Greg Craig successfully pressured his law firm to hire one of Paul Manafort’s relatives as part of an effort to win more business from President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, prosecutors alleged in a court filing on Friday.
Manafort arranged in 2012 for the Ukrainian government to hire Craig and his law firm to write a report on the prosecution of a former Ukrainian prime minister.
Craig, a former White House counsel under President Barack Obama, was indicted last month on charges that he lied to the Justice Department about the work in an effort to avoid registering as a foreign agent.
Prosecutors are now seeking to admit evidence in Craig’s upcoming trial that he pushed his law firm, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, to hire Manafort’s “immediate relative” in 2012 while the firm was working on the report.
“Manafort was exceedingly upset when his relative was initially notified by Skadden that she would not be offered a position” as an associate at the firm “and emailed Craig angrily, accusing Skadden of a failure to ‘show appreciation for a $4MILLION gift account,’” referring to the work that Manafort had steered to the firm, prosecutors wrote in the court filing.
It “goes without saying that I will push all future business to wherever [my relative] lands,” Manafort wrote in an email to Craig the same day his relative interviewed at Skadden, according to prosecutors. “So, the four million dollar contract can be viewed as just the beginning.”
Skadden was ultimately paid nearly $4.7 million for the Ukraine work, which the firm paid to the government as part of a settlement earlier this year.
Craig has pleaded not guilty in the case and filed motions of his own on Friday asking for the charges against him to be dismissed.
After Manafort emailed him, Craig told a senior partner at Skadden that he wanted the firm to make her an offer.
He drafted a memo outlining her strengths as a lawyer but noted that “perhaps one of the most important” reasons to hire her was the “potential for significant future business” with Manafort, according to prosecutors. While Manafort was already likely to steer more work to the firm, if Skadden hired his relative it would “[become] a certainty,” Craig wrote.
Skadden ended up offering her a position, according to prosecutors.
While the court filing doesn’t name the relative, Manafort’s daughter, Andrea Shand, started working at Skadden in October 2012, according to her LinkedIn page.
Shand didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did Skadden. Craig’s lawyers declined to comment.
Prosecutors want to admit the evidence that Craig pushed to hire Manafort’s relative to show his motivation for failing to register as a foreign agent and later misleading the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act unit. If Craig was willing to pressure his firm to hire Manafort’s relative in an effort to win more business from Manafort, they argue, he may have been willing to lie to avoid registering as a foreign agent to do so as well.
“Craig’s desire to keep Manafort’s business—as demonstrated in detail in his efforts on behalf of Manafort’s relative—is probative of his motive and intent to mislead the FARA Unit and avoid registering under FARA,” prosecutors write in the filing.
Josh Gerstein contributed reporting.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine