• Michael Cohen, RedFinch, And @WomenForCohen 

    May 21, 2024
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    When Michael Cohen admitted to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization in court this week, it raised another question why the prosecutors would put Cohen on the stand as the central witness in the Trump New York trial after publicly admitting how much he hates Trump and dreams of seeing Trump in jail.

    But, this larceny angle also raises even further questions about Cohen’s credibility or lack thereof because the sidebar story to it involves a @WomenForCohen social media account that reeks of so much vanity and arrogance it is almost laughable. 

    Could it be that Cohen wanted Trump to pay for his own vanity social media site?

    In January 2019, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a story that ought to compel Trump’s defense attorneys to subpoena John Gauger, who is runs RedFinch, whom Cohen stiffed while stealing from Trump. 

    Seemingly, Gauger showed up at Trump Tower in 2015 to collect $50,000 he was owed for work Gauger had done at the instruction of Cohen before the 2016 presidential campaign.

    According to Gauger, as reported by the WSJ, Cohen gave Gauger “both 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 told the WSJ.

    “All monies paid to Mr. Gauger were by check,” said Cohen to the WSJ and then refused to offer further comment.

    On the same day, the story ran January 17 2019, Cohen published a tweet. 

    “What I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of [Mr. Trump],” Mr. Cohen wrote. “I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it.”

    At the time, Rudy Giuliani, claimed Cohen’s tweet was nonsense.

    “My response will be a cleaned-up version of ‘Bullshit.’”

    “This is not true. The president did not know about this if it happened,” Giuliani said in an interview to the WSJ.

    So who is John Gauger, who owns RedFinch Solutions LLC? He was chief information officer at Liberty University in Virginia.

    Mr. Gauger claimed to the WSJ that he never got the rest of what he claimed he was owed. 

    “But Mr. Cohen in early 2017 still asked for—and received—a $50,000 reimbursement from Mr. Trump and his company for the work by RedFinch, according to a government document and a person familiar with the matter,” reported the WSJ. 

    The reimbursement was mentioned by federal prosecutors when they charged Mr. Cohen in August 2018 with eight felonies.

    Cohen had asked to be reimbursed for $50,000 that he allegedly had spent on “tech services to aid Mr. Trump’s campaign.” 

    “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,” reported the WSJ.

    But, the story gets weirder according to the WSJ reporting. 

    “During the presidential race, Mr. Cohen also asked Mr. Gauger to create a Twitter account called @WomenForCohen. The account, created in May 2016 and run by a female friend of Mr. Gauger, described Mr. Cohen as a “sex symbol,” praised his looks and character, and promoted his appearances and statements boosting Mr. Trump’s candidacy,” reads the WSJ reporting. 

    When Mr. Cohen requested the $50,000 reimbursement for tech services, he didn’t tell Trump Team what kind of tech services. 

    “The connection between Messrs. Trump and Cohen and Liberty University dates at least to 2012, when Mr. Falwell invited Mr. Trump to give a speech and Mr. Cohen accompanied him. Soon after, Mr. Gauger was introduced to Mr. Cohen, helped him set up an Instagram account and gave him his cellphone number should he need more assistance, he said” as reported by WSJ. 

    "Over the next several years, Mr. Cohen asked Mr. Gauger for help with services intended to elevate positive content in internet-search results for himself and for friends, Mr. Gauger said. While he didn’t pay for most of what Mr. Gauger did, Mr. Cohen often promised to connect RedFinch with executives at Mr. Trump’s hotel and golf-course businesses, though he never did, Mr. Gauger said.” as reported in the WSJ.

    The WSJ further reported how Cohen asked Gauger for help on polls in 2014 and in 2015.

    “After making the cash payment at Trump Tower, Mr. Cohen kept saying he would pay the balance of the $50,000 but never did, Mr. Gauger said. Mr. Cohen also promised to get RedFinch work for Mr. Trump’s campaign. He set up two phone calls for Mr. Gauger with campaign officials, who didn’t hire him,” Gauger told the WSJ. 

    “Mr. Cohen promised but never was able to develop the business he predicted,” said Gauger’s lawyer to the WSJ. 

    “Early in 2016, Mr. Cohen hired RedFinch to help create positive web content about the chief executive of CareOne Management LLC, a New Jersey assisted-living company that had given Mr. Cohen a consulting contract,” reads the WSJ.

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    CareOne paid $200,000 to Cohen and Cohen paid $50,000 to RedFinch for that work.

    “Mr. Cohen asked Mr. Gauger to create the @WomenForCohen account, still active in 2019, to elevate his profile. The account’s profile says it is run by “Women who love and support Michael Cohen. Strong, pit bull, sex symbol, no nonsense, business oriented and ready to make a difference!,” reported the WSJ.

    After Cohen’s residences were raided, Gauger and Cohen spoke and per the WSJ, Gauger said Cohen” told him the investigation was about taxes and how he had accessed money from some of his accounts. “It’s not a big deal,” Mr. Cohen said, according to Mr. Gauger.”

    Except it was a big deal because as a result of Cohen’s raid, his indictment, his guilty plea, his incarceration, and his statements, America would not have a former U.S. president charged for the first time in history in a criminal case.

    But, maybe Cohen got what he wanted all along - alot of cash and his own @WomenForCohen social media that was still ablazing in 2019. 

    Author

    Christine Dolan

    Christine Dolan is a seasoned Investigative Journalist, television producer, author, and photographer. She is Co-Founder of American Conversations whose format focuses on in-depth analysis of critical issues about “the story behind the headlines.”
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