What ‘Favor’ Did Cohen Do For Trump?

As I noted below, there is a lot of evidence that Trump hired Michael Cohen either because of his relationship with a Ukrainian emigre named Fima Shusterman or actually at Shusterman’s request. As Trump himself suggested in this morning’s tweet (correctly), Shusterman is the money behind Cohen. But what are we to make of Trump’s comment last week that he hired Cohen because “a long time ago, he did me a favor”? Here we’re on uncertain ground on whether this is really why Trump hired Cohen or whether it’s just the reason they’ve always given – true or not. Either way, I think I can shed some light on what Trump is talking about.