Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, reportedly hired someone to try rigging online polls in Trump’s favor ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
According to a Thursday Wall Street Journal report, Cohen also asked the man — John Gauger, owner of an IT firm called RedFinch Solutions and chief information officer at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University — to set up a Twitter account called @WomenForCohen.
The bio on the account, apparently run by a female friend of Gauger, read: “Women who love and support Michael Cohen. Strong, pit bull, sex symbol, no nonsense, business oriented, and ready to make a difference!”
The two online polls included one run by CNBC, in which Gauger was tasked with getting Trump placed in a list of U.S. business leaders (he failed to make the top 100) and a Drudge Report poll of potential GOP candidates (Trump placed fifth.)
Gauger told the Journal that when he visited Cohen to collect his $50,000 payment in 2015, the now-jailed lawyer handed him “a blue Walmart bag containing between $12,000 and $13,000 in cash and, randomly, a boxing glove that Mr. Cohen said had been worn by a Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter.”
Cohen, who is serving three years for crimes including tax evasion and campaign finance violations, told the paper that he only paid Gauger by check. The report also notes that, although Gauger claims to have been severely underpaid, Cohen charged Trump for the full 50 grand.
“If one thing has been established, it’s that Michael Cohen is completely untrustworthy,” current Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told the Journal.
