Paul Manafort loomed large throughout the two-week trial against Obama White House counsel Greg Craig, whose business dealings with Ukraine drew scrutiny from the Justice Department, with closing arguments from prosecution and defense happening Tuesday.
Craig, 74, is charged with misleading DOJ investigators about his role promoting a report written at the behest of the Kremlin-linked government in Ukraine about the country’s controversial prosecution of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was tried under President Viktor Yanukovych, a close Manafort ally.
Manafort, a lobbyist and Republican operative, was chairman of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and was convicted of a host of crimes in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Manafort was Craig’s contact with Ukraine, and Craig’s case spun off from Mueller’s inquiry.
The DOJ’s case against Craig focuses on the public relations work allegedly performed for Ukraine and Manafort by Craig and the law firm he worked for — Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom — throughout 2012.
Craig took the stand for a day and a half, claiming he didn’t lie and that his only involvement in media outreach was to stop the whitewashing of the conclusions of his report by Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice or people working for Manafort, such as right-hand man Rick Gates and publicist Jonathan Hawker. Craig claimed he wanted his report to be portrayed accurately in the media.
“I did not think correcting misinformation crossed any line or made me an agent of Ukraine,” Craig said.
Craig agreed Manafort often called the shots, pointing out many decisions were made by Manafort. The prosecutor said Manafort was “pulling the purse strings.”
“The payment schedule was established by Mr. Manafort,” Craig replied.
Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian oligarch, paid more than $4 million for the project, despite Ukraine initially claiming Skadden was hired for $12,000. Craig threatened to walk away unless Skadden received $2 million up front.
“It was Pinchuk’s money, but it was transferred through Manafort,” Craig testified.
Prosecutors said Craig “schemed, falsified, and concealed” facts from then-head of DOJ’s Foreign Agents Registration Act enforcement unit, Heather Hunt, in 2013. The “scheme” related to the foreign agents law, which mandates anyone working on behalf of a foreign government register with the DOJ.
Hunt, Hawker, and Gates were key witnesses against Craig during the trial.
Prosecutors say Craig was especially deceptive about his interactions with David Sanger of the New York Times, pointing out Craig offered Sanger the report ahead of its release, emailed it to him and hand-delivered a copy to his home, and did an interview with him and other reporters.
With help from Craig and Manafort, the Skadden report made its way to various people connected to the U.S. government. When the report was released, the State Department was critical of it, believing it soft-peddled Yanukovych’s abuse of power.
Manafort praised Craig for his media help, saying that “the initial rollout has been very effective and your backgrounding has been key to it all.”
“I thought my backgrounding had been critical of Ukraine,” Craig testified.
Craig did admit one of his letters to DOJ’s FARA unit got a significant date wrong. Craig told investigators Skadden didn’t contact the media until Dec. 12, 2012, when he’d reached out to Sanger on Dec. 11, 2012.
“Going back and reviewing it, I wish we’d put December 11 in there rather than December 12,” Craig said.
DOJ claimed Craig was trying to avoid registering under FARA because he was worried about hurting his future job prospects. Craig didn’t see himself as an agent of Ukraine.
“If we also registered as an agent for Ukraine at the same time we were writing this report, that was saying we could not do this independently,” he said. “It’s sort of a Catch-22. If you register, that means you’re a foreign agent under the direction of a foreign sovereign.”
Craig denied helping Ukraine advance its agenda.
“I did not — quite the contrary,” Craig testified. “I was not acting in the interests of Ukraine. I was trying to defend the accuracy of the report.”
Prosecutors grilled Craig about his efforts to get an extra $1.25 million from Ukraine and his agreement to backdate a letter at Manafort’s behest to make that happen. And they brought up Craig’s agreement to have Skadden help Manafort and Ukraine with “Project Two” — another prosecution against Tymoshenko — while writing the report on the first Tymoshenko case. Craig eventually abandoned the idea.
Craig admitted “we did not identify Project Two” when speaking with the FARA unit.
Prosecutors asserted Craig was still looking for ways to make money with Manafort in Ukraine in 2013 “while you were writing letters back and forth to the FARA unit.”
“That’s right,” Manafort said.
The prosecution and defense will get a chance to make their final arguments Tuesday afternoon.
