{UAH} Ex-Obama counsel indicted for false statements, concealing Ukraine work

Ex-Obama counsel indicted for false statements, concealing Ukraine work

BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 04/11/19 02:40 PM EDT 667

Former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig was indicted Thursday on charges that he made false statements to investigators and concealed information about his work for Ukrainian officials, the Justice Department announced.

Prosecutors said Craig was indicted over statements he made to the Justice Department's Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit. He faces up to five years in prison for each of the two charged offenses and will be arraigned at a later date.

Craig's attorneys had said Wednesday that they believed Craig would be indicted, but denied any wrongdoing on the part of their client.

The former White House counsel was reportedly investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller before the case was referred to the Southern District of New York and then back to prosecutors in Washington, D.C.

Craig is the first known major Democratic figure to be charged in one of the probes stemming from Mueller's investigation.

Craig was a partner at the New York-based law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, which assisted GOP lobbyist and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in his work lobbying for pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine.

The prominent law firm agreed earlier this year to register as a foreign agent and paid a $4.6 million settlement in the case over questions on whether it had misrepresented its work for the Ukrainian politicians to federal investigators. The firm reportedly blamed Craig over the misleading information, and he left the practice in 2018 amid the investigation.

Manafort pleaded guilty last year to a series of charges related to his lobbying work for former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and his political party in Ukraine. 

The businessman had hired Skadden to issue a report on behalf of the Ukrainian government that defended its imprisonment of Yanukovych's political opponent, Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister.