Jailed Russian of Interest in US Election Probe
Source: Bloomberg
A Russian charged with hacking LinkedIn is of great interest in a U.S. probe of election meddling, according to a Justice Department official, even as his own lawyers complain he hasn't cooperated with them since landing in a California jail in March.
The mystery around Yevgeniy Nikulin deepened Friday when a federal judge asked why his lawyers, who want him evaluated for possible mental illness, chose a San Francisco psychiatrist with a troubled past at California's medical board.
And Nikulin's defense team -- led by a New York-based attorney seasoned in representing Russians and Eastern Europeans charged with serious crimes in the U.S. -- say Russian officials have shown unusually strong interest in his case, arranging at least once to visit him in jail when the attorneys weren't present.
The lead attorney, Arkady Bukh, said he remains concerned, maybe "paranoid," over Nikulin's safety after a former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned earlier this year in England with a nerve agent.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-24/quiet-jailed-russian-said-of-interest-in-u-s-election-meddling
This is the Russian that the Czech Republic was holding in custody for more than a year while the US and Russia fought over which country could extradite him.
Though the US has charged him with other hacking crimes, his attorneys were claiming that FBI agents had come to question him about the DNC hacking, and he denied everything.
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