Former Obama White House Counsel and Clinton-linked attorney Greg Craig is under investigation and is expected to be indicted soon for failure to register as a foreign agent, representing the Russian-backed president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.
Paul Manafort was convicted of the same crime, but Clinton loyalist Tony Podesta was never even charged. Craig would be the first Democrat charged with a crime out of the Mueller probe. Mueller turned the case over to federal prosecutors as the crime was outside his mandate, the same as he did with Manafort.
Craig’s law firm has already paid a 4.5 million dollar fine, but each person is solely responsible for registering.
Former Obama White House Counsel and Clinton-linked attorney Greg Craig may soon be charged by the Justice Department for engaging in illegal unregistered overseas lobbying, in a case initially probed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller — a development that would make him the first Democrat to face prosecution amid the long-running Russia investigation.
The case centers on lobbying work that Craig performed in 2012 for the Russian-backed president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, while Craig was a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Craig allegedly never registered as a foreign agent under a U.S. law known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, which requires lobbyists to declare publicly if they represent foreign leaders, governments or their political parties.
FARA violations were only rarely prosecuted until Mueller took aim at Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, for his lobbying work in Ukraine. Manafort, who connected Craig with Yanukovych, has been convicted on numerous bank and tax fraud charges, and was separately accused of FARA violations as well. He was sentencedearlier this month to approximately seven years in prison.