Michael Cohen Fingers Trump in Payment to Rig Polls During 2016 Election

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump‘s ex-lawyer and fixer, responded to a new report on his efforts to rig online polls during the 2016 election by laying blame for the scheme at the feet of his former boss.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Cohen hired a firm during the 2016 campaign to rig online polls — including some from CNBC and The Drudge Report — in Trump’s favor. CNN reported Cohen’s statement on the story shortly after, in which he confirmed the story.

“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 told CNN.

CNN’s Jim Sciutto pointed out that Cohen was “implicating” Trump in the payment, which the Journal reported was made via a Walmart bag filled with cash. Cohen did deny this detail, insisting the payment was made via check.

The IT firm said while the full payment was meant to be $50,000, it was only paid around $12,000 for the job. In 2017, according to the Journal, Cohen still asked Trump to pay him the full amount: $50,000.

The IT firm Cohen paid didn’t do a great job at rigging the polls for Trump, however. In a 2014 CNBC poll naming the country’s top business leaders that the firm targeted, Trump did not make it into the top 100 candidates.

Watch CNN’s report above.

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