A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Greg Craig, a prominent Democratic attorney who worked for two presidents, charging him with making false statements and concealing material information in connection with work he performed for Ukraine in a case stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Craig himself released a video statement later Thursday, calling the prosecution “unprecedented and unjustified.”
Craig was originally investigated for an alleged FARA violation, though he was charged with other crimes after the statute of limitations on FARA expired in his case.
After DOJ’s FARA unit inquired with the firm about whether it should register as a result of its work, Craig allegedly withheld information about his contacts with reporters from attorneys at his firm and “omitted material facts regarding his acts in furtherance of Ukraine’s media plan” from DOJ’s FARA unit, according to the indictment.
According to the indictment, from the start of the work on the report, Craig didn’t want to register as an agent for Ukraine “at least in part because he believed doing so could prevent him or others at [Ska dden] from taking positions in the federal government in the future.”
Craig’s indictment had been expected for several weeks, with Craig’s own lawyers saying Wednesday they anticipated such an outcome. It appeared likely even earlier this year, after the Justice Department’s national security division settled with Skadden in January over FARA violations in an agreement that foreshadowed a possible charges against Craig.
Former UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele arrives at the High Court in London on July 24, 2020, to attend his defamation trial brought by Russian tech entrepreneur Alexej Gubarev.
A federal jury on Wednesday found the prominent Washington lawyer Greg Craig, who worked for two Democratic presidents, not guilty of making false statements to the Justice Department about work he did for the Ukrainian government.
After hearing some two weeks of testimony, including from Craig himself, the jury found him not guilty of engaging in a scheme to conceal information from the Justice Department's FARA unit about work he did for Ukraine's government back in 2012.
It was viewed as part of the Justice Department's new focus on enforcing FARA.
Jurors acquitted Craig after only about five hours of deliberations following a 2 1/2-week trial. "I want to thank the jury for doing justice," Craig said in a statement afterward. "I'm very fortunate to have the support of a loving family and many loyal friends who were steadfast during this ordeal.
He was not, he said, acting under the control of Ukraine and was never an agent of Ukraine. One of Craig's attorneys, William Taylor, said "there was never a crime and never evidence ...
The case against Craig, a top Democratic attorney who worked for President Bill Clinton and later served as President Barack Obama's White House counsel, spun out of former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
Jury Finds Ex-White House Counsel Greg Craig Not Guilty Of Lying Greg Craig, a long-serving Democrat who epitomized the Washington insider power lawyer, was acquitted in one of the cases to spin out of the Russia investigation.
On September 4, after five hours of deliberation, a federal jury in D.C. acquitted Gregory Craig of crimes related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
FARA requires agents of foreign governments to register with the Department of Justice. It has been on the books since 1938; it is maddeningly vague and, until recently, selectively enforced.
Gregory Bestor Craig (born March 4, 1945) is an American lawyer and former White House Counsel, under President Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2010. A former attorney at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly, Craig has represented numerous high-profile clients. Prior to becoming White House Counsel, he served as assistant to the President and special counsel in the Whi…
Craig was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on March 4, 1945. Craig's father, William Gregory Craig (1914–2005), was a Navy officer who served in World War II and after the war served as chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges system (1973–1976), chancellor of the California Community College system (1977–1980), and president of the Monterey Institute (1980–1988). The elder Craig unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor of Vermont. The younger considers
Craig worked mostly at Williams & Connolly from 1972 to 2009, with his tenure there interrupted by periods working as a public defender, on the staff of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, at the State Department, and at the Clinton White House.
Three years after Craig began at Williams & Connolly, he left to follow his wife to Connecticut, where she obtained a master's degree in fine arts. While in Connecticut, Craig worked as a publi…
Craig met Barack and Michelle Obama for the first time in 2003, at the home of Vernon Jordan, a close friend of the Clintons, and the then-Illinois state senator impressed Craig. Despite close ties to the Clintons, Craig urged Obama to run for president, and became an informal foreign-policy adviser to him. In March 2007, Craig publicly declared his support for Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary; because of his close ties to the Clintons, this attracted widespr…
In its November 2008 issue, shortly before the 2008 presidential election, the ABA Journal speculated that Craig might be named Secretary of State in an Obama administration. Craig also reportedly hoped for that position or another foreign-policy post in the Obama administration, which did not materialize. Obama ultimately appointed Craig to serve as his first White House Counsel. C…
Craig stated that he had planned to return to Williams & Connolly from the White House until he got a call from an old friend, Clifford Sloan, and a new friend, Joseph H. Flom, who asked him to join their law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, to establish a crisis-management team and a new practice group focusing on global issues and litigation strategies. On January 27, 2010, Skadden announced that Craig had joined the firm's Washington, D.C. office as a Global Policy a…
In April 2018, Craig resigned from Skadden following the indictment of Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer at the firm's London office. Craig was the lead attorney supervising the firm's work for former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, in which van der Zwaan participated. Van der Zwaan was later charged by the Mueller investigation and pleaded guilty to making false statements. Later in 2018, NBC and CNN reported that following a referral from Mueller's office…
Craig is married to Derry Noyes. The two were married on July 27, 1974, in New Canaan, Connecticut. Derry is the daughter of Eliot Noyes, the noted industrial designer known for his work on the IBM Selectric typewriter. Derry Craig is a graphic designer.
Craig lives in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, in a home purchased for $2 million in 1990.