Michael Cohen hired company to rig polls in favor of Trump

[mystery-ak]

Michael Cohen hired company to rig polls in favor of Trump
by Katelyn Caralle
 | January 17, 2019 08:54 AM



A small tech company owner went to collect $50,000 in 2015 from President Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen for rigging online polls in Trump’s favor before his presidential campaign, according to a new report.

That man, John Gauger, told the Wall Street Journal in an article published Thursday that Cohen handed him a Walmart bag full of somewhere between $12,000 and $13,000 in cash and a boxing glove said to be worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter.

Cohen has disputed that he was paid in cash. “All monies paid to Mr. Gauger were by check,” Cohen said.

Cohen also confirmed in a Thursday morning tweet that he did pay Gauger at the direction of his boss and regrets his “blind loyalty” to Trump.

“As for the @WSJ article on poll rigging, what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of @realDonaldTrump @POTUS,” Cohen tweeted. “I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it.”

more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/michael-cohen-hired-company-to-rig-polls-in-favor-of-trump

[rustynail]

Polls can be rigged!?

[edpc]

Mr. Gauger owns RedFinch Solutions LLC and is chief information officer at Liberty University in Virginia, where Jerry Falwell Jr., an evangelical leader and fervent Trump supporter, is president.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/poll-rigging-for-trump-and-creating-womenforcohen-one-it-firms-work-order-11547722801


Quite literally selling his principles.

[Frank Cannon]

[edpc]

This is the type of stuff Trump learned from his former lawyer Roy Cohn and confidant Roger Stone.

Stone, who going back to his class elections in high school has been a proponent of recruiting patsy candidates to split the other guy's support, remembers suggesting to Cohn that if they could figure out a way to make John Anderson the Liberal party nominee in New York, with Jimmy Carter picking up the Democratic nod, Reagan might win the state in a three-way race. "Roy says, 'Let me look into it.'" Cohn then told him, "'You need to go visit this lawyer'--a lawyer who shall remain nameless--'and see what his number is.' I said, 'Roy, I don't understand.' Roy says, 'How much cash he wants, dumbf--.'" Stone balked when he found out the guy wanted $125,000 in cash to grease the skids, and Cohn wanted to know what the problem was. Stone told him he didn't have $125,000, and Cohn said, "That's not the problem. How does he want it?"

Cohn sent Stone on an errand a few days later. "There's a suitcase," Stone says. "I don't look in the suitcase . . . I don't even know what was in the suitcase . . . I take the suitcase to the law office. I drop it off. Two days later, they have a convention. Liberals decide they're endorsing John Anderson for president. It's a three-way race now in New York State. Reagan wins with 46 percent of the vote. I paid his law firm. Legal fees. I don't know what he did for the money, but whatever it was, the Liberal party reached its right conclusion out of a matter of principle."

https://web.archive.org/web/20150224190956/http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/278vjcro.asp?page=3

[Hoodat]

This is hysterical.  Rigging an online poll.  BWAAAHAAAHAAAA

Are these people serious?  Democrats rig elections, yet the real story is that Cohen rigged an online poll?  Probably had help from those damn Freepers, always freeping polls.

[Hoodat]

Cohen tweeted. “I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it.”

Blind loyalty?  No, sir.  You were PAID for that loyalty.  You were also paid to keep your mouth shut.  In fact, you took a professional oath to do so.  Mr. Trump now deserves a full refund for services paid - services which you contractually violated.

[corbe]

   Trump just seems incapable of hiring a decent Personal Attorney, Giuliani being the latest example.

[edpc]

You were also paid to keep your mouth shut.  In fact, you took a professional oath to do so.

Those are negated by the crime-fraud exception.

[Hoodat]

Those are negated by the crime-fraud exception.

The crime-fraud exception shouldn't apply since Trump did not knowingly ask Cohen to break the law.  The crimes for which Cohen was indicted had nothing to do with Trump.

[ABX]

The crime-fraud exception shouldn't apply since Trump did not knowingly ask Cohen to break the law.  The crimes for which Cohen was indicted had nothing to do with Trump.

Maybe. We don't know he didn't know. This is falling under my long opinion that they are all crooks and none of them are your savior.

[corbe]

   More info here:

The quintessential Trump campaign story: A bag of cash, Michael Cohen and a rigged online poll 

PUBLISHED: January 17, 2019 at 6:56 am | UPDATED: January 17, 2019 at 8:52 am

By Philip Bump | The Washington Post

We have, on Thursday, a story that perhaps serves as the best encapsulation to date of how the early days of Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency worked, a summary that, itself, seems to explain much of what happened afterward.

It’s the details that are particularly compelling. It was, according to the Wall Street Journal, a Walmart bag, blue, containing somewhere over $12,000 in cash and a boxing glove that Michael Cohen, then Trump’s personal attorney, claimed had been owned by a Brazilian fighter. We’re meant to infer from Cohen’s assurances on the glove that it was somehow worth $38,000; otherwise, that Walmart bag wouldn’t have contained the $50,000 that Cohen was supposed to turn over.
 
This was in early 2015, before Trump was a candidate for the presidency, but the wheels were already in motion. Cohen had engaged a tech guy named John Gauger to help prime the pump for a Trump candidacy, according to the Journal, asking him to rig a poll hosted at the Drudge Report.

It didn’t really work. That poll, completed on Feb. 2, 2015, ended up with Trump getting 5 percent of the vote, well behind Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and even Ben Carson, now a member of Trump’s Cabinet.

<..snip..>

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/17/the-quintessential-trump-campaign-story-a-bag-of-cash-michael-cohen-and-a-rigged-online-poll/

[mystery-ak]

more info


Cohen Hired IT Firm to Rig Early CNBC, Drudge Polls to Favor Trump
https://www.wsj.com/articles/poll-rigging-for-trump-and-creating-womenforcohen-one-it-firms-work-order-11547722801

[Hoodat]

This is falling under my long opinion that they are all crooks and none of them are your savior.

Same here.  Which brings us to the age-old question:  Does power corrupt, or do the corrupt aspire to power?

Not only is it difficult, but it is politically unsound for those in power not to abuse that power.  Democrats have no problem abusing power.  Republicans on the other hand believe in self-imposed limitations on their power, which although valiant, also causes them to lose elections.

[truth_seeker]

This is the type of stuff Trump learned from his former lawyer Roy Cohn and confidant Roger Stone.

Stone, who going back to his class elections in high school has been a proponent of recruiting patsy candidates to split the other guy's support, remembers suggesting to Cohn that if they could figure out a way to make John Anderson the Liberal party nominee in New York, with Jimmy Carter picking up the Democratic nod, Reagan might win the state in a three-way race. "Roy says, 'Let me look into it.'" Cohn then told him, "'You need to go visit this lawyer'--a lawyer who shall remain nameless--'and see what his number is.' I said, 'Roy, I don't understand.' Roy says, 'How much cash he wants, dumbf--.'" Stone balked when he found out the guy wanted $125,000 in cash to grease the skids, and Cohn wanted to know what the problem was. Stone told him he didn't have $125,000, and Cohn said, "That's not the problem. How does he want it?"

Cohn sent Stone on an errand a few days later. "There's a suitcase," Stone says. "I don't look in the suitcase . . . I don't even know what was in the suitcase . . . I take the suitcase to the law office. I drop it off. Two days later, they have a convention. Liberals decide they're endorsing John Anderson for president. It's a three-way race now in New York State. Reagan wins with 46 percent of the vote. I paid his law firm. Legal fees. I don't know what he did for the money, but whatever it was, the Liberal party reached its right conclusion out of a matter of principle."

https://web.archive.org/web/20150224190956/http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/278vjcro.asp?page=3

Usual moralist #nevertrump suspects, ignoring the FACT Roger Stone has acted on behalf of Republicans, since Reagan or BEFORE. Like Don Segretti, and Lee Atwater.

But now as for Trump, their derangement causes them to get all "church-lady-ish"

Usual Trump Deranged Syndrome sufferers, wake each day hoping for their next big find, going to make them stars like John Dean.

[edpc]

The crime-fraud exception shouldn't apply since Trump did not knowingly ask Cohen to break the law.  The crimes for which Cohen was indicted had nothing to do with Trump.

The crimes to which he entered his plea and was sentenced included criminal campaign finance violations and are directly related to Trump. The many layers Trump used to cover payment tracks, through Cohen and Pecker, demonstrate knowledge of his actions. Cohen’s agreement specifies he acted at the direction of Individual 1, who is Trump.

[edpc]

Usual moralist #nevertrump suspects, ignoring the FACT Roger Stone has acted on behalf of Republicans, since Reagan or BEFORE. Like Don Segretti, and Lee Atwater.

Actually, it’s more indicative of the person Trump likes to have as a problem solver, since he employed the ultimately disbarred Cohn for years, to navigate the NYC mob involvement in labor.

[Hoodat]

The crimes to which he entered his plea and was sentenced included criminal campaign finance violations and are directly related to Trump.

@edpc

Ah, now it all makes sense.  I had wondered why Müller had introduced those charges into the plea deal - charges which had no evidentiary basis.  Even though Cohen did none of those things, he was willing to cop a plea to them in exchange for leniency to the other crimes.

[jmyrlefuller]

@edpc

Ah, now it all makes sense.  I had wondered why Müller had introduced those charges into the plea deal - charges which had no evidentiary basis.  Even though Cohen did none of those things, he was willing to cop a plea to them in exchange for leniency to the other crimes.

It's like traffic court.

Say you and another car back up at the same time and hit each other. You get charged with unsafe backing. The traffic court offers you a plea deal down to a parking ticket so that it doesn't raise your insurance or show up on your driving record. You take the parking ticket, even though you were legally parked, just to avoid a legal fight you're not sure you can win.

[RetBobbyMI]

This from a convicted liar?  Even if true, he failed at the job he was paid to do. All the polls pointed to a Hillary win.

[edpc]

Ah, now it all makes sense.  I had wondered why Müller had introduced those charges into the plea deal - charges which had no evidentiary basis.  Even though Cohen did none of those things, he was willing to cop a plea to them in exchange for leniency to the other crimes.

First of all, these were charges from the SDNY investigation, not the Mueller inquiry. Cohen entered a guilty plea for one charge false testimony before Congress, under the Mueller investigation. The only recommendation Mueller made was the sentences be served concurrently with the SDNY charges. The evidence was strong enough where his attorney, a former SDNY prosecutor, made the deal. They also secured a deal with AMI CEO David Pecker. He admitted to making the payment to McDougal, on Trump’s behalf, specifically for the purpose of keeping it from influencing the election. At least one other person, Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, received immunity from the SDNY, related to the campaign finance charges. Multiply sourced evidence abounds, implicating Cohen and Trump in campaign criminal finance violations.

[Sanguine]

So, on TOS, when they get together to TOSs a poll, isn't that roughly the same thing?  And, when they do that at DU?

[Free Vulcan]

Man they are milking this petty Cohen thing for all it's worth.

[Hoodat]

So, on TOS, when they get together to TOSs a poll, isn't that roughly the same thing?  And, when they do that at DU?

But . . . but . . . but that's different.

[edpc]

So, on TOS, when they get together to TOSs a poll, isn't that roughly the same thing?  And, when they do that at DU?

Unless Jim shows up at your door with a bag full of @BassWrangler couch change and an autographed pic of humblegunner - no.