(CNN) At nearly every turn of the probe into Russian interference into the 2016 election, President Donald Trump was working to make sure Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, knew that the White House was on his side -- and that the President himself thought Flynn was a good guy.

Now we seem to know why.

Trump was worried -- and it turns out, rightly -- that Flynn knew things that would be problematic for the President as it related to Russia. And that if Flynn cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe -- as he eventually did -- it would have negative consequences for the administration. Court records released Thursday night revealed previously unknown details of Flynn's cooperation. Here's the key bit from the story

"The Flynn court records revealed Thursday show that the fired first national security adviser helped Mueller's investigation on at least three prongs: as the special counsel looked into interaction between the Trump transition team and Russia, WikiLeaks' release of emails during the presidential campaign and the President's efforts to interfere with the investigation. Flynn also assisted the Eastern District of Virginia and prosecutors from the Justice Department's National Security Division with a now-open case against his former lobbying partner, who allegedly worked illegally for Turkey."

Among the things Flynn and his lawyers provided the special counsel was a voicemail from a Trump associate to a Flynn lawyer asking for "some kind of heads up" if Flynn was planning to cooperate with the government and what he might be telling them. That call came the same day that Flynn's lawyers broke off their cooperation agreement with White House lawyers and just days before he took a plea deal from Mueller.

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