Michael Cohen admits rigging online polls at Trump's command

Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen on Thursday admitted having tried to rig online polls “at the direction and for the sole benefit of” the President.

Cohen made the confession on Twitter shortly after the publication of a Wall Street Journal article that claimed the lawyer had hired an IT company in a failed attempt to manipulate a 2014 CNBC online poll that ranked the nation's top 100 business leaders in order to enhance Trump's chances of appearing on the list.

Back in March 2014, when the final list was released, it appeared to anger the President, who tweeted that the “stupid poll should be canceled (sic)—no credibility”.

Another alleged effort was more successful, with Trump appearing fifth on a 2015 Drudge Report poll of potential Republican candidates for the Presidential election.

As he copped to the accusation, Cohen, a once ardent supporter of the President, said he regretted his “blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it”.

Interestingly, Cohen made no reference to the article’s assertion that he had also asked for the creation of a Twitter page named ‘Women for Cohen’ that remains active and characterises the lawyer as “strong, pit bull, sex symbol, no nonsense, business oriented and ready to make a difference”.

The WSJ’s report claimed that these poll manipulation and social media efforts were carried out by John Gauger, the owner of RedFinch Solutions and the chief information officer of Liberty University in Virginia, who was paid around $12,000 by Cohen and is cited as a source for the article.

Gauger claims he had been promised $50,000 for the work but never received around $37,000 of the amount, though Cohen still received "a $50,000 reimbursement from Mr. Trump and his company for the work by RedFinch," according to the WSJ report.

Trump’s current lawyer Rudy Giuliani laid the blame squarely at Cohen’s door, telling NBC News that “if he rigged them, he would have done it on his own ... The president would have no knowledge that he did that.”

Cohen pleaded guilty and was sentenced in December to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to women who claimed to have had affairs with trump during the 2016 election, which prosecutors claim he did at the President’s direction.

He has also agreed to cooperate with the Mueller investigation and testify to the House Oversight Committee on 7 February but is reportedly concerned about his family’s safety.

The President appeared to threaten Cohen in a Fox News interview at the weekend, claiming to know damaging information about his family, a move that drew condemnation from the chairman of the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings.

"It is unacceptable for anyone -- including the President -- to try to bully or intimidate our witnesses, to try to get them not to testify, to try to scare or threaten their family members, or to try to interfere with Congress' search for the truth," said Cummings earlier this week.