CNN: Prosecutors Close To Charging Obama White House Counsel Greg Craig

on October 17, 2016 in Washington, DC.
Retired Gen. James Cartwright, (R), arrives for a hearing with his attorney Greg Craig (L), at U.S. District Court, October 17, 2016 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
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Prosecutors in Washington D.C. are close to charging Greg Craig, the Obama White House Counsel whose work for Ukraine ensnared him in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, CNN reported Thursday.

Craig’s case has taken a complicated path, according to CNN, from an initial referral by the D.C.-based Mueller investigation to the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, back to D.C., where it is being handled by the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office and the national security division of the Justice Department.

Prosecutors are now considering charging Craig with false statements, CNN reported, and are pushing Craig to take a plea deal, a proposal Craig so far has declined.

The alleged false statements reportedly have to do with claims Craig made to the Justice Department about his communications with journalists about a report his firm compiled as part of its Ukraine work. The project to write the report was passed to Craig’s firm by Paul Manafort. Prosecutors were initially investigating whether Craig violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act by failing to register as a lobbyist for Ukraine, a charge initially faced by Manafort as well.

Craig, according to CNN, has denied that the communications amounted to outreach on behalf of Ukraine, and instead has claimed he was working against Ukraine’s interests by urging reporters to characterize the report in question as one unfavorable to the country.

The report — assembled by Craig’s firm at the time, Skadden Arps — was an examination of the prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko, a political rival of the pro-Russian party then in charge of the country. It was pitched as an independent review of Tymoshenko’s case, but in fact was done on behalf of Ukrainian Ministry of Justice — a collaboration fostered by Manafort as part of his consulting work for the pro-Russia party, the Party of Regions.

Manafort pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S., among other crimes, as part of Mueller’s investigation and stands to serve more than seven years in prison. Skadden reached a non-prosecution deal with the government and must pay $4.6 million in fines, but the deal appeared to leave Craig out of its terms. Two U.S. consulting firms are also wrapped in an investigation in New York linked to the lobbying work of Manafort.

Prosecutors, when Craig’s case was still in New York, weighed charging Craig with a violation of FARA, and even got Craig’s lawyers to agree to an extension of the statue of limitations in the law, according to the CNN report.

While the case was still in New York, Craig’s legal team made several presentations in front of the U.S. Attorney, per CNN. They argued that prosecutors were driven by the political climate around Justice Department investigations into conservatives that made it appealing to prosecute a prominent Democrat, according to CNN.

The prosecutors in New York ultimately concluded that they did not have enough evidence, according to CNN, and sent the case D.C. There, the prosecutors are looking at bringing the false statement charges, as the extension on the FARA statute of limitations has expired, according to the report.

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Notable Replies

  1. Let the retribution begin! Revenge I say! Now that the Meuller probe is over and it’s declared that I’m innocent, it’s time to file charges against anyone who has ever opposed me! (finish with evil laugh.)

    -The Donald

  2. Was he Obama’s White House Counsel when the alleged crime happened? Otherwise this headline is misleading and will feed into a Trump/Republican theme of Obama admin needs to be investigated too.

  3. I’m of two minds here. Craig worked for Obama, so that’s enough for Trump and his cronies to go after him. On the other hand, he’s part of the lobbying industry, and it sounds like he may well have stepped over the line.

  4. No, his stint as White House Counsel for Obama lasted for 1 year according to Wikipedia, from Jan 20, 2009 - Jan 3, 2010 and that ended 2 years before this incident.

    From the linked CNN article:

    Craig initially came into the crosshairs of federal prosecutors in mid-2017, during the investigation by Mueller. Craig and his then-firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, had performed work beginning in 2012 for Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice.

  5. It seems like it might have happened after Obama finished. Wasn’t really clear just than the initial mention of him working for Obama.

    Googling a bit found this that looks like he worked for Obama before all this, and it may be nothing other than not registering to work for foreign folks and lying about it. Something Mueller was doing before looking into Donald also.

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