My guess to why Cipollone came clean, assuming he did.

[meadowlander]

56. He's uber Catholic as well.

I can't speak to how genuine his beliefs are but he's up to his neck in memberships in religious organisations who probably aren't thrilled to see one of their representatives dragged out into public with Trump's dirty laundry.

He's only 56 and has ten kids as well. I don't know his financial situation but presumably he's not ready to pack up his professional career and retire because no one reputable will ever hire him again.

Between the two of those, I imagine there's a pretty strong motivation to cooperate as much as he can with the investigation.

Maybe I'm naive but I would think someone who's life work has been the law would understand that once you're in the cross-hairs the worst thing you can do is be caught lying or withholding. And given how useless and inept Trump and co were at everything, the odds that you are going to be able to conceal anything by lying or withholding are basically nil. So why throw yourself under the bus for some idiot who dug his own grave while abusing you and trying to drag you down with him.

There's a point where naked self-interest kicks in as well as integrity. So whether he's an actual good guy or an actual bad guy is less important than what a rational guy who knows how the law works would do.