MICHAEL COHEN/POLLS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s former ‘fixer’ Michael Cohen said Thursday [1-17-19] that he paid the head of a small technology company thousands in 2015 to rig online polls at ‘the direction of and for the sole benefit of’ Trump. Cohen was responding to a report in The Wall Street Journal that he paid John Gauger, the owner of RedFinch Solutions LLC, between $12,000 and $13,000 for activities related to Trump’s campaign, including ‘trying unsuccessfully to manipulate two online polls in Mr. Trump’s favor’ and creating a Twitter account called ‘@WomenForCohen’ that ‘praised (Cohen’s) looks and character, and promoted his appearances and statements boosting’ Trump’s candidacy. In making the claim, Gauger told the paper he wasn’t fully paid for the work, though the Journal said Cohen was reimbursed $50,000 — the amount the two originally agreed on for Gauger’s services — by the Trump Organization. Gauger, according to the paper, also received a boxing glove ‘worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter’ along with the cash payment. The paper said that Cohen denied paying Gauger in cash, instead telling the Journal that ‘all monies paid to Mr. Gauger were by check’ and declining to comment further.”
–Devan Cole and Pamela Brown, “Cohen says Trump directed him to pay for poll rigging,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, January 17, 2019 4:49 am