Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World

18. U.S. v. Gregory B. Craig, Grand Jury Indictment, April 11, 2019, www.justice.gov/usao-dc/press-release/file/1153646/download.

19. U.S. v. Gregory B. Craig, Memorandum Opinion and Order, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Crim. Action No. 19-0125 (ABJ), August 6, 2019, https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000016c-686c-da83-a96c-fafd98ff0000.

20. Skadden’s intimate relationship with Manafort didn’t end just in Ukraine; around the same time, Skadden hired Manafort’s daughter, placing her in the “same bureau housing the attorneys who had produced the Tymoshenko report.” See Ken Silverstein and Adam Weinstein, “How Trump Aide Paul Manafort Got Ridiculously Wealthy While Aiding a Ukrainian Strongman,” Fusion, August 17, 2016, https://web.archive.org/web/20160820050122/http://fusion.net/story/337482/trump-manafort-ukraine-mansions-movies-mobsters/. Craig initially helped Manafort’s daughter land interviews, and said he was “pissed” when she was initially turned down. See LaFraniere, “Trial of High-Powered Lawyer Gregory Craig.”

21. Skadden settlement agreement, January 15, 2019, https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1124381/download.

22. U.S. v. Gregory B. Craig, Notice of Intent to File Motion In Limine to Exclude Hearsay Testimony from Richard Gates and Jonathan Hawker, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Case No. 1:19-cr-0125 (ABJ), June 24, 2019, https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.206162/gov.uscourts.dcd.206162.45.0.pdf.

23. Ibid.

24. Ibid. A separate filing said that Craig did not find Sanger at home, and instead “left the document behind Sanger’s storm door.” Josh Gerstein, “Mueller Fallout Continues as Greg Craig Trial Opens,” Politico, August 12, 2019.

25. David M. Herszenhorn and David E. Sanger, “Failings Found in Trial of Ukrainian Ex-Premier,” New York Times, December 12, 2012.

26. Gerstein, “Mueller Fallout Continues.”

27. Robert Waldeck, The Black Ledger: How Trump Brought Putin’s Disinformation War to America (New York: Cobra y Craneo, 2020).

28. Another company that worked on Yanukovych’s behalf was the behemoth American consulting company McKinsey. The organization didn’t work for Manafort, but instead served in parallel to Manafort’s efforts, helping “polish [Yanukovych’s] battered image” and working toward “resurrecting Mr. Yanukovych’s career.” Like Manafort, McKinsey connected with Yanukovych via oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. Yanukovych’s government was but one of a series of loathsome regimes that McKinsey worked closely with, from China to Saudi Arabia. McKinsey has never disclosed how much money it made from its arrangement with Yanukovych. See Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe, “How McKinsey Has Helped Raise the Stature of Authoritarian Governments,” New York Times, December 15, 2018.

29. Pinchuk’s American lobbyist? The aforementioned Schoen, who had worked as Bill Clinton’s political consultant before joining Pinchuk—and, later, Manafort. See Kevin Bogardus, “Ukrainian Billionaire Hires Clinton Pollster,” The Hill, October 29, 2011.

30. Amy Chozick and Steve Eder, “Foundation Ties Bedevil Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign,” New York Times, August 20, 2016.

31. Maximilian Hess, “Wooing the West: Who Is Ukraine’s Viktor Pinchuk?,” Eurasianet, February 26, 2020.

32. Katya Soldak, “Ukraine’s Victor Pinchuk: The Oligarch in the Middle of the Crisis,” Forbes, March 3, 2014.

33. LaFraniere, “Trial of High-Powered Lawyer Gregory Craig.”

34. “Skadden Stink,” editorial, Kyiv Post, September 13, 2019.

35. Josh Gerstein, “Democratic Pollster Divulges Details to Jurors About Greg Craig’s Ukraine Work,” Politico, August 16, 2019.

36. Skadden registration statement, January 18, 2019, https://efile.fara.gov/docs/6617-Registration-Statement-20190118-1.pdf.

37. LaFraniere, “Trial of High-Powered Lawyer Gregory Craig.”

38. The entire financing for Skadden’s operations in Ukraine was rife with odd, alarming behavior. As The New York Times reported: “Publicly, Ukraine’s financially strapped government said [Skadden] would be paid only the legal limit for outside contracts of $12,000. In an August 2012 editorial with the headline, ‘Skadden Stink,’ The Kyiv Post called that assertion ‘ridiculous,’ noting that would cover only about 12 hours of Mr. Craig’s services alone at his standard rate. Ms. Tymoshenko’s lawyer refused to cooperate with the project unless Skadden disclosed more information. Scrambling, Mr. Craig and Mr. Manafort agreed to raise the ‘official’ fee to $1.25 million. Bypassing his own firm’s billing system, Mr. Craig submitted a new invoice for that amount, although the firm had already collected more than three times that sum from Mr. Pinchuk, routed through offshore bank accounts controlled by Mr. Manafort. At Mr. Manafort’s request, Mr. Craig backdated the document to before the newspaper editorial was published.” See LaFraniere, “Trial of High-Powered Lawyer Gregory Craig.”