Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, reportedly paid a tech expert to rig opinion polls in favour of his boss and create a Twitter account which praised Mr Cohen as a “sex symbol”.
Mr Cohen got the expert to boost Mr Trump’s standing in two online polls, one on America’s top business leaders and another on potential 2016 presidential candidates, The Wall Street Journal reported.
He also, bizarrely, asked for a Twitter account called “Women For Cohen” to be set up which posted positive comments about himself, including his looks, according to the article.
Mr Cohen allegedly agreed to pay $50,000 for the work but in the end only handed over between $12,000 and $13,000 and a boxing glove worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter.
Responding on Twitter, Mr Cohen did not dispute the report, writing: “What I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of Donald Trump. I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it.”
One of Mr Trump’s current lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, disputed that claim, telling The Wall Street Journal: “This is not true. The president did not know about this if it happened.”
It is a new strange twist in the story of Mr Cohen, who once pledged to “take a bullet” for Mr Trump but has flipped on the US president after pleading guilty to breaking campaign finance laws and fraud.
The man said to have been employed for the work was John Gauger, the owner of RedFinch Solutions LLC and chief information officer at Liberty University in Virginia.
The pair met shortly after Mr Trump gave a speech at the university which Mr Cohen also attended, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The two online polls Mr Cohen allegedly asked to be influenced were online and involved trying to repeatedly vote to ensure he finished highly.
One was hosted by CNBC in January 2014 and was about America’s top business leaders. Mr Trump failed to come in the top 100.
The other was on the Drudge Report, a right-leaning news website, in February 2015 and listed potential Republican presidential candidates. Mr Trump got 24,000 of votes, some 5 per cent of the total cast.
The Twitter account Mr Cohen is said to have created was designed, it appears, to lavish praise on himself.
Its biography reads: “Women who love and support Michael Cohen. Strong, pit bull, sex symbol, no nonsense, business oriented, and ready to make a difference!”