Greg Craig took the stand in his own defense Wednesday as his criminal trial neared its end in Washington federal court, where the venerated lawyer and former Obama White House counsel denied he deliberately deceived the Justice Department about his past work for Ukraine.

Craig's high-stakes testimony marked the climax of a criminal trial that has gripped the legal community and cast a pall on his onetime law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. The trial has dredged up behind-the-scenes details of a project Skadden took on for Ukraine in 2012 that has come to bedevil Craig and his former law firm.

In more than five hours of testimony, Craig revisited a report he prepared for Ukraine on the widely criticized prosecution of the country's former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko.  Prosecutors have alleged that Craig misled the Justice Department about his role in the public release of the Tymoshenko report to avoid registering as an agent of Ukraine under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, an 80-year-old law requiring the disclosure of lobbying and public relations efforts for overseas governments.

Within minutes of taking the stand Wednesday, Craig denied he lied to the Justice Department unit tasked with enforcing FARA.

"I did not lie to Ms. Hunt or the FARA unit," Craig testified, referring to Heather Hunt, the former chief of the unit who testified against him earlier in the week.

Craig was then asked by his lead defense lawyer, Zuckerman Spaeder partner William Murphy, whether he intentionally hid information from the Justice Department about his work for Ukraine.

"I did not withhold or conceal any information from the FARA unit," Craig said.

Craig has only been charged with misleading the Justice Department, not with failing to register as a foreign agent. But his prosecution has been viewed as an early test of the Justice Department's stepped up enforcement of FARA. In January, Skadden agreed to pay $4.6 million to resolve the Justice Department's allegations the firm failed to register as a foreign agent in connection with its Ukraine work.

Prosecutors alleged that Craig misled the Justice Department to avoid the perceived stigma of registering as a foreign agent and to preserve his Skadden colleagues' ability to take government positions. In avoiding a FARA registration, prosecutors said, Craig was also able to conceal the identity of the Ukrainian oligarch who secretly paid more than $4 million for the project: Viktor Pinchuk.

Craig acknowledged on Wednesday that a FARA registration would have created issues for any lawyers on the Skadden team who were interested in taking government posts. He noted that former Skadden partner Cliff Sloan and a Allon Kedem, a former associate, left the firm for government jobs after helping prepare the Tymoshenko report.

"Had they had to register as a foreign agent, that would have been a problem for them," Craig said.

Prosecutors have seized on Craig's contacts with reporters around the release of the Tymoshenko report to portray him as a key participant in Ukraine's public relations strategy. On Wednesday, Craig said his interactions with reporters went against the interests of Ukraine and were intended to correct mischaracterizations of the Tymoshenko report, which he described as independent and critical of the prosecution. 

"I thought it was highly likely they were just going to kill the report," Craig testified.

Craig grew animated recalling his reaction to the messaging strategy a British public relations consultant, Jonathan Hawker, had prepared in the buildup to the report's release. Many of the plan's talking points were "flat wrong," Craig said, and caused him to distrust Hawker.

"That gave me grave concern about his integrity, his honesty and his reliability. I didn't trust him," Craig said.

The case against Craig stems from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller III's investigation of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is serving more than seven years in prison on charges related to his past work for Ukraine. In 2012, while serving as a top adviser to then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Manafort helped arrange for Craig to take up the review of Tymoshenko's prosecution.

In the cross-examination, prosecutor Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez called attention to Manafort's role in the project and the special counsel office's interview of Craig. In another exchange, Campoamor-Sanchez asked whether money was the "main reason" Craig agreed to work for Ukraine in 2012. The prosecutor pointed to an email Sloan sent Craig in 2012, ahead of a meeting in Kiev with Pinchuk, urging him not to be "bashful" about requesting a large sum.

"That was one of the reasons, I'm not sure it was the main reason," Craig replied.

"But wasn't it the primary reason?" the prosecutor asked. 

"It was one of the reasons," Craig said. 

Craig's cross-examination is set to continue Thursday.

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