Greg Craig’s acquittal is rightly being construed as a defeat for the Department of Justice’s efforts to deter foreign influence through enforcement of the Foreign Agent Registration Act, but not for the right reasons.

The charge of which Craig was acquitted — namely, lying and misleading investigators — was not directly about FARA and has no immediate bearing on efforts to enforce that law. Judge Amy Berman Jackson had dismissed the FARA-related charges earlier in the trial, leaving the jury with only the question of whether Craig lied to or misled investigators to consider.