wife Melania "Barron."

In 1991, in a follow-up to Carswell's story, Trump appeared to call the Miller impersonation a joke gone "awry." "What I did became a good time at Marla's expense, and I'm very sorry," Trump was quoted in the article.

Carswell, a former ABC News employee who now works for Vanity Fair, confirmed to ABC News that she let Trump’s former wife Marla Maples listen to the audio interview. She said Maples verified that was indeed her future husband on the tape.

Then there’s the kicker: Carswell said that she never shared the audio recording, musing that the audio obtained by The Washington Post could only come from one place.

“It comes from Trump,” she said.