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Gregory Craig, Washington Lawyer on Trial, Says He Never Lied to Investigators Gregory Craig, Washington Lawyer on Trial, Says He Never Lied to Investigators
(about 7 hours later)
In a spirited defense, Gregory B. Craig, a prominent Washington lawyer on trial on charges of lying to federal investigators, testified on Wednesday that he never misled officials who questioned him about his work for the government of Ukraine. WASHINGTON — Gregory B. Craig, one of Washington’s most powerful Democratic lawyers, testified in his own defense in a federal felony trial on Wednesday, denying passionately that he had deceived federal investigators six years ago about whether he had aided a public relations campaign by Ukraine’s president to repair his battered image in the United States.
“I did not lie,” Mr. Craig, 74, said, looking directly at the jury that will decide whether he is guilty of a felony offense that carries a maximum five-year prison term. “I did not withhold any information.” “I did not lie,” Mr. Craig said, looking directly at the jury in the most dramatic testimony of his nearly two-week trial in the federal courthouse in Washington. “I did not withhold any information.”
The unusual case against Mr. Craig turns on whether he misrepresented his contacts with journalists about a 2012 report produced by his law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. The review examined the Ukrainian government’s prosecution and incarceration of a political rival of Viktor F. Yanukovych, then Ukraine’s president, a case that was damaging its hopes of joining the European Union. The unusual case against Mr. Craig, 74, turns on whether he misrepresented his contacts with journalists over a 2012 report by his law firm examining whether a political rival of Viktor F. Yanukovych, then Ukraine’s president, had received a fair trial on corruption charges.
After the report was published, Justice Department officials began investigating whether Mr. Craig went beyond writing it to promoting it to the American media on behalf of Mr. Yanukovych’s government. That would likely have required him to register as a foreign agent of Ukraine under a lobbying disclosure statute, which he never did. Mr. Yanukovych was hoping the report, by the internationally known law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, would help him blunt criticism that threatened Ukraine’s hopes of joining the European Union. Federal prosecutors contend that Mr. Craig, then a Skadden lawyer, lied about his role in the public relations campaign to safeguard his reputations and career prospects, as well as those of his colleagues.
The prosecutors claim that Mr. Craig deliberately lied when he told investigators that he never initiated any contact with journalists, but only responded to media inquiries to correct mischaracterizations about the report after it was published. They claim he did not want to register as a foreign agent because that could have limited career opportunities for him and other lawyers on his team. Court filings and exhibits have painted an unflattering portrait of the actions of both Skadden and Mr. Craig, who served as White House counsel in the first year of the Obama administration and represented President Bill Clinton during his impeachment hearings.
But Mr. Craig testified that he spoke to reporters to counteract Ukraine’s public message about the report — not to advance it. “I was not acting in the interest of Ukraine,” he said. “I was defending the integrity of the report.” But his guilt or innocence turns on the narrow question of how he responded to Justice Department officials who were trying to determine whether he needed to register as a foreign agent for Ukraine. Anyone who tries to shape American public opinion on behalf of a foreign government is required to disclose that work to the Justice Department.
He said he was unwilling to leave commenting to the press solely to Ukrainian officials or to their public relations team because they were trying to downplay the report’s criticism of Mr. Yanukovych’s government. His previous dealings with Ukraine’s lead publicist “gave me great concern about his integrity, his honesty and reliability,” Mr. Craig said. “I did not trust him.” Prosecutors charge that Mr. Craig misled investigators in part because registering would have forced him to disclose embarrassing details about the project, including the fact that a Ukrainian oligarch had secretly financed $4 million of the work through an offshore bank account.
Mr. Craig said he did not believe any of his actions made him “a press agent or agent of Ukraine,” and that he had no intention to skirt the lobbying disclosure law. Mr. Craig appeared at ease in the courtroom, testifying calmly, sometimes smiling, for more than five hours. He acknowledged that he did not want to register as a foreign agent, but insisted that he had never deceived federal investigators to skirt the registration requirement. He admitted that he made some sloppy errors in what he told both the Justice Department and Skadden’s own general counsel about his contacts with journalists. But he insisted that “the answers were truthful.”
Questioned by his own lawyers, Mr. Craig acknowledged he mistakenly said that he had not initiated any contacts with journalists. “I just muddled it up,” he acknowledged at one point, when asked about an explanation he gave to his firm’s own lawyers after the Justice Department began investigating. “I just muddled it up,” he said, when asked about a draft explanation to Justice officials that he circulated within Skadden.
During their cross-examination, prosecutors are expected to focus heavily on Mr. Craig’s interactions with New York Times reporters before the report was published. Mr. Craig hand-delivered a copy of the document to the home of one Times reporter, David E. Sanger, two days before the report was published. The Skadden report on Ukraine drew a mixed picture of the prosecution of Yulia V. Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and political rival of Mr. Yanukovych. Although it found her trial to be flawed in some respects, the majority of the firm’s conclusions were either favorable or neutral to Mr. Yanukovych’s government.
But as the report neared publication in December 2012, Mr. Craig became engaged in a tug of war with Ukrainian officials, their lobbyists and their public relations specialists over how its conclusions would be presented to the press. Skadden lawyers had advised him to stick to lawyering and avoid public relations. But Mr. Craig testified that he felt compelled to engage with the media to combat Ukraine’s efforts to downplay the report’s criticisms.
He said he was especially concerned about the “honesty and reliability” of Ukraine’s lead publicist, a British citizen named Jonathan Hawker. “I did not trust him,” he said.
He said he was trying to head off Mr. Hawker — not carry out Ukraine’s media strategy — when, two days before the report was released, he hand-delivered an advance copy to the home of David E. Sanger, a New York Times reporter and offered to grant The Times the first interview about it.
Those interactions loom large in his case because Mr. Craig told Justice Department officials that he only engaged with journalists to correct mischaracterizations of the report that had already been published.
“If anybody was going to talk to The New York Times, it was going to be me,” he said. “I was not acting in the interest of Ukraine. I was defending the integrity of the report.” He added, “I did not think it crossed the line” requiring registration as a foreign agent.
The defense is expected to rest its case on Thursday. The offense of lying to federal authorities carries a maximum prison term of five years, but recent first-time offenders have been sentenced to a month or less behind bars.