Still, former Representative Mickey Edwards, Republican of Oklahoma, said Mr. Trump’s unconventional political appeal might yet minimize the consequences that other presidents might have endured.
“In any normal White House, and with any normal basis for presidential support, the Flynn story would be crippling,” he said. “This president’s support base is small but apparently unshakable, and with Republicans in Congress showing a frightening unwillingness to hold this president to account, I don’t expect this development to change the behavior of either Congress or the president.”
Mr. Flynn was the highest-ranking current or former White House official to be convicted of a crime since two national security advisers to President Ronald Reagan — John M. Poindexter and Robert McFarlane — were found guilty during the Iran-contra scandal. Mr. Poindexter’s conviction was later reversed on appeal and Mr. McFarlane was pardoned by the first President George H. W. Bush.
Almost everyone in Washington, it seemed, had expected an indictment of Mr. Flynn, and the possibility that he was cooperating with prosecutors was telegraphed last week with the news that his defense lawyers had cut off contact with Mr. Trump’s lawyers.
And yet the announcement on Friday still hit the White House like a thunderclap. The president’s legal team had no advance warning. His chief of staff, John F. Kelly, learned about it from television. He called Mr. Trump, who was still in the residence part of the White House, to let him know he would be hearing about a Flynn plea deal soon. The president’s reaction, according to one adviser, was that Mr. Flynn “is in a lot of trouble.”
Whether that fear turned into something more immediate about himself or his family, Mr. Trump did not vocalize it, the adviser said. His staff urged him to stay off Twitter, and for the most part, he complied. The president had a cordial, if at times awkward, lunch with Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, and then used Twitter to deny any plans to fire him. In the afternoon, Mr. Trump stopped by a White House Christmas party for reporters but stayed less than five minutes.
The president’s optimistic outlook last weekend was fueled by his White House lawyer, Ty Cobb, who has consistently assured him that the investigation by Mr. Mueller would most likely conclude by the end of the year. Mr. Cobb has successfully persuaded Mr. Trump for the most part to curb his combative instincts and work in the parameters of Mr. Mueller’s investigation, turning over requested documents and avoiding incendiary attacks on the prosecutor.
But Mr. Trump has been slipping free of Mr. Kelly’s restrictions for several weeks, speaking with old friends by telephone during his Mar-a-Lago trip and becoming incensed all over again about the Russia inquiry. Friends said he was particularly excitable in his phone calls in the days leading up to Mr. Flynn’s guilty plea, a mood that seemed reflected by a week of lashing out on Twitter at various targets other than the investigators.
Aides insist that Mr. Trump is not consumed with the Russia inquiry more than he has been at other times. Yet he has been leaning on Mr. Cobb, constantly summoning him to the residence and dialing another lawyer on his team, Jay Sekulow, for consultations, people briefed on the discussions said.
The White House made a point of playing down any appearance of concern on Friday. A statement issued by Mr. Cobb diminished Mr. Flynn’s importance by noting that he served as national security adviser for only 25 days before being fired for misleading Vice President Mike Pence and others about the details of his conversation with a Russian ambassador.
The statement also sought to distance the president from his former aide by calling Mr. Flynn a “former Obama administration official,” which was not exactly the full story. During President Barack Obama’s administration, Mr. Flynn was an active-duty lieutenant general who was promoted to direct the Defense Intelligence Agency, but he was not a political associate of the president, and Mr. Obama fired him.
Mr. Flynn became one of Mr. Trump’s most visible and vocal supporters during the presidential campaign last year, giving a memorable stem-winding speech at the Republican National Committee in which he assailed the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, and led the crowd in chants of “Lock her up.” The irony of that phrase was lost on no one on Friday.
Mr. Trump reportedly tried to protect Mr. Flynn from this day. James B. Comey testified before Congress in June that when he was F.B.I. director, Mr. Trump asked him to “see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.” Mr. Trump, who fired Mr. Comey, later disputed that account.
Mr. Comey’s firing led to the appointment of Mr. Mueller. Not only was the investigation into Mr. Flynn not let go, it now poses an unknown potential threat to Mr. Trump’s White House.
Mr. Comey offered his own take on the turn of events on Friday with an Instagram post quoting Amos 5:24, “But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
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