Was Michael Flynn asked to wear a wire in Mueller’s hunt for evidence against Russia?

The sentence that has attracted the least attention in Michael Flynn’s plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller may be the most important one.

Section eight of the deal reached by Donald Trump’s former national security adviser in the inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the US election is entitled “cooperation”. It specifies that as well as answering questions and submitting to lie detector tests, Flynn’s cooperation “may include … covert law enforcement activities”.

Long-time students of federal law enforcement practices agreed, speaking anonymously, that “covert law enforcement activities” probably refers to the possibility of wearing a concealed microphone or recording telephone conversations with other potential suspects. It is not known whether Flynn has worn a wire at any time.

“If the other subjects of investigation have had any conversations with Flynn during the last few months, that phrase must have all of them shaking in their boots,” said John Flannery, a former federal prosecutor in New York. “The one who must be particularly terrified is [Trump’s son-in-law and adviser] Jared Kushner, if he spoke to the special counsel’s office without immunity about the very matter that is the subject of Flynn’s plea. I think he must be paralysed if he talked to Flynn before or after the investigators debriefed him.”

Flynn has admitted that he wilfully and knowingly made materially “false, fictitious and fraudulent ” statements to the FBI on January 24, 2017 – four days after Donald Trump became president.

Former FBI director James Comey has testified before Congress that before Trump fired him, the president asked him to end the investigation of Flynn.