Greg Craig, former President Barack Obama’s former White House counsel, expects to be indicted on federal corruption charges in regards to a scandal with Ukraine according to his lawyers.
“Former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig expects to be indicted in the coming days on charges stemming from work he performed for Ukraine in 2012, Mr. Craig’s legal team said. Mr. Craig has refused to accept a plea deal, and the matter could be presented to a grand jury for indictment as soon as Thursday, people familiar with the matter say. A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.”
Kenneth Vocal of The New York Times recently shared his own report on the likely indictment of the former senior Obama official — writing how this “stemmed from” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller has came to the conclusion that his investigation and decided that President Donald Trump and his campaign did not collude with the Russians.
And while there was not enough sufficient evidence to charge Trump on obstruction of justice, other issues that sprouted up in Mueller’s probe have been given to different U.S. attorneys and federal law enforcement agencies for their handling.
Vogel writes:
“An Ivy League-educated lawyer who held prominent positions in the Clinton and Obama administrations, Mr. Craig would become the first person who made his name in Democratic Party politics to be charged in a case linked to the special counsel’s investigation. Mr. Craig would also become the first person to be charged in a case connected to the special counsel after Mr. Mueller finished his investigation into the 2016 presidential election. In a summary of the inquiry, Attorney General William P. Barr said that the special counsel’s team had concluded that there was no evidence that President Trump or his aides “conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
According to his attorneys, Vogel adds that the case against Craig is related to the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) — and his lawyers “do not necessarily expect” him to be charged with a violation of that specific act but something related.
Vogel wrote:
“Rather, they [Craig’s lawyers] expect him to be charged with making false statements to the Justice Department officials examining whether he was required to register under the law for work he did in 2012, while he was a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. The work, on behalf of the government of Viktor F. Yanukovych, then the president of Ukraine, was linked to Paul Manafort, who at the time was a political consultant earning tens of millions of dollars for his representation of Mr. Yanukovych.”
At one time, Manafort was one of Trump’s top 2016 presidential campaign adviser, and currently is serving a long prison stay due on corruption convictions for acts he committed prior to working for Trump.
Mueller’s team discovered these violations and charged Manfort — then prosecuting him — making him the highest profile former Trump aide to go down as part of the Special Counsel’s probe.
A top Democrat who served as White House counsel for close to the full first year of Obama’s presidency, Craig also served as a senior official in former Democrat President Bill Clinton’s White House.
Additionally, he worked in high levels of Democrat politics for many years prior — Clinton even offered him the White House counsel job back then but turned it down in 1996.
Craig’s lawyers said that while they expect charges to be filed against him — they allege he is not guilty.
“We expect an indictment by the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office at the request of the National Security Division,” Craig’s lawyers said, continuing: “Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge and the government’s stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion.”
Prosceutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District are looking into another Democrat in addition to Craig: a top Democrat lobbyist, Tony Podesta, and the brother of former Obama White House chief of staff and former Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign chairman, John Podesta.
“Prosecutors there [in the Southern District of New York] are looking into the conduct of longtime Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta, former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig and former Republican congressman and lobbyist Vin Weber to determine whether they violated federal law by failing to register as foreign agents with the Justice Department,” according to the Associated Press in a 2018 report.
While no one has yet been charged with a crime — this could lead to huge problems for the Podestas, Clinton or even Obama.
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