Ex-Obama WH counsel charged with lying about lobbying work

Former Obama administration White House counsel Greg Craig was indicted Thursday on charges of making false statements and concealing information in a Justice Department foreign lobbying investigation that intersected with the Russia probe.

Craig was charged in a two-count indictment that accuses him of willfully concealing material facts about work he and his former law firm performed for the Ukrainian government.

The US attorney for the District of Columbia announced the charges.

They came a day after Craig's lawyers said he expected to be charged in the probe, which spun off from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

In the statement, his attorneys, William Taylor and William Murphy, said, "Mr Craig is not guilty of any charge and the government's stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion."
They said he spoke to reporters at The New York Times about the report to "make certain that the Times would accurately summarise the report's criticisms of the Tymoshenko trial and not rely on misinformation from Ukraine and its representatives."