

Serious Trouble
Josh Barro and Ken White
An irreverent podcast about the law from Josh Barro and Ken White. www.serioustrouble.show
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 14, 2022 • 23min
All About SBF
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.

Nov 17, 2022 • 21min
Tweeting Through It
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.

Nov 8, 2022 • 32min
'taint tortious interference, 'taint actual malice, 'taint unregistered agency
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

Oct 26, 2022 • 37min
Serious Trouble in the Chess World
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

Oct 12, 2022 • 27min
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
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.

Oct 5, 2022 • 50min
Snippy Judges, Busy Courtrooms
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

Sep 22, 2022 • 34min
11th Circuit Smackdown
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showWhew, it’s been a big news week! Big enough that we had to record this episode one and a half times: on Wednesday, following the first conference with Special Master Raymond Dearie; and again on Thursday, after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals made Dearie’s job much easier by saying the DOJ is free to use approximately 100 marked-classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago and that Dearie need not review them. This episode covers the 11th Circuit order, what's left for Judge Dearie to review, New York Attorney General Letitia James’s new civil lawsuit against the Trumps — and for paid subscribers: the wind-down of Special Counsel John Durham’s probe into the FBI investigators who investigated Donald Trump, angry judges presiding over the Parkland shooter’s sentencing and Alex Jones’s latest defamation trial, and a civil lawsuit and a criminal investigation relating to the Venezuelan migrants who were talked — apparently under false pretenses — into boarding a plane to Martha’s Vineyard.To become a subscriber, join the conversation and to find links and a transcript for this episode, visit www.serioustrouble.show.

Sep 19, 2022 • 22min
'Sir, this is a Hardee's, and you are served.'
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showIf you are a lawyer, it is important to make sure you get paid for your work, especially if your client is someone like Donald Trump, who has very complex legal needs and a history of trying not to pay his vendors. So we weren’t surprised that attorney Chris Kise, one of the big shots on Trump’s legal team, has collected a $3 million fee deposit in preparation for what could be very extensive legal billings. Plus: we discussed how it works when multiple lawyers from different firms team up on the same criminal defense — “badly,” is the short answer — and what you should do if the FBI tries to question you at a Hardee’s.For paying subscribers only, we have a discussion of Judge Aileen Cannon’s latest puzzling order in the lawsuit Trump brought over the search of Mar-a-Lago. She’s named a well-respected senior federal judge — Raymond Dearie — as special master, and given him a deadline of November 30 to complete his review of seized documents.Become a subscriber now at www.serioustrouble.show to support our podcast and to receive all full-length Serious Trouble episodes.

Aug 30, 2022 • 28min
We Can Have a Little of the Warrant Application, As a Treat
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showDear listeners,It’s another week of serious trouble!This week, Ken and I talk about the unsealed application for the Mar-a-Lago warrant, such as it is — most of the juicy bits are blacked out, but we did learn some things about what the government is investigating and who does not seem to be a target.The government says its “privilege review team” — an alternative, loser terminology for the taint team — is already done reviewing the documents from Trump’s boxes. As such, Trump’s demand for a special master to oversee that review may be moot, but we’ll know more after Judge Aileen Cannon holds a hearing about it on Thursday.Plus, for paying subscribers: the speed with which Judge Cannon has acted on Trump’s requests has alarmed and annoyed some Trump critics. But if Trump’s objective with his motions is (as it is so often) to delay the proceedings, then her speedy responses — and her choice not to enjoin the government’s investigative activities — aren’t serving his interests so far.And we talk about Ben Shapiro, who says he was defamed. Shapiro is on better grounds than many who cry defamation — provably false statements of fact were made about his alleged receipt of PPP loans, possibly with reckless disregard for the truth — but he stumbles at the key last step: showing he suffered quantifiable harm due to the statements.Finally, at the very end of the paid version of the show, we have an outtake for fans of taint team talk.You know you want to hear it.Enjoy the show!Josh

Aug 23, 2022 • 40min
The taint team is tainted, Trump alleges
It’s another action-packed week for Serious Trouble! On today’s episode, we talk about former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg’s plea deal that will send him to Rikers Island for about three months for tax crimes — and won’t involve testifying against Donald Trump personally. We look at the legal fight over the sealing of the application for the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, and at Trump’s… filing, of sorts, demanding the return of “his” documents and the appointment of a special master to weed out any potentially privileged materials, instead of a taint team that he considers to be tainted. Plus, we talk about Trump’s difficulties in retaining A-list legal counsel, and we apologize to a listener for doubting that he’s served on 15 juries in his lifetime. Thank you for your service, Tim!This week’s episode is free for all listeners, so if you like it, we’d encourage you to help us get the word out — share it with a friend, or post it on social media. If you’re a paid subscriber, thank you; if you’d like to become one and get every single episode, you can do that by going to http://www.serioustrouble.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