Greg Craig’s real crime may be ignoring one of the longest-standing maxims of the legal profession: he who represents himself has a fool for a client
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Craig’s defense argues his claim was literally true, but does so by squeezing nearly all meaning out of the 10 words, contending that all he was telling Justice was that he had not foisted the report on unwilling reporters. In fact, Craig hadNew York Times reporter David Sanger in October 2012, asking if he would talk to a lobbyist handling the rollout of the report, former GOP Rep. Vin Weber. Craig later directly offered the report to Sanger and even delivered it to his Washington home.
“In responding to inaccuracies in U.S. news reports — some of which were directly attributable to Ukraine — the law firm did not consult with Ukraine, did not inform Ukraine, did not act under instruction from Ukraine and was in no way serving as an agent for Ukraine,” Craig wrote. Of course, Craig did more than just correct errors in the media, but his defense argues the assurances in his letter about not coordinating with Ukraine applied only to his effort to combat misinformation.“The reason that that statement is literally true is the clause at the beginning,” Marcus said.“He very carefully words the response to provide only half-truths and to conceal other information,” prosecutor Molly Gaston complained to jurors in her opening statement.
Even though Craig was acting as his own lawyer in his dealings with Justice about his Ukraine work, some see the prosecution as posing a risk to the daily work attorneys do crafting arguments and evidence presentations on behalf of clients. In 2015, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted, 10-1, to overturn Bonds’ conviction for obstruction of justice. The judges had trouble agreeing on precisely why the major leaguer’s dilatory and diversionary statements didn’t amount to obstruction, but some jurists worried that allowing such prosecutions could discourage attorneys from doing their utmost to present cases in the light most favorable to their clients.
Other judges in the Bonds case warned that allowing convictions over evasive testimony would create a perverse incentive for prosecutors not to hone in on the truth. “You could have asked, I suppose, any question you wanted about the report in the letter, could you not have?” Taylor asked.Craig’s lawyers contend that, with the exception of one erroneous date Craig says was a mistake, all of his statements to the government were literally true. They note it has been well established for more than four decades that one can’t be convicted of perjury or, in most instances, false statements, for remarks that are literally true, even if arguably misleading.
“Is there a duty to be truthful when you take it upon yourself to persuade the government that they're wrong about something and they need to change their decision?...If an individual submits a white paper to the U.S. Attorney's Office saying, ‘Don't prosecute me for this or that’ -- and that's usually filtered through a lawyer – but, if it was actually signed by the CEO of the company, could that” constitute a scheme to conceal material facts? the judge asked.
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