Former Barack Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig has been indicted for mendacity to investigators over his lobbying work in Ukraine in partnership with former Donald Trump marketing campaign supervisor Paul Manafort.
Craig grew to become chief White House counsel initially of President Obama’s first time period, however left in 2010 to work as a lobbyist. According to Thursday’s indictment, Craig made false statements to the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) unit, concerning lobbying work he did for the Ukrainian authorities in opposition to former PM Yulia Tymoshenko in 2012.
Craig was at one time reportedly investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ‘Russiagate’ probe, earlier than his case was handed on to the Southern District of New York after which prosecutors in Washington.
That leaves open the query why each Mueller and the SDNY opted not to cost Craig, particularly contemplating Mueller went after Manafort for related lobbying violations – quite than something related to the 2016 presidential marketing campaign – whereas the SDNY charged him with mortgage fraud. Manafort is now serving greater than seven years in jail ensuing from two trials that got here out of the Mueller probe. He has not but been tried for the offenses alleged by the SDNY.