Former President Barak Obama’s top White House lawyer pleaded not guilty Friday to two counts of lying to federal investigators about his Ukrainian lobbying work.
Gregory B. Craig, who served as White House Counsel in 2009 and 2010, was charged Thursday with making false statements to investigators and concealing information in a Justice Department foreign lobbying probe.
“Not guilty,” said Mr. Craig’s attorney William Murphy.
Mr. Craig is due to return to court on Monday for his first status conference before U. S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who will oversee his case.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson ordered Mr. Craig released on his own recognizance. Conditions of his bail include checking in with prertrial services and travel restrictions blocking him from leaving the metropolitan Washington, D. C. area.
Mr. Craig is the first prominent Democrat ensnared in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The case was referred by Mueller’s team and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C.
Prosecutors say Mr. Craig shielded material facts about the work his former law firm, Skadden Arps Slate Meager & Flom performed for the Ukrainian government.
The allegations against Mr. Craig spun out of an investigation into former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort his lobbying work in the Ukraine.
In 2012, Mr. Craig and Skadden were tapped by the Ukrainian government to compile a report justifying then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s prosecution of Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko, a former political rival.
The report was promoted as an independent review, but critics say it whitewashed politically motivated revenge against Ms. Tymoshenko.
That attracted the Justice Department’s detention, which inquired with Skadden should register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which governs foreign lobbying in the United States. Mr. Craig made several “false and misleading” statements to investigators, insisting the firm did not need to register, the government alleged.
Prosecutors say Mr. Craig failed to register as a lobbyist because he feared it would be revealed that a “private wealthy” Ukrainian paid $4 million for the supposedly independent report, thus damaging its credibility.
If word got out that the report was an effort to whitewash Ms. Tymoshenko’s prosecution, prosecutors said, it would have hurt the ability of Mr. Craig and others at his law firm to go back into government work later.
Ukrainian officials claimed they only paid $12,000 for the report, but prosecutors said the $4 million ultimately made its way to Skadden through Manafort’s illegal offshore accounts.
In January, Skadden reached a settlement with the Justice Department, admitting that it should have registered for its work. It also agreed to turn over the $4.6 million in fees it collected for the report in exchange for the Justice Department dropping criminal charges.
As part of the settlement, Skadden admitted that it relied upon Mr. Craig’s “false and misleading oral and written statements” when it concluded it did not need to register.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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