Former Obama White House Counsel (And Clinton's Impeachment Defense Lawyer) Greg Craig Indicted for Lying About His Work as an Unregistered Foreign Agent for the Ukraine

He was indicted for withholding material facts and misleading regulators about whether he should have registered as a foreign agent under FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act] for his work for Manafort's client in Ukraine.

Former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig was charged with making false statements on Thursday in connection with the failures by his former law firm to report its work for powerful clients in Ukraine.

FARA is one of the most violated, and yet least enforced, laws among the DC set.

But the feds started a new precedent in going like gangbusters after Manafort.

How can they now roll over for Greg Craig, who was servicing the same PRO-RUSSIAN client as Manafort?

Federal prosecutors have charged President Obama's former White House counsel with making false statements in connection with his role in disseminating a report commissioned by Paul Manafort.

Prosecutors allege that as an attorney in private practice, Greg Craig lied to officials at the Foreign Agents Registration Act unit after the Justice Department launched an investigation into Paul Manafort's illegal lobbying on behalf of his pro-Russian clients in Ukraine.

Mueller referred Craig to federal prosecutors, presumably because, while he discovered evidence of a crime, it wasn't a crime he was commissioned to investigate.

He also referred longtime Friend of the Clintons Tony Podesta for the same failure to register as a foreign agent.

Since the spring, Mueller has referred matters to SDNY involving longtime Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta and his work for his former firm, the Podesta Group, and former Minnesota Republican Rep. Vin Weber and his work for Mercury Public Affairs, the sources said.

Oh, right -- and GOPe Grifter Vin Weber.

Put 'em all in jail.

If lying about FARA and not reporting under FARA are now crimes we're taking seriously, then they are serious crimes for everybody, not just conservatives and not just Trump associates.

So -- enjoy your new lives, Permanent DC Swamp-Creatures! Half of you are now under the threat of prosecution!

Better make your FARA registrations retroactively and right quick! And then hope that no one charges you for the years you worked for foreign governments without making the required registrations!

Update: Good point from Larry O'Connor -- The media freaked that Paul Manafort, who never worked in the White House, was an unregistered Ukraine agent.

Well, so was Greg Craig -- and Greg Craig worked in the White House as Obama's White House Counsel. He was Obama's taxpayer-paid top lawyer.

Exit Question: Do you think the media will give this as much play?

Exit Answer: No, you don't think that. In fact, you think the precise opposite.

Indictment: Read it here.

It gets good at Paragraph 7. Long story short: Greg Craig knew damn well he had to register under FARA but scrambled for ways to avoid doing so "with a straight face" so that he and others at his law firm wouldn't be barred from serving in the federal government in the future.

And he lied about it.

Another question: Why didn't Mueller himself prosecute? He prosecuted Manafort. If he's investigating "RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE," and counts Manafort's failure to register as under that general rubric, why is Greg Craig's exactly-similar crime not also under that rubric?

Did the leftwing Democrats on his staff make some argument on Craig's behalf? Did they just not wanna prosecute Democrats?

via Deep State is in Deep Shit.

posted by Ace of Spades at 03:02 PM

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