Serious Trouble

The Supreme Court declined to save Donald Trump from being sentenced in his New York criminal case, but the justices said that decision was in part because there wasn’t much to save him from: Judge Juan Merchan had indicated that he would sentence Trump to an unconditional discharge, i.e. no punishment. In other Trump-criminal-case-wind-down news, Judge Aileen Cannon has continued to make trouble for DOJ officials seeking to release parts of a report about Trump’s two federal criminal prosecutions. Plus: Smartmatic’s defamation case against Fox News (and Fox Corporation) moves closer to trial; an FBI informant lied to the government about Joe and Hunter Biden receiving $10 million in bribes from Ukrainian sources and he was also evading taxes, and so he ended up being prosecuted by the same prosecutor who was prosecuting Hunter Biden for evading taxes, and he pleaded guilty, and now he's been sentenced; and Rudy Giuliani is now in double contempt, in federal courts in New York and Washington. Visit serioustrouble.show to find a transcript of this episode. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.serioustrouble.show/subscribe

It’s already a busy 2025 for some of our favorite characters. On this episode: Rudy Giuliani has been held in contempt in proceedings in Judge Lewis Liman’s courtroom, where he has stalled the liquidation of his assets for the benefit of two women he defamed. Donald Trump gets an "unconditional discharge" penalty from Judge Juan Merchan and is trying to stop the release of Jack Smith's report. George Santos asks a judge to delay his sentencing so he can develop and monetize his podcast (!), Eric Adams wants to know who's accusing him of what, and finally: did Josh defame Luigi Mangione? Visit serioustrouble.show to sign up for our newsletter and find transcripts of episodes. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.serioustrouble.show/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Welcome to the first Serious Trouble episode of 2025! For all subscribers this week, Ken and Josh discuss Luigi Mangione’s indictments in both Pennsylvania and New York, and he’s also the subject of a federal criminal complaint. Both New York and the Feds look eager to prosecute him, and there’s going to be wrangling over who gets to go first, with an important difference in the stakes — he’s facing a capital federal charge, while New York does not have the death penalty. New York’s top count — murder as an act of terrorism — poses some challenges for the state to prove. For paying subscribers: The dueling lawsuits brought by the actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, each accusing the other of wrongdoing during and after the making of their hit film “It Ends With Us;” a discussion of the appellate ruling that upheld one of the judgments E. Jean Carroll won against Donald Trump; a look at why Matt Gaetz, even after resigning from Congress, couldn’t block the release of the ethics committee report that alleges he had sex with a 17-year-old in violation of Florida law; and an update on the civil lawsuit against Jay-Z, who will continue to defend himself against a rape allegation from an anonymous plaintiff — and about how his hyperaggressive lawyer, Alex Spiro, is pissing off Judge Analisa Torres. Upgrade your subscription at serioustrouble.show to hear the whole thing!

This is our last episode of 2024! We'll be back right after the new year to discuss new messes. Today, we look at the substantial settlement that Disney-owned ABC has agreed to pay over George Stephanopoulos’s repeated assertions that Donald Trump had been found “liable for rape” by a jury or juries. And Trump sues CBS, Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register. Plus: Judge Juan Merchan has ruled that the Supreme Court decision establishing a sphere of presidential immunity does not compromise the guilty verdicts Trump faced in his court — we discuss the reasons. Meanwhile, Mike Flynn has lost an incompetently-litigated defamation case against Rick Wilson; a Blue Cross customer faces criminal charges for telling a call center worker “you people are next” in an argument over a claim denial; and Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Eric Adams’ longtime right-hand woman, continues to find ways to annoy Ken by not shutting up about her impending criminal charges. Visit serioustrouble.show to support the show and to find a transcript of this episode. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.serioustrouble.show/subscribe

People get really weird when a murder suspect is hot, huh? Luigi Mangione needs to be extradited to New York, and he’s resisting that — we discuss why it can make sense for a defendant to delay the inevitable. Also in New York, Daniel Penny has been acquitted of criminally negligent homicide in the killing of Jordan Neely. Juries can get weird. Plus: InfoWars may not be sold to The Onion after all, an expert witness in AI used AI to write his testimony and it hallucinated some fake cases (oops!), we have learned that John Doe is Jay-Z, and some Trump associates are now facing charges in Wisconsin related to defrauding the fake electors. Visit serioustrouble.show to sign up for our newsletter, and find a transcript of this episode. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.serioustrouble.show/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Joe Biden has committed the ultimate act of snowplow parenting: a presidential pardon for his son, and not just for the specific acts he faced charges over, but for anything he did between 2014 and five days ago. This week, Ken and I discuss exactly how unusual this pardon was and exactly what kinds of norms about pardons even remain to enforce, and rumors that Biden might hand out a lot more preemptive pardons for figures who could be targeted by an FBI led by Kash Patel — and what it would mean for the rule of law if he did. That’s for free subscribers. For paid subscribers, we have Atlanta criminal defense attorney Andrew Fleischman back with us this week, to talk about the ignominious end to the Young Thug RICO trial, plus a look at Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormack’s repeat rejection of Elon Musk’s $50+ billion pay package, a discussion of Judge Arun Subramanian’s repeat rejection of Sean Combs’s request for bail, and answers to listener questions about Drake’s legal beef with Kendrick Lamar. To hear the whole show, upgrade your subscription at serioustrouble.show

Did you know Ken is a huge Kendrick Lamar fan? Well, not really. But he is psyched that Lamar and Drake have produced some truly hilarious litigation to discuss. Their beef goes back years, and they have traded diss tracks — in Kendrick's latest, he calls Drake a “certified pedophile” who’s “tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A Minor.” Is that defamation? If you’re a regular listener to this show, you know it very likely isn’t — and even Drake isn’t quite ready to sue for defamation. But he has filed — in two different states — petitions for pre-litigation discovery, to explore the possibility that Lamar and their shared label, Universal Music Group, may have committed various torts against him. What torts? Well, in the Texas petition, he wants to look at defamation. In New York, he wants to explore the possibility that Lamar and UMG competed against him unfairly, by nefariously over-promoting the song, or something. He also suggests this could be the RICO! Plus: Jack Smith has moved to dismiss the January 6-related case against Donald Trump on the grounds that the Office of Legal Counsel has long prohibited prosecutions of sitting presidents. DOJ is also dropping its appeal of Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision throwing out the documents against Trump — but the department is not yet dropping the appeal with regard to his co-defendants, meaning there will be at least a part of this prosecution left for Trump’s DOJ to cancel. Jussie Smollett’s conviction got tossed by the Illinois Supreme Court, and Ken answers several of the questions you sent in. Visit serioustrouble.show to sign up for our newsletter and find a transcript of this episode. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.serioustrouble.show/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Wouldn’t you know we recorded this show Thursday at 11am Eastern, just in time for Matt Gaetz to withdraw his candidacy for Attorney General a bit after noon? Don’t worry — we went back and recorded a new beginning of the episode, tossing out the now moot (probably?) conversation we had about the ethics report everyone in Washington wants to see. Ken and I still took the opportunity to talk about how a DOJ under someone (probably?) more competent will look different than one that Gaetz would have run. And we look at another cabinet nominee — Pete Hegseth, slated to run the Department of Defense — who also stands accused of sexual misconduct that also never resulted in criminal charges. Paying subscribers (thank you for your support!) get a bunch more, including: * Drama over The Onion’s attempt to buy Infowars at a bankruptcy auction * Donald Trump’s new anti-SLAPP motion, and an update from Ken on a defamation case he successfully defended on anti-SLAPP grounds. * The raid on Diddy’s prison cell * Another lawsuit from a celebrity John Doe! Plus, more Rudy Giuliani nonsense. Visit serioustrouble.show to upgrade your subscription.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Last week’s presidential election, which has made Donald Trump once again the president-elect, will obviously have profound effects on the various criminal cases against him. On this show, we cover the Department of Justice winding down the two federal prosecutions and why they're doing it now, and the prospects for the prosecutions in Georgia and New York. For paying subscribers: a deeper conversation on what should have been done differently in the handling of all these prosecutions. How could this have played out differently? Would it have been different, after all? Plus: an update on the search for Rudy Giuliani’s assets — he showed up to vote in the very same Mercedes convertible his creditors have been having trouble locating — and one FTX-related story we missed last month. Sign up for the premium version of the show at serioustrouble.show.

For your Election Day listening pleasure, we have an episode for you covering the news that has arisen in the lead-up to the election: * Updates on Eric Adams, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says her office is looking into whether Donald Trump illegally threatened Liz Cheney at a rally in Arizona. * Young Thug, the Atlanta rapper who has stood accused of running a street gang, pleaded guilty in the long-running, very messy RICO case where he has stood trial alongside several of his associates. Plus: MyPillow founder Mike Lindell is saying a lender did the RICO, Rudy Giuliani is having a rough time defending himself in litigation brought by his (alleged) ex-employee, Noelle Dunphy; can Elon Musk give million-dollar prizes to PA voters who sign his organization's petition? And Trump is trying to use the law against the media in various ways that are likely to prove unavailing. Visit serioustrouble.show to find a transcript and sign up for our newsletter. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.serioustrouble.show/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show For all listeners, we have updates this week on Michael Avenatti, Aileen Cannon, Laura Loomer and Bill Maher. Our valued paying subscribers (thank you for your support!) will also hear about: the Central Park Five lawsuit against Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani being ordered to hand over assets to the election workers he defamed, FTX defendant Ryan Salame, who alleges (dubiously) that federal prosecutors double-crossed him and his girlfriend, and Ron DeSantis ordering Florida television stations to stop airing commercials for a pro-choice ballot measure. Upgrade your subscription at serioustrouble.show (if you haven't already) to get the full episode.

SpaceX is suing the California Coastal Commission for objecting to a plan to increase the frequency of SpaceX launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The commissioners did raise some concerns that actually relate to the Pacific coastline, but they also mouthed off about how they dislike SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s general political activities. And Judge Tanya Chutkan considers how the Supreme Court decision in Fischer affects the criminal charge against Donald Trump for obstructing an official proceeding, and considers a motion from Trump to delay the release of an appendix to Jack Smith’s long memo on the evidence he wishes to present in the case. Plus: Mark Robinson (the Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina) is suing CNN, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss continue to seek to collect the $146 million judgment they won against Rudy Giuliani, and Fani Willis replies all. Yikes. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.serioustrouble.show/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show The long memo Jack Smith promised is here: a 185-page document laying out evidence he’d like to present in his January 6-related case against Donald Trump. The memo has to be so long because the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity was so complex and vague: Smith must show, act by act, that he’s offering evidence either of Trump’s unofficial actions, or of official acts where he can overcome the presumption of immunity. Ken and I discuss how Smith argues that most of the acts he wants to present are unofficial, his case that Trump’s official efforts to coerce Pence are fair game, and how long it’s going to take courts to adjudicate all these questions before a trial can start (years). For paying subscribers, we also discuss: * One of the bitchiest motions Ken has ever seen * Clare Locke surviving a motion to dismiss in their nine-year-old-fan-of-Kansas-City-Chiefs client’s defamation case against Deadspin, for having accused him of wearing blackface and hating black people and Native Americans * Garth Brooks (a.k.a. the anonymous celebrity “John Doe”) facing an anonymous lawsuit from his former hairstylist, who he also tried to sue anonymously to stop her from suing him anonymously * Professor Joe Gow, who will sue the University of Wisconsin for dismissing him over his vegan porn side project; * Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters getting nine years in prison for her “Stop the Steal” efforts * Updates on the Eric Adams scandal To get the whole episode, subscribe at serioustrouble.show.

Federal prosecutors allege that New York mayor Eric Adams accepted tens of thousands of dollars of free business-class upgrade on Turkish Airlines as part of a broader scheme to receive illegal support from foreign nationals (including concealed political donations from Turks) in exchange for official favors, including from the Fire Department of New York. This is a long, fun “speaking indictment” with juicy details. Plus, there’s other news: Three Iranian hackers indicted for the breach of Trump campaign documents; a hot bench in an appellate hearing over the $450 million Trump civil judgment that may or may not amount to anything; and a settlement in Smartmatic v. Newsmax that everyone is pretending to be happy about. Visit serioustrouble.show to sign up for our newsletter and find a transcript of this episode. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.serioustrouble.show/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Ryan Wesley Routh has been charged with attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate. Ken and Josh discuss how proving Routh’s intent to kill the former president might be challenging (had he not left a note expressing his intent), and we talk about what “attempt” is — Routh never pulled the trigger, but there are a number of “substantial steps” he took toward killing Trump that should still make this case not that hard for prosecutors to prove. Plus: a light sentence for Caroline Ellison for her role in the FTX implosion, Judge Chutkan OK's a long brief from the special counsel on presidential immunity, an advocacy group tries to get criminal charges for Trump and Vance for their comments about Haitian immigrants in Ohio, Brett Favre can't sue Shannon Sharpe, and Matt Gaetz updates. Sign up at serioustrouble.show to listen to the whole episode.

We were kind of expecting Sean Combs to get indicted sooner or later, but we weren’t expecting the indictment to be for RICO. Federal prosecutors allege that Combs, as the leader of the “Combs Enterprise,” led a criminal organization for purposes including coercing female victims to have sex with male prostitutes at drug-fueled orgies known as “freak-offs.” Is that really RICO? Plus: just gun charges (for now) for the man caught laying in wait for Donald Trump at his Florida golf course with a rifle, and a lot of hot, hot defamation action. Visit serioustrouble.show to sign up for the newsletter and to support the show. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.serioustrouble.show/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Josh and Ken discuss developments in the Data Colada-Francesca Gino-Harvard case, Sarah Palin's defamation case against the New York Times (for free subscribers), and (for paying subscribers) the different philosophies the judges have about how the presidential election should affect the scheduling of the Trump criminal cases they preside over. Plus: Hunter Biden's Alford plea, the Tenet Media FARA case and whether it’s okay to be an unregistered foreign agent if you’re the agent of a Belgian, and a pre-indictment preview of the serious trouble that awaits New York Mayor Eric Adams and many of his aides. Visit serioustrouble.show to become a paying subscriber and to find a transcript of this episode.

You probably saw the moronic TikTok trend in which check fraud became trendy and was rebranded as a “glitch” that allowed you to get large amounts of money out of any Chase ATM, even if you had little cash in your account. It’s federally illegal, it’s illegal in every state, and “I saw it on TikTok” isn’t a defense. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean every one of these cases will be interesting to prosecutors. Speaking of stupid criminals: Jacob Wohl and his sidekick Jack Burkman are back in the news; Russians are indicted over a scheme to pay right-wing influencers; Trump tries (again) to get his hush money prosecution removed to federal court, but is still unlikely to succeed. Visit serioustrouble.show to find a transcript of this episode and to sign up for our newsletter. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.serioustrouble.show/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Jack Smith is attempting to salvage his two federal prosecutions of Donald Trump with a superseding indictment that removes evidence about Trump’s presidential acts from the document backing his charges over Trump’s effort to steal the 2020 election. The new indictment removes the allegations that are closest to the core of presidential powers — for example, Trump’s efforts to get the Department of Justice to open a bogus investigation — while retaining other acts Smith believes he can successfully argue were unofficial. Plus: Jack Smith counters Judge Cannon's dismissal of the documents case; Arizona defendants in the case about the state’s fake-elector scheme are using the state’s very odd anti-SLAPP statute to argue their charges should be dismissed; onetime-superlawyer Tom Girardi was convicted of stealing huge sums from his clients; the Ketamine Queen now has a prominent defense lawyer; LiveNation’s CEO may have to be deposed in a lawsuit over the Astroworld music festival disaster, despite the apex witness doctrine and Texas’s efforts to position itself as the pro-business court state. Finally, we have a correction from last week. When we talked about a motion Disney made in a wrongful death case arguing a litigant would have to arbitrate because he entered into an arbitration agreement as part of his Disney+ service contract, we misidentified the prestigious law firm that surprised us by making the argument. It was White & Case, not O’Melveny & Myers. We regret the error. Visit serioustrouble.show and sign up to support the show in order to hear this entire episode.

George Santos has pleaded guilty and will likely be sentenced next February to several years in federal prison. Santos also lost his copyright claim against Disney over his Cameo videos that were broadcast on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Disney had less luck trying to argue that a customer whose wife died of an allergic reaction would have to arbitrate any wrongful death claim because of an obscure clause in the service contract for Disney+. Several associates of Matthew Perry were indicted for their roles in getting him the ketamine that killed him, and DC Councilmember Trayon White, last seen saying dumb things about the Rothschilds, is now a defendant in a very dumb bribery case. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.serioustrouble.show/subscribe