Former Member Of The Krokodiloes Has Been Indicted For His Work For Paul Manafort's Ukraine Schemes

All the headlines about Greg Craig's indictment include a reference to him having been a former Obama White House staffer-- like this one from the Wall Street Journal: Former Obama White House Counsel Expects to Be Indicted It could have easily read "Former Phillips Exeter Academy student expects to be indicted," "Former member of Harvard's Krokodiloes expects to be indicted," "Former Hillary Clinton landlord expects to be indicted," "Former John Hinckley defense attorney expects to be indicted" or "Former Goldman Sachs lobbyist expects to be indicted." Except, perhaps, for the last one, none them have anything to do with the indictment-- the same way his past role with the Obama administration, over a decade ago, doesn't. Almost exactly one year ago he resigned from shady mega-law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, following the indictment of Alex van der Zwaan, one of their lawyers, who it so happens, Greg Craig was supervising as he did everything involved with Skadden's work for former Ukrainian president Yanukovich. Yesterday Craig was charged with making false statements to the FBI in their investigation into Manafort's work for the Ukrainian autocrat. A day earlier, Byron Tau and Aruna Viswanatha reported for The Journal that "Craig has refused to accept a plea deal" and that an indictment would "send shock waves through the U.S. legal community... The 74-year-old Mr. Craig is a legal heavyweight who served in senior legal roles for two Democratic presidents. He has also been a top State 
Department adviser and Capitol Hill aide.

This tweet was inevitable; I wonder why it took so long though

The matters surrounding Mr. Craig have taken a winding path. It was first developed by special counsel Robert Mueller before being transferred to federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, known as SDNY, and then was transferred again to Washington. The national security division of the Justice Department-- which has ramped up its enforcement of foreign lobbying laws-- is heavily involved, the people say.

The possible charges stem from the Ukrainian government’s hiring of Mr. Craig and his then-law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in 2012 to evaluate the corruption trial of the former Ukrainian prime minister. Mr. Craig spoke to several reporters about the findings of the firm’s report, touching off a dispute with the Justice Department about whether that qualified as lobbying for a foreign government in the U.S.

Skadden Arps entered into a $4.6 million civil settlement with the Justice Department in January, acknowledging it misled the Justice Department about its Ukraine work. In the settlement, the firm blamed Mr. Craig for providing the government with the misleading information. Skadden Arps also belatedly registered as a foreign agent as part of the settlement.

Mr. Craig was interviewed twice by Mr. Mueller’s office. He left Skadden Arps firm in April 2018.

...The people familiar with the matter say Mr. Craig’s legal defense will be that he talked with reporters to correct mischaracterizations of the report and protect the reputation of his law firm-- rather than to advance the interests of his foreign client. Ukraine used the report to bolster the pro-Russia government’s contention that the prosecution of a rival to then President Viktor Yanukovych was appropriate and proper, while the report itself made more narrow findings.

Prosecutors have also suggested to the people familiar with the matter that they believe Mr. Craig concealed the involvement of a public relations firm from Justice Department officials.

To prove a false-statements charge, prosecutors must show that the statements were “material” to an investigation and were knowingly false.

The Justice Department in recent months has stepped up its enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, extracting convictions of senior Republican officials. Mr. Manafort and his associate Richard Gates pleaded guilty to crimes related to their Ukraine work; former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn also admitted as part of a separate guilty plea that he misled the Justice Department about his work for the Turkish government; and another associate who worked with Mr. Craig also pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about the Ukraine work.