Like former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s first national security adviser failed for months to register as a foreign agent, in his case for his work for Turkey. And like former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, whose Oct. 5 guilty plea was unsealed Monday, Flynn allegedly lied to FBI agents about his contact with Russians…

Mueller’s rare leveling of a criminal charge for a violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act against Manafort is a signal that it is in Flynn’s best interests to work with the special counsel.

“Flynn is arguably responsible for the exact same kinds of crimes as Manafort — that is, acting on behalf of a foreign power and not registering,” said Neal Katyal, a former acting US assistant solicitor general and a professor at Georgetown Law School. “One way of understanding the Manafort indictment is that Mueller is saying to Flynn, ‘I haven’t indicted you yet, but you know you’re as guilty as Manafort is, you better start cooperating’.”