John Dowd, an attorney who represented President Donald Trump for the first part of the Robert Mueller’s investigation, left a bumbling voicemail asking an attorney representing Michael Flynn for a “heads-up” on where the special counsel probe was headed shortly before the former national security adviser took a plea deal.

Flynn pleaded guilty in late 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians in an interview with agents at the White House on Jan. 24, 2017, just days after Trump took office. Flynn resigned as Trump’s national security adviser in mid-February 2017.

Much of Dowd’s voicemail was previously revealed in the redacted version of Mueller’s special counsel report. Dowd left the message on Nov. 22, 2017. Flynn took his plea deal on Dec. 1, 2017, and is currently awaiting sentencing.

In the voicemail, Dowd said he was “sympathetic” to the situation and understood that Flynn might be exploring a deal with the government before asking Flynn’s attorney, Rob Kelner, to provide information on where the Mueller investigation was headed.

“If, on the other hand, we have, there’s information that... implicates the President, then we’ve got a national security issue or maybe a national security issue, I don’t know... some issue, we’ve got to-we got to deal with, not only for the President, but for the country,” Dowd said. “So... uh... you know, then-then, you know, we need some kind of heads up.”

Dowd also seemed to hint at the possibility of a pardon from Trump. “Remember what we’ve always said about the president and his feelings towards Flynn and that still remains,” Dowd said.

Dowd, reached on Friday, called the issue “nonsense.”

In his statement, Dowd called the Mueller report a “baseless, political document designed to smear and damage the reputation of counsel and innocent people.”