Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating alleged ties between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia, has hired 13 lawyers to handle the probe, and has plans to add more, according to Peter Carr, his spokesman.
The team includes experienced attorneys who have represented top American companies and some that worked on cases such as Watergate and the Enron fraud, CNN is reporting.
Mueller brought in James Quarles and Jeannie Rhee from his previous firm WilmerHale, and Andrew Weissmann, the leader of the Enron fraud investigation. The political leanings of those three have come under fire, as they have been noted donors to Democrats.
Other hires include Michael R. Dreeben, a deputy solicitor general, and Lisa C. Page, an FBI lawyer, according to The New York Times.
The special counsel's investigators have sought information from Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats as well as National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers. They also have pursued information from Richard Ledgett, the recently retired NSA deputy director, according to a source in the CNN report.
Those interviews point to the initial efforts from Mueller's newly gathered team and sources in law enforcement told CNN that the special counsel is considering whether enough evidence exists to start up a probe into obstruction.
The decision sits with Mueller about whether enough evidence exists to call for charges in any part of the probe, CNN reported.
Trump on Thursday took to Twitter to say the probe is being "led by some very bad and conflicted people!"
"If you're afraid of what the prosecutors are going to find out, you try to debunk anything they might come up with in advance by attacking them," Philip Allen Lacovara, a Republican and a Watergate prosecutor, told The Times.
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