As a man at the very heart of Donald Trump’s impeachment crisis, it should be no surprise that Rudy Giuliani can be a little prickly. “I can talk about almost everything,” he cheerily begins his interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the first with a British outlet since the scandal erupted.

By the end, his tone is curt. “I gave you my answers, do with them what you want,” he says as he puts down the phone after a testy exchange.

The president’s personal lawyer is squarely in the spotlight after an allegation he spread about corruption involving the Democrat Joe Biden in Ukraine boomeranged into a full-blown impeachment inquiry.

This week, things escalated further. On Tuesday, the White House said that it was ending all cooperation with the inquiry, an attempt to stem the political damage caused by a saga Mr Giuliani helped set in motion.

On Wednesday, two associates who helped on his Ukrainian inquiries were arrested trying to flee the US and charged with campaign finance violations. By the end of the week, Mr Giuliani was fending off speculation that he was in prosecutors’ crosshairs, while Mr Trump distanced himself from the scandal.