Cohen says Trump made him lie, rig polls

The Democratic chairmen of two House committees said Friday they would investigate a report that President Donald Trump told his personal attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. Cohen, who is no longer the president’s attorney and is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, has admitted he misled lawmakers about a real estate deal in Moscow that Trump continued to be involved in during his campaign. The latest report by BuzzFeed News cites two anonymous federal law enforcement officials who accuse Trump of directing Cohen to lie, but the president, in a tweet, said Cohen was lying about his involvement.

On Thursday, Cohen claimed he paid a technology company to boost Trump’s standing in two online polls before the presidential campaign. Cohen tweeted that his actions were “at the direction of and for the sole benefit of” his client. He was responding to a report by The Wall Street Journal that said he stiffed the owner of a technology company out of thousands of dollars for the poll rigging, which included using computers to enter fake votes for Trump in a 2014 CNBC poll.

The tech company’s owner, John Gauger, told the newspaper that Cohen promised him $50,000 but instead gave him a blue Walmart bag stuffed with between $12,000 and $13,000 dollars in cash, plus a collectible boxing glove. Cohen disputed he paid cash, telling the Journal that “all monies paid to Mr. Gauger were by check.” In addition to running an information technology consulting firm, Gauger works full time as Liberty University’s chief information officer.