The transformation of Michael Cohen from prosecutorial target to potential cooperative witness has been as unsurprising as it has been sudden. Months ago, Cohen described himself as the president’s lawyer—a man who would “take a bullet” for Donald Trump. Last weekend, as prosecutors with the Southern District of New York drew closer to bringing a case against him, Cohen sat down with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos to make crystal clear that his “first loyalty” was only to his family and country, in that order. As one person close to Cohen told my colleague Emily Jane Fox, “He was trying to get ahead of things and started feeling like he may not be thought of as the villain anymore.” The sit-down with Stephanopoulos, this person said, “was about getting his voice heard before it’s too late.”

Cohen’s repositioning continued on Thursday, when The New York Times broke the news that Cohen has hired an additional lawyer to assist his defense and manage his rehabilitation: top Washington lawyer Lanny Davis. “Like most of America, I have been following the matter regarding Michael Cohen with great interest. As an attorney, I have talked to Michael many times in the last two weeks. Then I read his words published on July 2, and I recognized his sincerity,” Davis said in a statement, referring to the Stephanopoulos interview. “Michael Cohen deserves to tell his side of the story—subject, of course, to the advice of counsel.”

Getting his clients to tell their side of the story is Davis’s modus operandi. During Bill Clinton’s presidency, Davis—a critical member of the White House “war room” established to handle the Ken Starr investigation—implemented a mantra that has since become his calling card: “Tell it early, tell it all, tell it yourself.” To Davis, transparency is one of the greatest weapons when fighting a legal battle in the public arena. During one of several conversations I have had with him over the past year and a half, Davis explained that the best strategy is to pre-empt bad news by getting the truth out first, acknowledging wrongdoing and fixing the problem. “It is the only way out, it is the only way to save your reputation if you have done something wrong,” he told me.

Davis is the second attorney Cohen has recently hired to represent him. Last month, Cohen also tapped Guy Petrillo, a New York attorney who served as the chief of the criminal division in the S.D.N.Y. from 2008 to 2009. The shakeup of Cohen’s legal team comes at a critical juncture in the ongoing criminal investigation of his business dealings by federal prosecutors. Cohen’s former counsel, Stephen Ryan, is preparing to depart in the coming days as the deadline approaches for the defense—which includes attorneys for Trump—to complete its review of documents seized by the government. Once a conclusion is reached as to which of the millions of seized documents are protected by attorney-client privilege, the Cohen investigation could escalate quickly.

With the prospect of a potential indictment looming, Cohen’s shifting legal strategy has inflamed speculation that he might flip. “He knows that with the government in possession of over 1 million documents, he is going to be facing a tight case against him—it’s hard to deny doing and knowing things that are written in black and white. I am guessing that he also wants to distance himself from the bigger train wreck coming toward the White House,” Asha Rangappa, a lawyer and former F.B.I special agent, told me. “He needs attorneys who can both get him the best deal possible and also help him create a favorable narrative around his story and his role in the Trump world. Davis and Petrillo are experienced lawyers who can do both—Davis specializes in ‘legal crisis management’ and P.R., and Petrillo is a former prosecutor.”