President Donald Trump on Thursday continued to distance himself from his former personal lawyer of 12 years by saying he only ever gave Michael Cohen the job as a reward for a “favor” Cohen did for Trump.

The comment came the same day Cohen pleaded guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Cohen pleaded to lying to Congress about talks for a Trump Tower in Moscow that took place during Trump’s 2016 campaign.

REPORTER: If Cohen is such a bum, why did you hire him and have him on your payroll for 12 years and have him do so much of your dirty work?



TRUMP: "Because a long time ago, he did me a favor. A long time ago he did me a favor."



👀👀👀👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/WkIp18Hyds — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 29, 2018

Trump quickly went on the defensive, calling Cohen a “weak person” who is “lying” to Mueller to get a reduced prison sentence.

“If Cohen is such a bum, why did you hire him and have him on your payroll for 12 years and have him do so much of your dirty work?” a reporter asked.

“Because a long time ago he did me a favor,” Trump responded. “A long time ago he did me a favor.”

It’s unclear what that favor was.

Cohen reportedly told a Manhattan U.S. district court that discussions about a Trump Tower real estate project in Moscow continued into June 2016 and that Trump had been briefed about it multiple times.

“There would have been nothing wrong if I did do it,” Trump said Thursday of the Trump Tower Moscow project.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.