THE TIGHTENING NOOSE:

A decision about whether to prosecute Mr. Craig, who was White House counsel for President Barack Obama during his first year in office, is expected in the coming weeks, people familiar with the case said. The investigation centers on whether Mr. Craig should have disclosed work he did in 2012 -- while he was a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom -- on behalf of the Russia-aligned government of Viktor F. Yanukovych, then the president of Ukraine.

The work was steered to Mr. Craig by Paul Manafort, who was then a political consultant collecting millions of dollars from clients in former Soviet states. Mr. Manafort, who went on to become President Trump's campaign chairman in 2016, was sentenced this month to seven and a half years in prison on charges brought by Mr. Mueller's team related to obstruction of justice and violations of banking, tax and lobbying laws stemming from his work in Ukraine.

The Manafort case, and others developed by Mr. Mueller, marked the first high-profile criminal charges in years under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. The 1938 law requires Americans to disclose detailed information about lobbying and public relations work for foreign governments and politicians.

It had rarely been used in prosecutions, even as prominent Washington lobbyists, consultants, lawyers and former public officials collected ever-larger, often six- and seven-figure paydays from foreign interests looking to burnish their sometimes unsavory reputations in the United States capital.

Mr. Manafort's case, and the investigations into Mr. Craig and other high-profile consultants who worked with Mr. Manafort, have left Washington's K Street lobbying corridor scrambling to deal with the heightened scrutiny.

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