Mueller-Fueled FARA Fear Grips Washington as Craig Goes to Trial
Gregory Craig has been a top White House lawyer, a partner in two prestigious Washington law firms, and a graduate of both Harvard University and Yale Law School. Just six years ago he was called one of America’s most influential lawyers.
One title he’d like to avoid: convicted felon.
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New FARA registrations made public by the Justice Department jumped 46% from 2016 to 2017, the year Mueller was appointed as special counsel and homed in on the foreign dealings of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Attorneys say this wasn’t a coincidence.
“That’s what really got people’s attention,” Scott Thomas, head of Blank Rome LLP’s political practice, told Bloomberg in an interview.
The “Manafort era” indicated that the Justice Department would be much bolder in its pursuit of violations, he said. In turn, both FARA registrations and enforcement “really picked up the pace.”
"Mueller-Fueled FARA Fear Grips Washington as Craig Goes to Trial," by Jacob Rund and Andrew M Harris was published in Bloomberg on August 12, 2019.