In April 2012, Greg Craig was in the capital of Ukraine, fuming over money and threatening to leave the country before his work for its government had even begun.

Craig, then a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, had traveled to Kiev after being approached about preparing an independent report on the Ukrainian government's case against Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister whose prosecution was widely criticized as politically motivated. On the trip he met with Victor Pinchuk, the Ukrainian oligarch bankrolling the project, who discussed making a $1.5 million transfer.

Craig expected more, and that April, he complained in an email to the man who'd helped arrange his involvement in the Ukraine project: Paul Manafort.

"This is not right and it is a serious problem for me. All was clear between us. I understood it would be 2 by the end of the week and another 2 by the end of the month. I told NYC that was the deal," Craig wrote in the email, referring to a pair of $2 million transfers he anticipated.

"I really don't want to deal with this other kind of bullshit. I will be very clear: We are gone unless your side lives up to its commitments. If it is not 2, we will leave tomorrow, go home and say we are lucky to be out of it," he added.

Seven years later, Craig's email read as prescient as he stands accused of misleading the Justice Department about his Ukraine work. Craig remained on the project after receiving assurances from Manafort that the "promised package" was en route.

"You rock," Craig responded to Manafort, a political consultant who would later serve as chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Manafort is now serving more than seven years in prison on financial fraud and other charges related to his past work for Ukraine.

The email exchange was displayed in a Washington federal courtroom Wednesday as prosecutors called four of Craig's former Skadden colleagues—including his longtime secretary, Catherine Whitney—to the stand, drawing out details about the firm's Ukraine work and the money that fueled it. The former colleagues are all among Skadden's so-called "nonlawyer" ranks, their roles ranging from a chief financial officer to marketing and communications manager.

A pair of former Skadden associates and Michael Loucks, a partner in the firm's Boston office, testified earlier in the trial. The firm's general counsel, Lawrence Spiegel, and Cliff Sloan, a former partner who left for Georgetown Law Center earlier this year, are among the current or former Skadden lawyers expected to take the stand soon.

Craig, who served as President Barack Obama's first White House counsel, left Skadden amid scrutiny last year, months before the firm agreed to pay a $4.6 million civil penalty to resolve allegations that it failed to register as a foreign agent of Ukraine. As part of the settlement, Skadden retroactively reported its Ukraine work under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, an 80-year-old law requiring the disclosure of foreign influence in the U.S.

Prosecutors have alleged Craig misled the Justice Department about his involvement in the public release of the Tymoshenko report, namely his contacts with reporters, to avoid the perceived stigma of registering as a foreign agent. Also, by skirting the disclosure law, prosecutors contend Craig was able to conceal Pinchuk's financier role.

Craig has argued he was entirely truthful with the Justice Department and dismissed claims that he was acting as an agent of Ukraine. Craig's defense lawyers at Zuckerman Spaeder have said he was protecting his own reputation when he spoke with reporters and counteracting Ukraine's attempts to spin the Tymoshenko report.

On Wednesday, prosecutors called attention to a contract between the Ukrainian government and Skadden stating that the firm would be paid $12,000 for the review of Tymoshenko's case, an eyebrow-raising sum that was met with skepticism and an editorial in the Kyiv Post titled titled "Skadden Stink."

Amid scrutiny of the project's cost, Craig and Manafort agreed to create a backdated invoice from Skadden to the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice for $1.25 million, lending the appearance that the government was funding the Tymoshenko report.

Prosecutors called Skadden's chief financial officer, Noah Puntus, to review documents showing that the firm was paid $4 million between April and July 2012. Puntus testified that the funds amounted to a retainer and were deposited into an escrow account, which Skadden drew from as it reviewed the Tymoshenko case.

When he was shown the backdated letter, which purported to seek $1.25 million from the Ukrainian government, Puntus said it did not resemble a standard Skadden invoice. Puntus testified that, when Craig wrote the letter, the Ukrainian government did not have an outstanding balance.

In June 2017, Puntus said, Skadden returned more than $500,000 to the Ukrainian government.

"So do you know why Mr. Craig asked for over $1 million in August of 2012 for outstanding balance due?" prosecutor Jason McCullough asked.

"I do not," Puntus responded.

William Taylor William Taylor III, of Zuckerman Spaeder. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Craig's email exchange with Manafort came from perhaps an unlikely source at Skadden: Peter Lesser, the firm's director of global technology. Before Lesser took the stand, William Taylor, a Zuckerman Spaeder partner leading Craig's defense, objected to prosecutors using an IT specialist as a vehicle for emails read to the jury. Taylor argued Lesser was merely a custodian of the records who otherwise had no connection to the case.

"I do think that having a witness who has no connection to the case get on the stand and simply read through a series of chronological emails as if he's telling a story puts us in the realm of a summary witness," Taylor said. "You can't put on a witness who has no participation in the facts and the events of the case and say, 'Oh yeah, I've seen these emails. And here's what they are, now let me read them to you.' There has to be a connection made, your honor, between the issues in the case and the testimony of the witness."

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia overruled him. Early in Lesser's testimony, Zuckerman Spaeder associate Adam Abelson stood up to echo Taylor's objection.

"Alright, your objection is already on the record. Thank you," Jackson said, overruling Craig's defense team again.

Abelson asked Lesser only a few questions on cross-examination. The first: Did he have personal knowledge of the Ukraine work at issue in the Skadden emails?

"None whatsoever," Lesser said.

Whitney, Craig's former secretary, showed emails in which Craig discussed dropping off the Tymoshenko report at the home of New York Times reporter David Sanger. Whitney's testimony also touched on Skadden's initial response to questions from the Justice Department about whether the firm needed to register under FARA in connection with its Ukraine work. In those emails, Sloan suggested looping in Spiegel to Skadden's response.

William Murphy, a Zuckerman Spaeder partner on Craig's defense team, used his cross-examination to underscore Craig's record of public service. Murphy asked whether Whitney, before joining Craig at Skadden, had worked with him in the Obama White House.

"Yes," she said.

Murphy closed by asking whether Craig was a "good boss to work for."

"He was," Whitney replied.