Early in 2014, well before Donald Trump had entered the 2016 Republican presidential primary, his former fixer Michael Cohen hired an IT firm to manipulate a CNBC poll asking people to identify the country’s top 100 leaders. Cohen wanted John Gauger, who ran the firm, to write a script to repeatedly vote for Trump. The effort was unsuccessful, the Wall Street Journal reports.
That was the beginning of a relationship between Cohen and Gauger that saw the lawyer contract the IT guy to rig another poll and set up a Twitter account designed to promote the idea that Cohen is a “pit bull” and a “sex symbol.”
The second poll that Gauger was supposed to manipulate was conducted by Matt Drudge in February of 2015. It asked people to vote for their favorite candidate in the Republican primary, but even after Gauger’s intervention Trump only finished fifth.
The most interesting work Gauger did on Cohen’s behalf though was setting up the Twitter account, @WomenForCohen, which is described in its bio like this: “Women who love and support Michael Cohen. Strong, pit bull, sex symbol, no nonsense, business oriented, and ready to make a difference!”
Cohen wanted the account to “elevate his profile,” the Journal reports and it attempted to do so with thirsty tweets.
Gauger told the Journal that Cohen never paid the $50,000 he was promised for his services. Instead, the man who recently pleaded guilty to campaign-finance violations, tax evasion, and lying to Congress, gave Gauger a quarter of that sum in cash. The transaction is truly one for the ages:
In his Trump Organization office, Mr. Cohen surprised the man, John Gauger, by giving 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, Mr. Gauger said.
In a tweet Thursday morning, Cohen blamed everything on Trump.
