WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's White House counsel has been indicted on charges of lying and hiding information about work he did in Ukraine, according to news reports.
- Obama White House counsel indicted by federal grand jury
- DOJ: Gregory Craig's former law firm was hired by Manafort
- Former firm had already agreed to pay $4.6M over Ukraine work
The federal grand jury charged 74-year-old Gregory Craig with the two counts Thursday, the Associated Press and CNN said. They say the indictment came out of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. The AP said it specifically stemmed from the special counsel's look into former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's work in Ukraine.
Manafort was found guilty on eight charges, including fraud, in August 2018. Prosecutors said he hid hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign income from his work as a political adviser in Ukraine.
Charges against Craig had been anticipated for weeks, CNN said, prompting Craig's attorney to say on Wednesday that the "government's stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion."
Several months ago, Craig's former law firm agreed to pay more than $4.6 million and publicly acknowledge that it didn't report work for the Ukraine government in 2012. The Justice Department says Manafort arranged to hire Craig's firm to work for Ukraine.