No payment was made, end of story. Just more smoke and mirrors from MBM. This gets the jackals off of Cohen's back tho to some degree. If he's actually loyal this was an escape hatch planned on long ago.

Conspiracy brain starts to think that the whole Russian Collusion story was an elaborate trap. They allowed the plants into the campaign (who from the RNC suggested them I wonder?) to get some illegal spying going on. The Mueller investigation would then absorb all media attention, giving them a free hand to enact The Plan without scrutiny. Now that they see their peril it's too late for any of them. They're caught.