Not Guilty: Greg Craig Acquitted of Deceiving DOJ About Ukraine Work
The verdict came on the first day of jury deliberations, and caps off a three-week trial.
September 04, 2019 at 03:23 PM
4 minute read
The original version of this story was published on National Law Journal
Greg Craig was acquitted Wednesday of a charge he deliberately deceived the Justice Department about his past work for Ukraine, bringing a dramatic end to a criminal case that spun out of the special counsel's Russia investigation and ensnared a venerated Washington lawyer who served as President Barack Obama's first White House counsel.
The verdict from a jury of nine men and three women came after nearly five hours of deliberations and capped off a three-week trial that gripped the legal community and K Street lobbying groups. The trial served as an early test of the Justice Department's stepped up enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a decades-old law requiring the disclosure of lobbying, public relations work and other influence efforts for overseas powers. Craig was not charged with failing to register under that law, commonly known as FARA.
As the verdict was read aloud, defense lawyer William Taylor of Zuckerman Spaeder reached over and clenched Craig's right shoulder. An emotional Craig left the courtroom and retreated into a side room.
Outside court, Craig thanked the jurors "for their service" and expressed gratitude for his defense lawyers who, he said, "made it all possible."
The trial centered on a legal project Craig led for the Russia-aligned government of Ukraine in 2012, when he was a prominent partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Craig was retained by the Ukrainian government to conduct a purportedly independent review of the widely criticized prosecution of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a political rival of the country's president at the time, Viktor Yanukovych.
Craig, 74, was accused of concealing the extent of his role in the public release of the Tymoshenko report when the Justice Department inquired about whether he needed to register as a foreign agent. Prosecutors argued that, by avoiding FARA's disclosure requirements, Craig was able to conceal the fact that Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk paid Skadden more than $4 million to prepare the Tymoshenko report.
In January, months after Craig retired under a cloud of legal scrutiny, Skadden agreed to pay $4.6 million as part of a settlement with the Justice Department to resolve claims the firm failed to register under FARA.
Craig's case stemmed from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller III's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, a probe that resulted in the conviction of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on charges tied to his past work for Ukraine. In 2012, while serving as a top adviser to Yanukovych, Manafort played a critical role in retaining Craig to review the Tymoshenko prosecution.
The special counsel's office referred Craig's case to career prosecutors in Manhattan, who declined to press charges. Responding to the verdict Wednesday, Taylor questioned why career prosecutors in Washington ultimately brought the prosecution.
"Why, after the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York rejected this prosecution, did this Department of Justice decide it had to hound this man and his family without any evidence and without any premise. It's a tragedy, it's a disgrace. I'm glad it's over," Taylor said.
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