Cohen Hired IT Firm to Rig Early CNBC, Drudge Polls to Favor Trump

I know, I know... we only like polls when they work in our favor and when they don't, we vigorously deny them and ridicule them.

Only President Trump and his team did not think so. They liked polls so much they devised a plan to rig them during the 2016 campaign and paid people off to swing the polls in Trump's favor.

Or so says Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's long-time friend and attorney.

In early 2015, a man who runs a small technology company showed up at Trump Tower to collect $50,000 for having helped Michael Cohen, then Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, try to rig online polls in his boss’s favor before the presidential campaign.

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.

Wall Street Journal

It seems the federal prosecutors already knew about this before this article from WSJ came out this morning, as it was mentioned when they charged Cohen with 8 felony charges previously. So, this is only news to us. Special Counsel already knew.

Giuliani of course answers like an idiot and focuses on the wrong thing, pretty much admitting everything. He focuses on the fact that Mr. Gauger said he never received the remainder of the $50,000 from Cohen, calling Cohen a thief, and by doing that admitting $50k was exchanged and that they all knew about it.

Cohen tweeted this morning to clear his name in this fiasco:

Mr. Gauger’s lawyer, Charles E. James Jr. of the firm Williams Mullen, said federal investigators interviewed Mr. Gauger about his interactions over six years with Mr. Cohen, from their first meeting in 2012 until last April, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Mr. Cohen’s home, office and hotel room.

Mr. Gauger, who recounted those dealings to The Wall Street Journal, said that though Mr. Cohen promised him lucrative work for the presidential campaign, his activities related to Mr. Trump consisted of trying unsuccessfully to manipulate two online polls in Mr. Trump’s favor.

As we can see again, the prosecutors have been on this since the office raid at the beginning of the investigation, so this knowledge has been kept tight until it broke today. It also seems their attempt to swing the polls was unsuccessful, so in the end they all engaged in criminal conspiracy and failed to make it work.

Still... a conspiracy is a conspiracy, and a crime is a crime, even if you botch it.

Cohen also asked Gauger to create a Twitter account with the handle @WomenForCohen that would be run by a female friend of Gauger's to portray Cohen as a "sex symbol" and hype his statements in favor of Trump's presidential campaign, the Journal reported.

"Women who love and support Michael Cohen. Strong, pit bull, sex symbol, no nonsense, business oriented, and ready to make a difference!" reads the account profile. The profile was created in May 2016 and remains active with just 527 followers as of Thursday morning.

This dude is a real winner. Does he have any evidence that Trump asked him to do these things?

www.usatoday.com...

originally posted by: jjkenobi

Cohen also asked Gauger to create a Twitter account with the handle @WomenForCohen that would be run by a female friend of Gauger's to portray Cohen as a "sex symbol" and hype his statements in favor of Trump's presidential campaign, the Journal reported.

"Women who love and support Michael Cohen. Strong, pit bull, sex symbol, no nonsense, business oriented, and ready to make a difference!" reads the account profile. The profile was created in May 2016 and remains active with just 527 followers as of Thursday morning.

This dude is a real winner. Does he have any evidence that Trump asked him to do these things?

www.usatoday.com...

No. The Special Counsel does... they raided Cohen's office and took all the evidence. It's in the article.

And yet MSM was showing Clinton as the favorite to win by a large margin.

You really want to talk about rigging polls ?

a reply to: Mahogany

In hindsight, was that the only poll that was accurate?

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Mahogany

In hindsight, was that the only poll that was accurate?

Maybe.

The article says they failed to influence them, even after the attempts, so it remains that it could have been accurate.

An attempt is still conspiracy to commit a crime.

originally posted by: DAVID64

You really want to talk about rigging polls ?

CNN is going to jail forever! Yay.

originally posted by: Mahogany

originally posted by: jjkenobi

Cohen also asked Gauger to create a Twitter account with the handle @WomenForCohen that would be run by a female friend of Gauger's to portray Cohen as a "sex symbol" and hype his statements in favor of Trump's presidential campaign, the Journal reported.

"Women who love and support Michael Cohen. Strong, pit bull, sex symbol, no nonsense, business oriented, and ready to make a difference!" reads the account profile. The profile was created in May 2016 and remains active with just 527 followers as of Thursday morning.

This dude is a real winner. Does he have any evidence that Trump asked him to do these things?

www.usatoday.com...

No. The Special Counsel does... they raided Cohen's office and took all the evidence. It's in the article.

So in other words, No.

Cohen is a liar, why should we suddenly believe him? Oh, because Orange Man Bad?

Don't buy it.

originally posted by: Mahogany

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Mahogany

In hindsight, was that the only poll that was accurate?

Maybe.

The article says they failed to influence them, even after the attempts, so it remains that it could have been accurate.

An attempt is still conspiracy to commit a crime.

By that logic, every single liberal media outlet committted crimes.

originally posted by: The GUT

originally posted by: DAVID64

You really want to talk about rigging polls ?

CNN is going to jail forever! Yay.

lol true.

And Rasmussen and all the ones that play favorites.

Jokes aside though, we all know pollsters themselves can be biased and choose where they poll and who they poll. This is different altogether. This is a candidate spending traceable money to influence a national poll during a national campaign.

If this were legal, under the table payment would not have been necessary.

a reply to: Mahogany

Cohen tweeted this morning to clear his name in this fiasco:

Clear his name?

A lawyer (implied that he knows the laws better than most) knowingly commits what appears to be a crime, and tweets that his boss "made him do it" (I wouldn't be surprised), and that clears his name?

You mean clears his name in the court of public opinion? Why, because he is snitching on his boss?

Well that's all fine and dandy, if he had say turned himself in. So the feds raid him, he starts squealing for self preservation and some find him to be exonerated because he is helping bring down their enemy?

Wooh, politics are getting f###ing hard to navigate these days.

Can we just all agree any sense of morality is out with partisans (we've all known it for some time).

First rule to recovery is the citizens playing the strings of politics for their favor have a problem.

Oh, I know...

a reply to: Mahogany

Is online poll rigging a crime? (I'm asking this seriously... I can't imagine how it could be and, if it was, I'd think we'd have seen lawsuits over crap like American Idol long before now.)

originally posted by: Mahogany

originally posted by: jjkenobi

Cohen also asked Gauger to create a Twitter account with the handle @WomenForCohen that would be run by a female friend of Gauger's to portray Cohen as a "sex symbol" and hype his statements in favor of Trump's presidential campaign, the Journal reported.

"Women who love and support Michael Cohen. Strong, pit bull, sex symbol, no nonsense, business oriented, and ready to make a difference!" reads the account profile. The profile was created in May 2016 and remains active with just 527 followers as of Thursday morning.

This dude is a real winner. Does he have any evidence that Trump asked him to do these things?

www.usatoday.com...

No. The Special Counsel does... they raided Cohen's office and took all the evidence. It's in the article.

This is just the beginning of what Mueller is about to release. Manafort is singing like a canary...


www.usatoday.com...

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: Mahogany

Is online poll rigging a crime? (I'm asking this seriously... I can't imagine how it could be and, if it was, I'd think we'd have seen lawsuits over crap like American Idol long before now.)

This is what I would like to know as well before I comment. Is this actually a crime?

originally posted by: Mahogany

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Mahogany

In hindsight, was that the only poll that was accurate?

Maybe.

The article says they failed to influence them, even after the attempts, so it remains that it could have been accurate.

An attempt is still conspiracy to commit a crime.

It seems "Team Trump" can't even CRIME effectively...

originally posted by: Mahogany
I know, I know... we only like polls when they work in our favor and when they don't, we vigorously deny them and ridicule them.

Only President Trump and his team did not think so. They liked polls so much they devised a plan to rig them during the 2016 campaign and paid people off to swing the polls in Trump's favor.

Or so says Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's long-time friend and attorney.

In early 2015, a man who runs a small technology company showed up at Trump Tower to collect $50,000 for having helped Michael Cohen, then Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, try to rig online polls in his boss’s favor before the presidential campaign.

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.

Wall Street Journal

It seems the federal prosecutors already knew about this before this article from WSJ came out this morning, as it was mentioned when they charged Cohen with 8 felony charges previously. So, this is only news to us. Special Counsel already knew.

Giuliani of course answers like an idiot and focuses on the wrong thing, pretty much admitting everything. He focuses on the fact that Mr. Gauger said he never received the remainder of the $50,000 from Cohen, calling Cohen a thief, and by doing that admitting $50k was exchanged and that they all knew about it.

Cohen tweeted this morning to clear his name in this fiasco:

Mr. Gauger’s lawyer, Charles E. James Jr. of the firm Williams Mullen, said federal investigators interviewed Mr. Gauger about his interactions over six years with Mr. Cohen, from their first meeting in 2012 until last April, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Mr. Cohen’s home, office and hotel room.

Mr. Gauger, who recounted those dealings to The Wall Street Journal, said that though Mr. Cohen promised him lucrative work for the presidential campaign, his activities related to Mr. Trump consisted of trying unsuccessfully to manipulate two online polls in Mr. Trump’s favor.

As we can see again, the prosecutors have been on this since the office raid at the beginning of the investigation, so this knowledge has been kept tight until it broke today. It also seems their attempt to swing the polls was unsuccessful, so in the end they all engaged in criminal conspiracy and failed to make it work.

Still... a conspiracy is a conspiracy, and a crime is a crime, even if you botch it.

Might want to inform Comey and Hillary Clinton about that. The way I see it if Trump didn't intend to break the law then there was no crime here. There is precedent for this you know. Ask Comey and the Democrats.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: Mahogany

Is online poll rigging a crime? (I'm asking this seriously... I can't imagine how it could be and, if it was, I'd think we'd have seen lawsuits over crap like American Idol long before now.)

Good question. I guess I hope we have an actual attorney here who can help us, as us debating it is not very helpful.

I would say legally this would have to be looked at as conspiracy to deceive public, perhaps there are campaign finance laws for disclosing such payments if they influence elections (and they were not disclosed).

However, trace of it has been found and the prosecutors know about it, so I guess it will be up to them how they handle it. Probably campaign finance laws.

The reimbursement was mentioned by federal prosecutors when they charged Mr. Cohen in August with eight felonies, including campaign-finance violations for arranging hush-money payments to an adult-film star and a Playboy model who allege Mr. Trump had extramarital sexual encounters with them.

Prosecutors wrote in a charging document that when Mr. Cohen asked Trump Organization executives for a $130,000 reimbursement for a hush payment he made to Stephanie Clifford, the porn actress known as Stormy Daniels, he also scrawled a handwritten note asking for $50,000 he said he spent on “tech services” to aid Mr. Trump’s campaign. Prosecutors didn’t name the company providing those services, but people familiar with the matter say it was RedFinch.

The people who are on this already know. You and I are just guessing.

Any lawyers here who can help?

originally posted by: toolgal462

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: Mahogany

Is online poll rigging a crime? (I'm asking this seriously... I can't imagine how it could be and, if it was, I'd think we'd have seen lawsuits over crap like American Idol long before now.)

This is what I would like to know as well before I comment. Is this actually a crime?

in other words integrity means nothing to you?


he used the same guy to try to swing the polls so he'd look like a better businessman than he is. HILARIOUS! reminds me of "john barron", which always makes me chuckle. he's spent his whole life trying to make himself look better than he is - how tiresome, he's a clown.

originally posted by: knoxie

originally posted by: toolgal462

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: Mahogany

Is online poll rigging a crime? (I'm asking this seriously... I can't imagine how it could be and, if it was, I'd think we'd have seen lawsuits over crap like American Idol long before now.)

This is what I would like to know as well before I comment. Is this actually a crime?

in other words integrity means nothing to you?


he used the same guy to try to swing the polls so he'd look like a better businessman than he is. HILARIOUS! reminds me of "john barron", which always makes me chuckle. he's spent his whole life trying to make himself look better than he is - how tiresome, he's a clown.

Excuse me but I would appreciate you not putting words I never said into my mouth. I simply want to know what the Law says about this. I don't "hate" nor do I judge anything until I have all the facts.

Unlike yourself.

BTW, I wouldn't lecture anyone on the meaning of "integrity" when you supported a candidate that repeatedly defended her pervert serial sexual predator husband, while at the same time publicly calling herself/itself the "woman's rights candidate".

JUST STOP