Serious Trouble

This week, Ken and I talked about a substantial sanctions order — nearly $1 million — that Donald Trump and his attorney Alina Habba must pay for the frivolous RICO lawsuit they brought against dozens of defendants. As sanctions orders go, this is really big — and Ken thinks Habba should worry about being disbarred — but is this really an effective deterrent against Trump, who got lots of publicity and fundraising opportunities from the suit? We also looked at criminal charges against Alec Baldwin. He is to be tried for involuntary manslaughter related to his fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his film Rust in 2021. When is a terrible accident also a crime? And we talked about Brian Walshe, whose Google searches helped lead to his arrest for the murder of his still-missing wife.Visit serioustrouble.show to subscribe to our newsletter and support the show, and find relevant links and episode transcripts. 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.showKen is utterly dismayed that Sam Bankman-Fried has started a Substack, where he’s writing in great detail about FTX. Then: Ken and Josh talk about the classified documents found at President Biden’s home in Wilmington and the Penn Biden Center in Pennsylvania, if there is legal exposure for the president, among other questions. For paying subscribers, Ken and Josh preview the trial in the securities fraud class action suit brought on behalf of Tesla shareholders (related to Elon Musk's famous “funding secured” tweet), and some updates on George Santos and Allen Weisselberg, who is due at Rikers soon. Visit serioustrouble.show to become a paying subscriber, sign up for our newsletter and find a transcript and other links.

In some ways, George Santos is having a pretty good year. The congressman-elect's new salary is $174,000 a year, which is a lot more than he was making at the Dish Network call center. Of course, there are some other things that aren’t going so great for him. He is a big lying liar who lies, and while lying about whether you ever worked at Goldman Sachs isn’t a crime, some of the lies Santos told could have legal consequences. We talk this week about problems that could arise from statements he made to the government about his finances, or from the manner in which he funded his campaign, and about how prosecutors will go about figuring out whether any of his lies were crimes. Plus: Sam Bankman-Fried, who’s out of Bahamian prison and confined to his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, is fortunate to be out on bail. Two of his top lieutenants (Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang) have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in his prosecution. In theory, his trial is scheduled for October, and we also talked about whether — if he doesn’t eventually change his plea to guilty himself — it will be in his interest to hurry to trial or seek to delay and delay.Finally, a spat between cartoonists. Dilbert creator Scott Adams has threatened to sue right-wing political cartoonist Ben Garrison for drawing a cartoon that suggested Anthony Fauci had hypnotized him into getting vaccinated for COVID. Can a cartoon be defamatory? Maybe. But this one isn’t.Visit serioustrouble.show to sign up for our newsletter, find links and transcripts and 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

We talk a lot on this show about bad clients — people in legal trouble who disregard advice, talk when they should shut up, and generally make their lawyers' lives miserable while increasing their own odds of facing a large judgment award or ending up in prison for a good, long time. You know, clients like Sam Bankman-Fried and Donald Trump. So we thought it would be good to talk about what it takes to be a good client. If you're in legal trouble, what can you do to ensure you leverage your lawyer's skills to get a good outcome, instead of driving him or her to distraction and shooting yourself in the foot?Join the conversation, find transcripts and support the show at serioustrouble.show. Have a Merry Christmas, and we'll see you in January. 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.showSam Bankman-Fried… boy, is he in serious trouble. He’s been indicted on several counts, with the central accusation being that he defrauded customers, lenders, and equity investors doing business with his now-bankrupt companies, FTX and Alameda Research. Importantly, the story Bankman-Fried has been relentlessly telling about himself is a story the government says is still fraud even if it’s true. Ken and I talk about Bankman-Fried as a masterclass in what-not-to-do as a criminal defendant. He seems woefully unprepared to face parallel civil and criminal actions, especially since he continues to proudly describe how he doesn’t listen to what lawyers tell him to do. He is, quite possibly, a worse client than Donald Trump. But that makes him very interesting! This show is about 20 minutes for free subscribers and 40 minutes for paying subscribers — if you want the whole show and this week’s second show on the rest of the news, upgrade now at www.serioustrouble.show.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showSam Bankman-Fried is in serious trouble! And he has a strategy: tweet through it. We talk about the legal risks that come from tweeting through your legal risks — it’s not just that SBF risks providing evidence to help the government prove he committed crimes; he may also be committing new crimes, like wire fraud, in real time. For all listeners, we have a breakdown of the lessons in what-not-to-do from SBF. For premium subscribers, we also look at serious trouble for Elon Musk. He was in the Delaware Chancery Court this week — not to be forced to buy Twitter, but to answer a shareholder lawsuit about his compensation at Tesla. And we have updates on Donald Trump. In the Mar-a-Lago documents case, his lawyers’ arguments seem designed to try the patience of Special Master Raymond Dearie. And in one civil lawsuit, his lawyers are facing Rule 11 sanctions — you have to behave really badly for that to happen — while in another lawsuit (against Elon Musk’s Twitter!) he’s picked up a prestigious, if checkered, legal advocate: former appellate judge Alex Kozinski.Visit serioustrouble.show to become a paying subscriber of the show and you'll get all of our future full length episodes.

In this episode of Serious Trouble, we discuss:- An order granting the New York Attorney General’s request for a monitor to oversee Trump Organization financial activity, and some troubles the Trumps face in this civil action that they would not face in a criminal case.- An acquittal on all counts for Tom Barrack, a businessman and associate of Donald Trump’s who was accused of acting as an unregistered agent for the United Arab Emirates.- The dismissal of Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy’s defamation case against my former employer, Insider, over Insider’s reporting on allegations regarding his sexual behavior.- Elon Musk’s offhand allegation that people trying to pressure companies to pull their ads off Twitter are engaged in “tortious interference” with Twitter’s business.Visit serioustrouble.show to find relevant links and transcripts, and to become a supporter of 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

We answer a listener question about what’s likely to happen to InfoWars, now that Alex Jones and his companies are subject to a $965 million defamation judgment. We also talk about legal difficulties at Fox News — including one that’s overblown. And, after receiving a lot of requests from you to discuss this topic, we talk aboutd the prospects of chess prodigy Hans Niemann’s lawsuit, in which he says world chess champion Magnus Carlsen and others defamed him by accusing him of cheating. Finally, we bring you an update on Jacob Wohl and his guilty plea to a big-boy state felony — while keeping our eyes on the federal prize.Visit www.serioustrouble.show for episode links, a transcript, and to become a supporter of 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.showSomeone close to attorney Christina Bobb is making sure reporters hear it was definitely not her fault that she incorrectly told investigators in June that Trump had already handed over all the marked-classified documents remaining at Mar-a-Lago. Bobb insisted on adding a caveat to her declaration, saying it was based on information provided to her. Bobb likely did that with the intention to insulate herself from legal risk, but Ken says it could actually harm her position.For paying subscribers, we also discussed:- Hunter Biden’s legal predicament, why it would be leaking into the press that federal agents believe there’s enough evidence to charge him with tax and false statement crimes, and the likelihood that he might face indictment after the midterm elections- a risible defamation suit Donald Trump has filed against CNN.- what you do if you’re a judge or an opposing party when a litigant (such as, hypothetically, Elon Musk) promises he’s finally, really ready to perform on his commitments if you will only please, please, please delay the trial that’s about to start.Visit www.serioustrouble.show to become a paying subscriber and to read more about this episode.

There’s been a lot of legal news in the last ten days, and so today’s show is on the long side: nearly an hour and it’s also free for all listeners in its full length. We talked about the oddly snippy correspondence between Judge Aileen Cannon and the much more senior federal judge she’s named as special master overseeing the Mar-a-Lago documents, we answer a listener’s question about whether Trump’s position as a former president vests him with any added responsibilities, in the eyes of the courts, in addition to the ability to gain special dispensation, which “Real Housewives” franchise best embodies the spirit of Donald Trump’s fractious legal team, an update on prosecutions related to the January 6 riot, and a look at dueling appellate decisions in the 5th and 11th Circuits, reaching different conclusions about whether state governments can tell social media platforms what content to host on their sites.Visit www.serioustrouble.show for transcripts and more, and to become a supporter of 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