Alleged Russian Hacker Committed to Feds for Mental Evaluation

(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge in San Francisco committed Yevgeniy Nikulin to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons for a psychological examination to determine if he is fit to face trial for hacking LinkedIn Corp. in 2012. Judge William Alsup vacated Nikulin’s January trial date and ordered an evaluation after Nikulin declined to cooperate with a private examiner hired by his attorneys in San Francisco.

Key Insights

• The Russian is of great interest in the Justice Department’s probe into meddling by Russia in the U.S. presidential election, and the U.S. has been hopeful that Nikulin and other accused hackers can assist the investigation into the breach of Democratic National Committee servers beforehand
• The government could take four to six months to complete the evaluation, which could snag the investigation
• Examination could be followed by ‘competency restoration’ treatment to prepare him for trial

To contact the reporter on this story: Kartikay Mehrotra in San Francisco at kmehrotra2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg

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