But if there is one big hole in the strategy, it's precisely that: Trump's demonstrated loyalty.

Basically, Trump's legal team is preparing to argue that Flynn isn't a credible witness because he lied to investigators. Yet this particular lie was one that Trump himself was well aware of — by his team's own accounts — and didn't seem all that perturbed by. And it's actually only part of a large volume of red flags on Flynn that the White House and Trump himself seemed to dismiss, even after Flynn was fired.

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Here's a quick recap (with an assist from Philip Bump's great Flynn timeline):

After the first two, Trump sought leniency for Flynn from FBI Director James B. Comey during a Feb. 14 meeting, according to Comey's contemporaneous notes. (Trump recently denied this.) He would also go on in late March to try to get CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats to intervene with the FBI, according to what Pompeo and Coats told associates.

None of this paints the picture of a president who thinks Flynn lacks credibility or character; instead, Trump has repeatedly testified in the court of public opinion in support of Flynn's character — even doing so after learning about many of his alleged misdeeds. As recently as earlier this month when Flynn cut a deal with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigators, Trump played down the allegations against Flynn.

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We've seen before how Trump's past comments and tweets can come back to bite him during legal proceedings. Any effort to impugn Flynn's character should be undercut by Trump's repeated public defenses of that very same character.