Serious Trouble

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This 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...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This 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 victim...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This 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 bal...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This 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construction, and what to make of the block on Trump's executive order defunding PBS and NPR since Congress has rescinded their funding.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: * C...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This 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...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This 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 abou...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This 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 s...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This 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 wh...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This 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 . W...

This week Ken and Josh discuss the Supreme Court's ruling in Learning Resources v. Trump , throwing out the massive country-specific tariffs the president purported to impose under the Nixon-era International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The opinion was messy: 6-3, but with the six-justice majority not agreeing on exactly why the tariffs were illegal. Also this week, we look at a contempt order...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This week Ken and Josh discuss a D.C. grand jury declining to indict Democrats in Congress, Don Lemon's new high-profile lawyer, and Trump's lawsuit against the IRS. That’s for all subscribers this week. Paying subscribers get more conversation: * A look at a highly consequential ruling from the Fifth Circuit, up...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This week, Ken and Josh discuss Julie Le, the DOJ lawyer who vented in court that it "sucks" to represent this government. They cover what you should do if you’re a lawyer whose client is frustratingly non-compliant and taking actions that bother you; venting to the judge is the wrong course of action, but there...

This week Ken and Josh discuss how the Feds got an arrest warrant for Don Lemon after all. Before prosecutors got the grand jury indictment, they tried through some really irregular channels to get Lemon arrested more quickly. When a magistrate judge rejected an arrest warrant application for Lemon last week, rather than applying again or proceeding to the grand jury, prosecutors asked Judge Patri...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This week, Ken and Josh discuss the end of Lindsey Halligan's purported reign in the Eastern District of Virginia, and news reports that ICE is relying on a secret legal memorandum asserting that it can enter homes to search for aliens subject to final orders of removal, even if there’s no warrant from an Article...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Fed Chair Jerome Powell dropped a bombshell on Sunday: a video disclosing the Fed had been subpoenaed in a criminal investigation related to his congressional testimony about cost overruns in the Fed’s headquarters renovation. Powell said bluntly that the investigation is an effort to use the DOJ to assert contro...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This week’s episode starts with the arrest and indictment of Nicolas Maduro, and the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of an ICE agent in Minneapolis. That’s for free subscribers. Paying subscribers also get a look at a shadow docket ruling from the Supreme Court that curtailed Trump’s ability to d...

Some of the Epstein files have been released, but there's a lot of blacked-out text and pictures. The Justice Department is supposed to redact certain information but of course there’s the ever-present question of whether all redaction “errors” are errors, or whether this administration has its thumb on the scale for the president. Also in this episode: the Pulitzer Board requests President Trump'...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show A grand jury has refused to indict Letitia James — no, this isn’t a repeat of last week’s email; it just happened again since we last recorded. This time, it’s a different grand jury, and we discuss further impediments to the resurrection of the cases against her and James Comey. That, plus a discussion of the un...

This week: more news in the Letitia James and James Comey cases. DOJ tried to re-indict James, but they got a no-bill, and in the Comey case, the government is a bit held up by a motion from Comey's sometime-lawyer and friend. Meanwhile, Lindsey Halligan is still running around, acting like she’s the U.S. Attorney (even though the fact that she isn’t is why these cases got dismissed), but Alina Ha...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show The criminal cases against James Comey and Letitia James were both dismissed, without prejudice, on the grounds that former insurance attorney Lindsey Halligan was never properly appointed as an interim US Attorney. Trump’s Justice Department has options, and we talk through them. That conversation is for free li...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Now that Congress has voted overwhelmingly to require the release of the Epstein files, we discuss what’s likely to be in those files, what the administration might do to undermine the intent of the law requiring release, and whether we really ought to learn so much about this case. That conversation is for free...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Sandwich Guy is free! Sean Dunn was acquitted of simple assault by a jury of his peers. Meanwhile, Lindsey Halligan continues to face difficulties in her case against James Comey, and the Justice Department generally is having trouble finding a sufficient number of qualified attorneys . That’s all in this week’s...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show On this week's show for everyone: two court decisions direct the Trump administration to continue sending SNAP (food stamp) funds to states and the administration has chosen not to appeal these orders — likely not relishing the politics of withholding SNAP funds — but the legal situation may get more complicated...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This week, both James Comey and Letitia James continue to seek dismissal of the criminal charges brought against them, and one argument they’ve both made will be considered by a judge from another state. We talk about why that's happening, we also discuss a lesson from the Barry Bonds steroids case that could be...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This week in the free episode: the indictment of John Bolton and how it's pretty different from the Comey indictment, plus Trump's apparent demand that the Justice Department pay him $230 million for the indignity of being prosecuted. Paying subscribers also get to hear a dive into two wild NBA-related indictment...