Gauger told the Journal that Cohen had handed over about $12,000 to $13,000 in cash and a boxing glove Cohen claimed had been worn by a Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter. Gauger said that he was never paid the rest of the money he was promised. However, court documents say that Cohen requested a separate $50,000 reimbursement for “tech services” at the same time he asked for a $130,000 payment for a hush payment to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels.
According to Gauger, Cohen asked him to write a computer script that would repeatedly vote for Trump in a CNBC online poll aiming to identify the U.S.’s top business leaders in January 2014. In February 2015, Cohen appealed to Gauger to rig a poll on influential right-wing news site Drudge Report.