Greg Craig, former Obama White House counsel, pleads not guilty to making false statements
Former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements and concealing material information about his efforts on behalf of Ukraine from the Justice Department.
Craig, who appeared Friday before Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson in the District Court in the District of Columbia, was released on his own personal recognizance. There will be a hearing before Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Monday, April 15, at 10 a.m. ET.
As part of his release Craig has to report to pre-trial services by phone once a week. He also cannot travel outside the DC metropolitan area without court approval, something his lawyers say they will bring up at Monday's hearing, along with order to surrender his passport. Craig apparently has international travel planned in the fall. He was ordered to bring his passport to Monday hearing, where they will address the issue before Judge Jackson.
Craig, 74, wore a gray suit, a blue shirt and a striped tie. He was surrounded at the defense table with his team of four lawyers.
On Thursday, the D.C. U.S. attorney's office unveiled the indictment, charging Craig with two counts of false statements about his law firm's work on behalf of Ukraine. The case is part of a foreign lobbying investigation spun off from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
Craig maintains that he never concealed information or misled the Justice Department, and he is confident he'll beat the charges.
The investigation into Craig comes as the Justice Department is cracking down on unregistered foreign lobbying and consulting. Federal prosecutors in New York have been investigating two prominent Washington lobbying firms in a similar probe, and Justice Department officials in Washington have been increasingly willing to prosecute people who they believe intentionally conceal their lobbying work from the federal government.
The scrutiny of Craig stems from an investigation of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his work on behalf of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.
About three months ago, Craig's former law firm agreed to pay more than $4.6 million and publicly acknowledge that it failed to register with the government for its work for the Ukraine. The civil settlement with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP laid much of the blame for the firm's conduct on Craig, who was a senior partner.
Craig is a prominent Washington attorney and was the first White House counsel to former President Barack Obama. In private practice, his clients have included former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and James Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was charged in a leaks investigation.
The work that drew the Justice Department's attention occurred in 2012 when Craig and Skadden were hired by the Ukrainian government to compile a report on the prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko, a former Ukrainian prime minister. Tymoshenko was a political opponent of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was a longtime Manafort patron.
The report was billed as independent, and while critical in some ways of Tymoshenko's trial, critics have said it whitewashed a politically motivated prosecution.
In its settlement earlier this year, Skadden acknowledged it participated in a public relations campaign for the report and should have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, because of it. The firm also acknowledged it had been paid $4.6 million for the report and not just $12,000, as the Ukrainian government had said at the time.
The settlement painted an unflattering picture of Craig's conduct.
In 2012 and 2013, the firm's work attracted the attention of the Justice Department, which sought to determine whether the firm should register under FARA. But according to the settlement, a senior partner matching Craig's description made several "false and misleading" statements to the government, allowing the firm to avoid registration.
Craig's lawyers have denied that he lied to the government or his firm. They acknowledged that Craig spoke to reporters about the report but denied it was part of a public relations campaign that would run afoul of FARA. They said he spoke to reporters at The New York Times about the report to "make certain that the Times would accurately summarize the report's criticisms of the Tymoshenko trial and not rely on misinformation from Ukraine and its representatives."
FARA is a decades-old law meant to allow Americans to know when foreign entities are trying to influence public opinion or policymakers. The law, enacted in 1938 to unmask Nazi propaganda in the United States, requires people to disclose to the Justice Department when they advocate, lobby or perform public relations work in the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government or political entity.
Clare Hymes contributed to this report.