One thing we’ve learned from the on-going Manafort investigation is that President Trump remained in at least semi-regular phone contact with Manafort for some time after he became President. There’s nothing necessarily wrong or illegal about that. But it’s certainly not politically wise. It’s also hard for me to believe any lawyer would have thought it was a good idea, given the scope of the various Russia investigations.
But here’s a point I wanted to return to.
In the weeks and months after Trump fired Mike Flynn he continued at various points to defend him publicly, even in some cases speaking in a way that made it hard to remember that Trump himself had fired Flynn. Those reports also noted that Trump wanted to talk to Flynn and had to be advised against doing so. His staffers apparently worried that he was in contact with Flynn regardless.
That was probably a pretty legitimate worry. Trump doesn’t seem to listen to any advice, not least from his lawyers. After all, how did he end up firing James Comey, a decision which anyone could have seen in advance would have potentially dire legal and political consequences.
Given that Trump remained in contact with Paul Manafort not only after being dismissed from the campaign but after he became President, it strikes me as quite unlikely that he didn’t remain in contact with Flynn as well.
