Michael Cohen began his turn as the star witness in Donald Trump’s hush money trial by refraining from his usual attack dog behavior. So many of those who’d testified earlier characterized Cohen as such a pestering, angry jerk when he worked for Trump that one would be forgiven for thinking that Cohen, the disbarred attorney turned Trump antagonist, might have entered the courtroom snarling. Instead, he made his debut in the witness chair dressed in a dark suit and a pink tie, his familiar hangdog expression giving courtroom artists fodder to transform him into a gaunt shadowy character — a white-haired apparition with perpetually clenched brows. The long time New Yorker peppered his speech with “ma’am,” admitted that “I violated my moral compass,” to remain loyal to Trump and ultimately made his history of professional neediness powerfully plain.