Cohen Paid To Rig Polls For Trump With Cash In A Walmart Bag And A Boxing Glove
Image by Getty Images
Michael Cohen allegedly paid off a small technology company to try to manipulate online polls in President Trump’s favor — with a Walmart bag filled with cash and a boxing glove, The Wall Street Journal reported.
John Gauger, owner of company, RedFinch Solutions LLC, told the Journal he was owed $50,000 and was surprised by what Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and “fixer,” presented him with: a blue Walmart bag holding between $12,000 and $13,000 in cash and a boxing glove, which Cohen claimed was worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter.
Cohen’s denied the payment’s strange form, saying, “All monies paid to Mr. Gauger were by check.
The morning the story was published, Cohen tweeted that Trump knew he was trying to rig the polls.
“What I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of [Mr. Trump],” Mr. Cohen wrote. “I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it.”
As for the @WSJ article on poll rigging, what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of @realDonaldTrump @POTUS. I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it.
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) January 17, 2019
Gauger also is the chief information officer at Liberty University in Virginia, whose president is Jerry Falwell Jr., an evangelical leader and strong Trump supporter. He said he’s still waiting for the rest of his money.
In early 2017, Cohen asked for and received a $50,000 reimbursement from Trump for the work by RedFinch, according to a government document and a person with knowledge of the situation.
Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for campaign-finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress.
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
