WASHINGTON (CN) – The top Justice Department official tasked with tracking foreign agents testified Monday that Greg Craig, former Obama White House counsel who went on to work with Paul Manafort in Ukraine, failed to disclose contact with U.S. journalists – obstructing her ability to determine if he worked on behalf of the Ukrainian government.
“In my analysis if you are involved in the strategy ... then that would be registerable activity,” Heather Hunt said after a volley of questions from the federal prosecutor.
The questions focused on whether Craig had told Hunt in an October 2013 meeting that he had communicated with both Manafort – then working as a lobbyist for the former Ukrainian president overseeing the media rollout for the release of a report on the prosecution of a political rival – and New York Times reporter David Sanger.
Chief of the FARA Unit from 2002 to 2019, Hunt took on the newly created role of senior counsel for FARA Administration in March.
The criminal trial is one of several high-profile cases stemming from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that involve failure to register under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, or FARA.
Craig denies his work as the lead Skadden Arps partner investigating the trial of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko extended past rule-of-law consulting to include public relations – including outreach to western media outlets.
Often repeating the prosecutor’s questions verbatim, Hunt delivered the majority of her testimony in an even tone with little background to color her recollection.
But her final answers seemed to make clear the FARA Unit was left in the dark while investigating Craig’s media contact in the lead up and aftermath of the release of the Skadden report on the Tymoshenko trial.
Hunt repeatedly stated FARA is “content neutral” and looks solely at whether a U.S. actor is working under the “order, request, direction or control” of a foreign principal.
“The content of the report in my analysis is not important,” Hunt said, adding, “What matters is there is some message, no matter what the message is.”
Under her leadership, the FARA Unit made two inquiries to Skadden from 2012 to 2013.
An initial letter dispatched on Dec. 22, 2012 – just weeks after the report released – requested information on the nature of the firm’s activities for the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice and a copy of its contract.
The contract specified Skadden would not engage in any work for Ukraine that could trigger a need to register under FARA. But Hunt testified that carried little weight.
“Planned activity doesn’t always go as planned,” she said. “So we’re looking at what actually did happen.”
The second letter sent in April 2013 informed the firm more information was needed to determine a registration requirement, including if Skadden delivered the report to U.S. media or agreed to interviews.
“This basically goes to the heart of the statute really,” Hunt said, later adding press contact is key to influencing American public opinion of a foreign government.
The second FARA letter also asked Skadden to disclose the name of the private citizen funding the majority of the Tymoshenko investigation.
Listed in the Skadden contract with the Ministry of Justice was a payment of 35,000 hryvnia – equivalent to $12,000 – for an operation based in Kyiv that ran approximately six months.