NBC News first became aware of the footage late Monday after receiving notice from producers at “Access Hollywood,” a syndicated entertainment-news program owned by NBC. The program’s producers had combed their archives for interviews with Trump after reading an Associated Press account of crude remarks he had made about female contestants on “The Apprentice,” the NBC reality program that Trump had starred on for 14 seasons…

By Tuesday morning, NBC News determined that the footage was newsworthy, and began to prepare a story. The news division agreed to let “Access Hollywood” break the story first, given that it had shot and unearthed the tape, according to an NBC executive who agreed to give the network’s account on condition he not be named or quoted directly.

But the tape languished, unseen by the public, for several days after it first came to light.

Although NBC and “Access” both recognized the newsworthiness of the tape and intended to air it, it first had to undergo a review by the company’s lawyers, the executive said. The executive was unaware of any specific legal issue raised by airing an 11-year-old recording of a presidential candidate who was apparently aware at the time that he was being recorded by a TV program.