2016 ELECTION/MICHAEL COHEN/POLLS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Michael D. Cohen, the former personal lawyer and fixer for President Trump, acknowledged on Thursday [1-17-19] that he had paid the owner of a technology services company to help doctor results of an online poll to help Mr. Trump as he considered a run for president. In a post on Twitter about his actions, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Cohen said that he had done so at the direction of Mr. Trump, and regretted it. The Journal reported that in early 2015, before Mr. Trump declared himself a candidate for president, Mr. Cohen gave $12,000 to $13,000 in cash stuffed in a Walmart bag to John Gauger, the owner of RedFinch Solutions, who also works for Liberty University. The money was in exchange for help boosting Mr. Trump’s name in two online polls. Mr. Cohen was supposed to pay Mr. Gauger $50,000 for the work, the man told The Journal, but the full amount was never paid out. However, Mr. Cohen billed the Trump Organization $50,000 for technology services, according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who referenced the amount in a charging document.”
-Maggie Haberman, “Michael Cohen Acknowledges Payments for Poll Rigging,” The New York Times online, January 17, 2019