Special counsel Robert Mueller added a veteran cyber prosecutor to his team, filling what has long been a gap in expertise and potentially signaling a recent focus on computer crimes, the Washington Post reports. Ryan Dickey was assigned to Mueller’s team from the Justice Department’s computer crime and intellectual-property section. He joined 16 other lawyers, some of whom have come under fire from Republicans wary of some of their political contributions to Democrats. Dickey’s addition is notable because he is the first publicly known member of the team specializing solely in cyber issues. The others’ expertise is mainly in other white-collar crimes, including fraud, money laundering and public corruption.
Mueller was appointed in May to investigate any possible links or coordination between the Russian government and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 election, and any matters that might arise out of that work. He has charged or negotiated plea deals with four former Trump campaign or administration officials. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos are cooperating with the Mueller team. Mueller has indicated to Trump’s legal team that his office is likely to seek an interview with the president, though Trump offered ambiguous comments Wednesday as to whether he would be willing to do that. He denied he had colluded with Russia and said, “It seems unlikely you’d even have an interview.”