Gregory Craig found not guilty of lying to investigators probing work to aid ukraine president
This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).
Source: WA Post
A federal jury found Gregory B. Craig not guilty of lying to the Justice Department, acquitting the Democratic former White House counsel on Wednesday of concealing media contacts in 2012 related to his work for the Ukrainian government.
Jurors deliberated less than five hours before vindicating Craig, 74, a former top legal adviser to both President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton. Craig thanked jurors after the verdict.
His defense team, which said the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan had declined to pursue Craig, called the Trump Justice Department's decision to move ahead with a prosecution in Washington "a disgrace."
"The question you need to ask isn't why this jury acquitted Craig, but why the Department of Justice brought this case against an innocent man in the first place," Craig attorney William Taylor said, adding, "It's a tragedy. It's a disgrace; I'm glad it's over."
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/gregory-craig-found-not-guilty-of-lying-to-investigators-probing-work-to-aid-ukraine-president/2019/09/04/b1273304-cf26-11e9-b29b-a528dc82154a_story.html
Link to tweet
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/04/former-obama-white-house-counsel-gregory-craig-found-not-guilty-of-lying-to-prosecutors.html
Craig is one of the most high-profile figures, and the only major Democratic one, to face charges as a result of Mueller's investigation. He was indicted on two charges in April, one of which was dropped last month by the federal judge overseeing the case in Washington.
The not guilty verdict is a major victory for the 74-year-old veteran Washington attorney who was a partner in the corporate law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
The charges were brought by the Justice Department's Foreign Agents Registration Act unit.
The DOJ alleged that Craig misled investigators about his work on the 2012 report commissioned by then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to legitimize the imprisonment of his political rival Yulia Tymoshenko. The multimillion-dollar report was arranged by Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman.
= new reply since forum marked as read
