Last night, Mr Mueller published portions of the FBI’s interviews with Mr Flynn at the request of the judge hearing the case after the Trump camp alleged the bureau had sought to entrap him.

Mr Flynn’s lawyers suggested that investigators discouraged him from having an attorney present during the interview at the start of last year and never informed him it was a crime to lie.

Prosecutors shot back, “He does not need to be warned it is a crime to lie to federal agents to know the importance of telling them the truth. The defendant undoubtedly was aware, in light of his ‘many years’ working with the FBI, that lying to the FBI carries serious consequences.”

The defendant’s lawyers also insinuated that Mr Flynn deserves credit for not publicly seizing on the fact that FBI officials involved in the investigation later came under scrutiny themselves. Former deputy director Andrew McCabe, who contacted him to arrange the interview, was fired this year for what the Justice Department said was a lack of candor over a news media leak.

Peter Strzok, one of the two agents who interviewed Michael Flynn, was removed from Robert Mueller’s team and later fired for trading anti-Trump texts with another FBI official.