Michael Cohen isnt really supposed to be talking to reporters. The former executive vice president and special counsel at the Trump Organization, who also serves as the personal attorney to the president, sat in the back of the bustling Hampton Coffee Company in the tony beach town of Water Mill, New York, on Tuesday, nursing a large black coffee. His two cellphones beeped every few seconds. Eventually he looked down at the offending devices. There goes CNN again, he said. Friends and my attorney have recommended I not appear on air until after my testimony.

There was certainly good reason for his lawyers to advise caution. This week has seen Cohen, 51, take another star turn in the ongoing Russia investigation. Cohen (and President Donald Trump ) have insisted for more than a year that the Trump Organization has had no business dealings in Russia. Cohen has been one of the presidents most dogged defenders in the media on that point, taking his case to TV, Twitter anywhere, basically. Speaking to the Financial Times in December, he dismissed the idea of any connection with Russia as yet another example of the presss liberal bias towards Mr. Trump.