When it first surfaced that Donald Trump had paid $130,000 to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election to keep their decade-old affair quiet, Palmer Report pointed out that it was an unusual dollar amount. Why not a round number like $100,000 or $200,000? Even if they had been negotiating and meeting in the middle, the number should have been something like $125,000 or $150,000. Now we have some insight into why it ended up being such an oddly specific number – and it’s not good news for Trump.

Trump’s longtime personal attorney made the payment to Daniels on Trump’s behalf, and the conniving Trump never did reimburse him for it. Now Cohen is acknowledging that he had to pull money from his home equity line just to come with enough cash to make the payment, according to ABC News (link). This helps explain why the payment was reportedly so late, and why it was a strange number like $130,000. It’s probably all that Cohen could come up with, and Daniels decided to take it, in lieu of whatever larger number they might have originally agreed upon.

Stormy Daniels’ attorney reacted to the news by tweeting this: “So let me get this straight – Cohen now claims he borrowed $130k on his house and pays interest on it in order to give that same $130k (on behalf of a Billionaire) to a woman who according to him was lying.” In so doing, he’s struck at what may end up unraveling this entire scandal. We already knew that Trump screwed Cohen by not paying him back. Now we’re learning just how badly Trump screwed Cohen.

It wasn’t as if Michael Cohen happened to have an extra $130,000 sitting around in his checking account, and he didn’t need the money. Cohen screwed himself financially in order to bail Trump out of a scandal that could have cost him the election. Cohen is still paying the price financially. If Cohen really has violated federal campaign laws, as has been widely asserted, and if he ends up facing criminal charges over it, he’ll have to decide whether to flip on Trump. Considering how badly Trump screwed Cohen, will that make the decision easier?