Serious Trouble

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showThis week Ken and Josh discuss the James Comey indictment, this time, purportedly for threatening the president with seashells. They also discuss the criminal complaint against would-be assassin Cole Tomas Allen and Maurene Comey’s lawsuit over her firing for being James Comey’s daughter.That’s this week’s free show. Paying subscribers also get:* Jeanine Pirro’s screw-up that has resulted in Trump getting less influence at the Federal Reserve than he’d probably have if she’d just played it cool.* A wrench in Trump’s plan to have the IRS pay him a big settlement.* Roy Moore and Diddy have something additional in common — they both are failures at defamation litigation.* A well-deserved spanking for Sam Bankman-Fried.* The SPLC, fighting back.* An apology to Elon Musk from the busybodies at the California Coastal Commission, and* An apology from Sullivan & Cromwell for AI hallucinations in a filing.Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showThis week Ken and Josh discuss several big defamation suits. The Atlantic has reported that Kash Patel is often drunk and derelict in his duties as FBI Director. But Patel says he’s only guilty of working really hard, and he’s suing the Atlantic. He’s got a theory he says is a “slam dunk” — The Atlantic defamed him with actual malice because he denied the accusations against him but they printed him anyway. That theory didn’t work for Trump against The Wall Street Journal and it didn’t work for Patel against Frank Figliuzzi Jr., who accused him of being a nightclub rat on Morning Joe, but maybe it will work this time? (It won’t).Also, his lawyer did something incompetent — shocker.And more formidably, former Capitol Police officer Shauni Kerkhoff is suing The Blaze and two of its “journalists” for accusing her of being the Capitol Hill pipe bomber, on the basis of a shoddy “gait analysis” alleging that her limp matched the way the bomber walked on surveillance video. Proving actual malice is hard — as a police officer, Kerkhoff is treated as a public figure in the coverage of her work — but the journalists’ persistence with their accusations even after Brian Cole was arrested for the bombings strengthens her case. She also has very real defamation lawyers: Clare Locke, the firm that got the huge settlement out of Fox for Dominion Voting Systems.That defamation coverage is for all listeners this week. In the full premium episode, there’s also:* Even more defamation coverage, with Laura Loomer losing at summary judgment in her lawsuit against Bill Maher, and Megan Thee Stallion failing to obtain a court order instructing Milagro Cooper to stop talking about her.* A preliminary injunction telling Apple and Facebook to restore anti-ICE resources they took off the internet at the government’s behest.* The SPLC indictment.* A settlement for Carter Page.* A Sam Bankman-Fried update.* And a court ruling that says it’s legal to be a huge dick in Alabama.Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showThis week Ken and Josh discuss Eric Swallwell and how prosecutors in Manhattan and Los Angeles are looking into sexual assault allegations against the now-former congressman. Meanwhile, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro — who oversees local felony prosecutions in the District of Columbia — has set up a hotline for victims who may have been assaulted by Swalwell there.Besides looking into Swalwell, Pirro sent a couple of her henchpersons to the under-construction Federal Reserve headquarters looking for … something. An “I personally ordered the cost overruns” note from Jay Powell? We’re not sure, and probably neither were they — going to the crime scene is not something AUSAs do, as Ken notes from his own rueful experience of being denied an all-expenses paid trip to the Inland Empire, and the stunt seems only to have strengthened the resolve of Sen. Thom Tillis to block any confirmations of Trump Fed nominees.That’s on this week’s show plus, for paying subscribers:* Trump moves to vacate convictions of Oath Keeper and Proud Boy January 6 defendants whose convictions he’d previously chosen not to pardon;* A panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals again frustrates James Boasberg’s investigation into non-compliance with his orders about deportations;* Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal is dismissed for failure to plead actual malice;* The Pentagon continues to try to avoid complying with an order to reinstate reporters’ access;* Bill Essayli loses yet another case against immigration protesters; and* A lesson on aesthetic standing (and how not to use AI!) from the Tiger King.Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showThis week Ken and Josh discuss updates on three of their favorite characters: Michael Avenatti, Pam Bondi, and Ed Martin.That's for all subscribers. Paying subscribers will also hear their conversations about:* Trump’s emergency motion to lift the stay on construction of the “desperately needed” White House ballroom, and a discussion of why the plaintiffs’ claims to standing are stronger than we gave them credit for last week.* A Clavicular-alligator update.* If you’re going to talk about how you want to do terrorism, don’t do it in front of your dash cam.* Long-suffering federal judge Lewis Liman’s 152-page order dismissing most, but not all, of Blake Lively’s claims against the producers of It Ends With Us (and their publicists), and Ken’s discussion of why you shouldn’t sexually harass your independent contractors, even if it might technically not be illegal.* Elon Musk’s antitrust loss.Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showThis week Ken and Josh discuss Anthropic's big win, the injunction on Trump's ballroom construction, and what to make of the block on Trump's executive order defunding PBS and NPR since Congress has rescinded their funding.That's for all subscribers. Paying subscribers will also hear our conversations about:* Covington & Burling warned its client, ActBlue, that some statements ActBlue made in a 2023 letter to congressional leaders may have been misleading, and that ActBlue’s CEO probably needs her own lawyer to deal with her legal exposure around that fact. ActBlue responded by firing Covington & Burling. It’s a big old mess, and Ken describes how this kind of thing can happen when you represent an entity, and the entity’s legal needs don’t always line up with the legal needs of its executives.* A Colorado appeals court threw out Tina Peters’ nine-year sentence for voting machine tampering, saying the judge raised her sentence in response to her constitutionally-protected speech.* After his car accident, Tiger Woods issued a statement saying he will step away and “seek treatment.” It’s an implicit admission of DUI, but as Ken notes, he’s very unlikely to beat the rap on DUI anyway, and this is a situation where his PR need to speak up and take responsibility may actually outweigh his legal prerogative to shut up.* FBI agents are suing Kash Patel for wrongful termination, and taking the opportunity to tell embarrassing stories about Patel that may not be strictly germane to their litigation.* Some people who went to the Capitol for January 6 have filed a new class action lawsuit, apparently hoping to join in on the Trump settlement gravy train.* Be careful what buttons you click on LinkedIn.* And, by popular demand, Ken analyzes Clavicular’s predicaments.Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showThis week Ken and Josh discuss Judge Lewis Kaplan losing some patience with Sam Bankman-Fried, and not just because Bankman-Fried’s mom tried to communicate with him ex parte. SBF has been making purportedly pro se filings, at least one of which appears to have been dictated to and FedExed by his mother, and he simultaneously has an appeal proceeding in the appeals court with real lawyers. Kaplan says he has to choose — are you pro se or not? And he wants to know — have any lawyers besides mom been helping with these filings he’s supposedly personally responsible for?Meanwhile, the “Department of War” has been having a rough time in court. The Pentagon’s anti-reporting press policy has been thrown out as a First Amendment violation, so now the Pentagon says no reporters at all can work out of the Pentagon press room. Meanwhile, Anthropic won a preliminary injunction blocking the Pentagon’s declaration that the company is a “Supply Chain Risk.” (The Anthropic order came down after we taped — we’ll have a further update on next week’s show.)That’s for all subscribers. Paying subscribers will also hear our conversations about:* DOJ’s admission that it had no evidence of a crime related to Jay Powell’s testimony about Federal Reserve headquarters renovation cost overruns (and the surprisingly low bar for issuing a subpoena that the government nevertheless failed to clear).* A surprisingly practical choice by DOJ in New Jersey.* Minnesota’s effort to force the federal government to disclose investigative material related to the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renée Good.* Mike Lindell in contempt of court.* Mike Flynn getting a settlement from Trump for his alleged persecution by Trump’s own DOJ.* No protective order for those DOGE henchman depositions.* And the Oklahoma Supreme Court telling attorneys to go ahead and use AI, if they dare.Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showThis week Ken and Josh discuss the Afroman trial and also look at a rough hearing for AUSAs in New Jersey, as the Trump administration decides it will hire candidates straight out of law school to work in US Attorneys’ offices.That’s for all subscribers. Paying subscribers will also hear our conversations about:* Judge James Boasberg’s order quashing subpoenas to the Federal Reserve, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s choice to appeal that order, and Boasberg’s other order requiring the disclosure of grand jury no-bills.* Capitol pipe bomber defendant Brian Cole, who has made his anticipated claim that the president’s pardon of January 6 rioters also applies to him (even though this seems to go against the plain language of the pardon, which applies only to those “convicted” of offenses related to January 6.)* Sam Bankman-Fried’s mom, who got slapped down for trying to have ex-parte communications with the judge overseeing his case; Judge Lewis Kaplan reminded Prof. Barbara Fried that she might be a lawyer, but she’s not her son’s lawyer, at least not in this case.* Defendants convicted of terrorism-related offenses in Texas over an anti-ICE action where they set off fireworks and one defendant shot a law enforcement officer in the neck; as Ken notes, despite the rhetoric on both sides, this trial was never really about whether ‘Antifa’ constitutes a terror organization.* More hot hot administrative procedure action, with Judge Brian Murphy issuing a preliminary injunction against the new, laxer child vaccination guidelines from Robert F. Kennedy Jr’.s Department of Health and Human Services.* And dog-fashion magazine Dogue, which is being sued by Condé Nast for infringing the Vogue trademark.Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showThis week Ken and Josh discuss the Customs Service saying its computers won't let it refund IEEPA tariffs, more situations where courts are telling the Trump Administration it can’t just ignore the need to get officials confirmed by the Senate, and another decision about ICE.That's for all subscribers. Paying subscribers will also hear our conversations about a number of additional lawsuits, including some especially weird ones:* Voting machine maker Smartmatic’s parent company under indictment over bribes its former executives are alleged to have paid in the Philippines, alleges that it is being selectively and vindictively prosecuted.* Anthropic suing over the Pentagon’s “supply chain risk” designation that threatens the company’s business. The company makes First Amendment claims, but Ken thinks its less glamorous arguments — like that the designation violated everyone’s favorite law, the Administrative Procedure Act — are more persuasive.* Nippon Life Insurance Company of America suing OpenAI, the makers of the ChatGPT AI engine. Nippon says it has been dogged by a vexatious litigant — she decided she didn’t like the settlement she’d signed with the company, and when her human lawyer advised her that settlements are a no-backsies kind of situation, she fired him in favor of the AI engine that gave her the advice she wanted to hear: sue, sue, sue. Nippon says this is tortious interference with the valid settlement contract they’d entered with their aggrieved former policyholder. Because tortious interference requires knowledge of the contract you’re interfering with, this lawsuit turns an interesting philosophical question into an interesting legal one — did OpenAI “know” that Nippon had a settlement, simply because their former policyholder told ChatGPT about it?* And Ed Martin appears to be the Justice Department official with some especially stupid bar trouble.Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showThis week Ken and Josh discuss how The Trump Administration surprised observers by withdrawing its efforts to appeal its losses against all four law firms that challenged its legal orders against them. Then, it surprised observers again by changing its mind and asking to appeal the cases after all. We discuss why, whether you’re allowed to do that, and what happens to the nine firms that didn’t fight when the other firms win.We also look at a strange letter from the Department of Justice to state bar associations, telling them they’ll have to pause investigations into DOJ lawyers, or else. It’s unclear what authority DOJ thinks it has here, but they may be upset about a Florida Bar investigation into Lindsey Halligan. And we talk about news that DOJ tried to come up with a way to do a criminal prosecution related to President Biden’s autopen, but didn’t.That’s for all listeners. Paying subscribers get a whole lot more this week:* You’d think, now that the IEEPA tariffs have been thrown out, customs would stop charging them to importers. You’d be wrong! The customs bureau keeps finalizing tariff payments including the now-barred IEEPA charges — in a filing issued after we taped, they argued their computers won’t let them stop — but Judge Richard Eaton from the U.S. Court of International Trade has told them to cut the crap and refund taxpayers’ money. Ken and I discuss how this episode might affect the next round of tariff litigation over the new legal authorities the administration is leaning on to replace IEEPA.* There’s Administrative Procedure Act news! Judge Lewis Liman says the Trump Department of Transportation can’t end New York’s congestion pricing program, in an order that Ken calls “149 pages of pain.” One of the issues? As often happens with APA cases, the DOT said New York couldn’t challenge its move because they hadn’t actually imposed a “final” agency action. Unfortunately for DOT, President Trump last February tweeted a picture of himself wearing a crown and declaring “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD,” which sounded pretty final to Liman.* We have an update on West Virginia judges resisting the Trump administration on ICE.* We look at why Tom Goldstein couldn’t save his own ass in court, discuss the superseding indictment with a whopping 39 defendants in the St. Paul ICE Church protest case, and we discuss the prosecution in Alabama of a woman who dressed up as a giant penis for a No Kings protest. Local prosecutors argue, among other claims, that she sought to mislead officers as to her identity by saying her name was “Antifa,” and that her huge penis costume was so distracting that it constituted a criminal traffic hazard.Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showThis week Ken and Josh discuss more on tariffs — what awaits litigants like FedEx who seek refunds of payments they made under President Trump’s now-invalidated tariffs, and what courts might do with his efforts to reconstruct the tariffs under non-IEEPA legal authorities that come with their own difficulties. We discuss news that Jeanine Pirro has given up on indicting the Democrats who made the “you must refuse illegal orders” video, and we have an update on Matthew Isihara, the SAUSA who was held in contempt of court in Minneapolis. (At least the detainee who got dumped in El Paso without his documents will get his plane ticket paid for.)That’s for all subscribers. Paying subscribers (thank you for your support!) also get our looks at:* The magistrate judge who authorized a search of a Washington Post reporter’s home but is now angry that the government failed to alert him to a law that appears to make their search illegal. (Isn’t it his job to know the law?)* Aileen Cannon’s efforts to block the release of Jack Smith’s report on the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation.* A ruling from a federal judge in West Virginia with a novel Fourth Amendment theory prohibiting certain ICE tactics (this is likely to get a lot of appellate action).* A ruling that it’s not misleading for Buffalo Wild Wings to market its “boneless wings” which aren’t actually made from wing meat.Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at www.serioustrouble.show.