Ex-Obama White House counsel expected to be indicted in relation to work with Paul Manafort

(Image credit: AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

published 11 April 2019

Attorneys for former White House Counsel Greg Craig said on Wednesday they expect he will be charged in a foreign lobbying investigation that came out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Craig served in the first term of the Obama administration, and was recently a senior partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. In a statement, his lawyers, William Taylor and William Murphy, said he is "not guilty of any charge and the government's stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion." Federal prosecutors in New York declined to file charges, they added, and the indictment is expected to come out of Washington, D.C.

Under the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act, individuals must let the Justice Department know if they are lobbying or advocating in the United States on behalf of a foreign government or political entity. The expected indictment is connected to work Craig did in 2012 with President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, on behalf of the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice, The Associated Press reports. Last year, Manafort pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his Ukrainian lobbying.