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 MMA 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.”



As for the @WSJ article on poll rigging, what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of @realDonaldTrump @POTUS. I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it. — Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) January 17, 2019



Gauger, the chief information officer at Liberty University in Virginia, said that he never received the rest of the $50,000 he was owed.

According to sources and government documents reviewed by the Journal, Cohen had received a $50,000 reimbursement from Trump and his company for the work done by Gauger’s company RedFinch Solutions LLC.

This reimbursement was mentioned when Cohen was charged over the summer with eight felonies, including arranging hush money payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels. Both women alleged they had extramarital affairs with then-businessman Trump.

In the process of charging Cohen, prosecutors mentioned his handwritten note asking for $50,000 reimbursement for money sent on “tech services” to aid the Trump campaign.

The company was not named by prosecutors, but those familiar with the situation say it is referencing RedFinch.