per cnn update:
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Michael Cohen what Red Finch did for Trump.
Cohen said Trump was polling low in the CNBC poll.
"And it upset him,” Cohen says.“And he had me come to his office and provide me a sheet of paper that showed it.”
"I reached out to Red Finch who assured me he was able to go through the acquisitions of IP addresses to create an algorithm that would ensure Mr. Trump would rise and rise significantly into this poll,” Cohen added.
Cohen is now looking directly at the jury as he’s answering Hoffinger’s question to explain the Red Finch situation. Cohen said Trump wanted to be number one in the poll but after Red Finch’s work, he ended up at nine.
The former Trump fixer said “despite cheating” Trump felt he didn’t get his money’s worth for the work.
Cohen added that Trump did not pay Red Finch because CNBC ended up not moving forward with this poll, “and so he didn’t feel he had gotten the benefit” for the services they had provided.
trump did his usual “i’m not going to pay” thing.
rc: when cohen and weisselberg got together to go over cohen’s reimbursement, cohen possibly saw an opening an added in the red finch payment.
cohen felt pressured to repay red finch so he withdrew 20k from his own account, put it in a paper bag, and gave it to the company’s ceo,