Fixers Fix-- And Bad Fixers Fix Badly

Cohen was a bad fixer for a worse boss. Yesterday's blockbuster by Michael Rothfeld, Rob Barry and Joe Palazzolo tells the story of Michael Cohen, then Trump's personal lawyer, handing a WalMart big stuffed with cash-- between $12 and $13,000-- to John Gauger an employee of Jerry Falwell, Jr. The payoff was for riggng online polls to make it look like Trump was popular.

When confronted, with the Journal exposé, Cohen said that "What I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of Donald J. Trump. I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it." Cohen had also instructed Liberty "University's" RedFinch Solutions LLC owner, Gauger, to create and run a Twitter account called "@WomenForCohen" that "praised (Cohen's) looks and character, and promoted his appearances and statements boosting" Trump's candidacy.

CNN reported that "In making the claim, Gauger told the paper he wasn't fully paid for the work, though the Journal said Cohen was reimbursed $50,000-- the amount the two originally agreed on for Gauger's services-- by the Trump Organization. Gauger, according to the paper, also received a boxing glove 'worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter' along with the cash payment.

The paper said that Cohen denied paying Gauger in cash, instead telling the Journal that "all monies paid to Mr. Gauger were by check" and declining to comment further. The Trump Organization did not comment to the Journal. Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for Trump, told the paper that the allegation that Cohen received more money than what he paid to Gauger shows he's a "thief."

...The Journal said that Cohen's reimbursement was made around the same time that he received a $130,000 reimbursement from Trump for expenses incurred during the 2016 election. CNN has previously reported that Cohen used the $130,000 as a hush money payment to a woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump, which Trump denies.

Gauger told the paper that Cohen asked him in early 2014 to help Trump score well in a CNBC online poll of business leaders and a 2015 Drudge Report poll of potential Republican candidates. Gauger's efforts for the CNBC poll were unsuccessful, according to the paper, and Trump ranked low in the Drudge Report poll.

This is how people in other countries are seeing this pathetic idiocy swirling around the illegitimate, fake "president" of the United States: