Paul Callan is a CNN legal analyst, a former New York homicide prosecutor and current counsel at the New York law firm of Edelman & Edelman PC, focusing on wrongful conviction and civil rights cases. Follow him on Twitter @paulcallan. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.

(CNN) Most lawyers aren't willing to sacrifice themselves for their clients. That is, it seems, except in the case of Michael Cohen. Known to the world as "President Trump's personal lawyer," Cohen claims to have taken a $130,000 financial hit to protect his client from a scandal: allegations that Donald Trump had an affair with porn star Stephanie Clifford, aka "Stormy Daniels," in 2006. On Tuesday, Cohen said in a statement that he used personal funds in 2016 to "facilitate a payment" to Clifford and that no one in the Trump Organization or campaign "reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly."

Lawyers often pay a form of "hush money" customarily referred to as "settlement proceeds" to resolve legal disputes. The "hush" part of the transaction is assured by confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements, sealing the lips of all parties to the transaction. Such agreements are particularly popular when high-profile corporate executives and politicians are accused of sexual harassment, sexual abuse or other kinds of embarrassing conduct (like adultery with a porn star, for instance).

What's unusual here is that the beneficiary of Stormy Daniels' $130,000 confidentiality agreement is not Mr. Cohen, the man footing the bill, but Donald Trump. Since assuming the role of "personal counsel," Cohen has been described as one of Trump's "pit bulls" -- the result of his tendency to threaten and file lawsuits whenever he, the Trump Organization or Mr. Trump himself are seriously attacked or maligned.

But why would Cohen use his own personal funds to make such an enormous payment? Is this a quest to become a form of political sugar daddy to Trump, a relationship akin to Bebe Rebozo's with Richard Nixon?

Given the fact that the tabloid press had been buzzing with rumors that Melania Trump had imposed what Bruce Springsteen might refer to as a "Tenth Avenue Freezeout" on the President, Mr. Cohen's Valentine's Day timing in disclosing his role here was impeccable. With his customary bravado, he continued : "The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone."

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