MICHAEL FLYNN/NATIONAL SECURITY/ROBERT MUELLER/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Prosecutors released audio on Thursday [6-6-19] of a voice mail message that President Trump’s personal lawyer left for a lawyer for Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, shortly after Mr. Flynn agreed in 2017 to cooperate with the special counsel’s investigation. The message and its tone offer new insight into how Mr. Trump’s lawyer at the time, John Dowd, broached the prospect of a pardon for Mr. Flynn. The call occurred in November 2017, shortly after Mr. Flynn’s lawyers withdrew from a joint defense agreement with the president’s lawyers. A transcript of Mr. Dowd’s call with Robert K. Kelner, Mr. Flynn’s lawyer, was included in the Mueller report, released in April. But the audio had remained secret until Thursday, when prosecutors turned it over in response to an order from a federal judge who is weighing how to sentence Mr. Flynn. Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to making false statements to F.B.I. agents about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States.”
–Michael S. Schmidt, “Listen to Trump’s Lawyer Make Appeal After Flynn Agreed to Cooperate With Mueller,” The New York Times online, June 6, 2019