Last week, as Michael Cohen parted with his attorneys at McDermott, Will & Emery, various speculative guessing games emerged within the media about what the move foretold about his legal future. Was Cohen inching toward cooperating with the government? What part of his legal bill was the Trump Organization responsible for underwriting? All along, people close to Cohen told me that the move was merely part of a larger strategy. The lawyers at McDermott, Will & Emery specialized in document review, which was required given the 3.7 million documents seized by the government from Cohen's hotel room, apartment, and office in April. But as that portion of the legal process wrapped up, and a criminal investigation loomed, those close to Cohen signaled he would turn to a lawyer more familiar with the S.D.N.Y. As one longtime friend put it to me, “As far as a criminal case going forward in the Southern District, he’s going to want a New York attorney who came from the Southern District.”

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Cohen, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, has now hired Guy Petrillo to represent him in the ongoing criminal investigation of his business dealings in the Southern District of New York. Petrillo, a New York attorney who works with clients in criminal and civil matters prosecuted by the government, served as the chief of the criminal division in the S.D.N.Y. from 2008 to 2009. According to his Web site, Petrillo handles cases involving money laundering and fraud, along with congressional and special investigations. Neither he nor Cohen immediately responded to requests for comment.

News of Cohen’s legal shake-up has inevitably fanned speculation about whether he would flip. The conjecture appeared to weigh on Donald Trump, who distanced himself from his former personal attorney when asked by reporters outside the White House last week if he thought Cohen would cooperate with the government. “I always liked Michael,” he told reporters.

The use of the past tense was not lost on those close to Cohen. These people say that Trump has been foolishly careless with how he has publicly talked about Cohen, who they believe holds all the cards in the situation. “That one line had to be the dumbest thing [Trump’s] ever said,” one person familiar with his thinking told me. And that, indeed, would be quite an accomplishment.