Attorney Greg Craig (L) Arrives with Retired Gen. James Cartwright, (R), for a hearing at US District Court, October 17, 2016 in Washington, DC.

A federal judge on Tuesday dropped one of the two criminal charges against President Barack Obama's White House counsel, Greg Craig, who is accused of lying about his work for Ukraine.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed a count of making false and misleading statements to the Department of Justice's Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, unit.

The other charge of lying, brought under a separate but related law, will proceed to trial. Craig had argued that both counts should be dismissed. He had faced a maximum of five years in prison for each count.

Craig's legal team had no comment on the judge's decision. Craig's trial is set to begin next Monday.

The charges against Craig stemmed from the federal probe of Russian election interference, possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump and possible coordination between the Kremlin and Trump's campaign led by former special counsel Robert Mueller.

Craig, 74, was charged with lying to the special counsel's office about his work in 2012 and 2013 for the government of then-Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich, during his time as a partner at law firm Skadden Arps. He was accused in Washington, D.C., District Court of making false statements to avoid registering as a foreign agent.

He also faced a count of making false statements and leaving out important information in a 2013 letter he sent to the FARA unit about that work.

But Jackson determined that, while she can "fairly square the plain language" of the FARA law's provision about lying, she determined that "that the legislature's clear intent cannot be discerned."