Greg Craig was acquitted Wednesday of a charge he deliberately deceived the Justice Department about his past work for Ukraine, bringing a dramatic end to a criminal case that spun out of the special counsel’s Russia investigation and ensnared a venerated Washington lawyer who served as President Barack Obama’s first White House counsel.

The verdict from a jury of nine men and three women came after nearly five hours of deliberations and capped off a three-week trial that gripped the legal community and K Street lobbying groups. The trial served as an early test of the Justice Department’s stepped up enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a decades-old law requiring the disclosure of lobbying, public relations work and other influence efforts for overseas powers. Craig was not charged with failing to register under that law, commonly known as FARA.