Thread by @soychicka

CNN just identified a couple of attorneys party to the super-secret Mueller trial that Roberts just sent back to the lower courts.

Brian D. Boone + Ted Kang from Alston & Bird.
Real-time thread research to follow.
cnn.com/2019/01/09/pol…

A little background on the firm's Russia/Ukraine links can be found here:

"... the law firm of Alston & Bird, which is the professional home of former senator and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole..."
nbcnews.com/storyline/ukra…

This is somewhat curious: the same firm was terminated in their representation of Christopher Steele for the Buzzfeed vs XBT/Webzilla case back in August 2017.
law360.com/cases/58b5a4f6…

Here's a court document filed that day - it looks like that was the day his motion to avoid being deposed in the case was denied.

politico.com/f/?id=0000015d…

This is the only article I'm finding quickly about the deposition, but oddly, it still cites Eikhoff's involvement in the case a year after the firm's termination?

foxnews.com/politics/chris…

Welp, it appears that ABC also confirms that Alston + King was still representing Steele in fall of 2018, so I don't know what that 'terminated' is in reference to.

abcnews.go.com/beta-story-con…

So. Let's back up.

Meet Ted Kang.
Former US Prosecutor, previously an AUSA in New Haven, CT

alston.com/en/professiona…

He apparently is a specialist in white collar defense, Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act, False Claims Act, and Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions

And he gave a talk on the challenges of maintaining attorney-client privileges in anti-corruption cases last spring.

(did that include closing an entire floor in a courthouse to the public? LOL. )

Here's Brian D. Boone, appellate counsel based in... North Carolina.

I can't say why, but that seems like it might end up being significant.
alston.com/en/professiona…

And this could be nothing, but it appears he's at minimum dipped his toe into the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

That's all I've got for now, save one thing: I believe that law firms are not allowed to represent clients with opposing interests per the rules of ethics, so that would suggest either this client is distinct from the Steele dossier... or is directly linked to Steele's interests

but not some fuzzy middle ground.

But someone might want to check me on that.

OH! Except that some aspects of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act is also what the Saudis are in opposition to, because of the 9/11 victims' families suit.

And it would be REALLY interesting if Mueller's team was on that.