WASHINGTON (CN) – Federal prosecutors came out swinging in closing arguments Tuesday during the criminal trial against Greg Craig, urging the jury to find the high-profile Washington attorney guilty of lying to the Justice Department about his work for Ukraine.
The government argued in before a federal jury in Washington that Craig, who served a one-year stint as White House counsel under the Obama administration, is a man of “care and precision” who knowingly omitted key facts about an investigation he led in 2012 as a partner at Skadden Arps for Ukraine’s then-President Viktor Yanukovych when responding to inquiries from the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) Unit.
“He carefully poured over what he was going to say and how it was going to be said,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez said.
On a path to pursuing entrance into the European Union, Yanukovych was eager at the time to dodge widespread criticism over the prosecution of his political adversary, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Working as a lobbyist for Ukraine – years before President Donald Trump recruited him to serve as a campaign manager – Paul Manafort orchestrated payment and communications between Skadden and the Ukrainian government while a team of attorneys under Craig’s command carried out a six-month investigation into whether Tymoshenko’s trial adhered to Western standards of justice.
Craig has pleaded not guilty to misleading the FARA Unit. On the witness stand last week, Craig testified that he had stuck to rule-of-law consulting and staunchly rejected solicitations from Manafort to engage in public relations.
The distinction is Craig’s key to avoiding a maximum five-year prison sentence, in one of several high-profile cases stemming from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings involving failure to register under FARA.
The government Tuesday honed in on eight alleged omissions Craig made in his response to an April 2013 inquiry from the FARA Unit requesting more information about his contact with U.S. media following the release of the Skadden report. The government claims Craig did not disclose that he contacted New York Times reporter David Sanger, offering an exclusive story ahead of the release of the report.
Campoamor-Sanchez said Craig willingly executed the media plan advanced by Manafort and Rick Gates – who would later serve as Manafort’s deputy in the Trump campaign.
Determined not to register, Campoamor-Sanchez argued, Craig crafted answers hiding that he made contact with Sanger on Dec. 11, 2012 – listing, instead, Dec. 12 to Dec. 13 as the window in which he communicated with The New York Times and reporters from The Los Angeles Times and the National Law Journal.
“He jumbled these together beyond recognition. Because at the end of the day his reputation would have been tarnished, tarnished, if it would have come out,” Campoamor-Sanchez said.
Defense attorney William Murphy argued that Craig made an honest mistake not listing Dec. 11. Murphy added that, in a letter sent to FARA, Craig cited the New York Times’ article which “clearly” states he spoke to Sanger the day before Ukraine released the report to the public.