They were not pathetic but evil. His initial law firm, Covington and Burling, is a Washington, DC Democrat fixture at which Eric Holder is a senior partner. The lawyers convinced Flynn to take the guilty plea. He should have dumped them then and there, but took their advice.
Why in the world would he pick a law firm with strong Democrat allegiances? Same reason as Jeff Sessions recusing himself: they trusted the advice of long-time Washington insider lawyers who are corrupt as hell. Why were they both so naive about this? Because they themselves are honest, upstanding citizens who can't imagine anyone being that evil.
From what I have read, Covington Burling had been Flynn’s law-firm for simple administrative procedures in the past - for example, maintaining filings on his consulting work. When Flynn was told by Mueller’s team, “oh, no big deal, but your filings are not up-to-date” he then instructed CB to go ahead and do that work. Then of course Mueller came back with, “oh, and by the way, we are looking into that Turkish fellow you worked with a couple years ago….” and off it went.
CB was his default law firm, and their inept lawyers simply lead Flynn along the path of poisoned bread crumbs Mueller’s corrupt team were laying out for them.
Again, I would like to know more, or where this is wrong. I hope Flynn tells his story in full.