Serious Trouble

This free preview covers the sentences for the Capitol riot defendants and the challenges of trying 19 defendants together. It also discusses the legal case against protesters in Georgia and compares it to the Fulton County Rico prosecution. Additionally, it goes over the Eugene Carroll case and defamation lawsuit against the former president, as well as the latest developments in Hunter Biden's legal situation regarding gun charges.

Formerly good lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Michael Avenatti are discussed in this episode. They delve into Giuliani's drinking problem and its implications for Trump's defense. The hosts also touch on the trial date in a January 6-related case and the complications in Fulton County District Attorney's prosecution against Trump and co-conspirators.

The big action this week was again in Georgia, where 3 of the 19 defendants in Fulton County DA Fani Willis’s RICO case sought to remove their cases to federal court. Removal of criminal cases is unusual — it’s much more common in civil court — so the law on when a federal officer must be tried in federal court is less well developed than you might hope. Ken and Josh talked about the varying strength and creativity of the removal arguments from Jeffrey Clark, Mark Meadows and David Shafer. And we’re still waiting for the removal notice from Trump himself. The whole situation is a bit of a mess — expect Fani Willis to keep moving straight ahead — it could take years to resolve.In other news, we’ve learned more about the demise of Hunter Biden’s proposed plea agreement, including some signs that Republican political pressure was an important factor in the deal falling apart. And we talked about a remarkable and bold threat from Hunter’s lawyer — that they would seek to put Joe Biden on the stand if Hunter went on trial. Yikes. And we talked about further signs of the financial strain legal troubles are putting on Rudy Giuliani — and about the former president’s limited willingness to help him out with that.Visit serioustrouble.show to find a transcript of this episode, plus other links and how you can support our 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.showOkay, now it’s RICO. Donald Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators have been indicted on 41 counts in Fulton County, Georgia, and the headline count is RICO: District Attorney Fani Willis alleges this group constituted an enterprise trying to steal Georgia’s electoral votes (and those of other states) in violation of Georgia’s version the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. We’re skeptical of Willis’s plan to take this thing to trial within six months. In fact, we think the whole thing is overcomplicated and excessively vulnerable to constitutional challenge. Georgia defense lawyer Andrew Fleischman joins us to discuss the overreach and excessive creativity in this indictment, and the likelihood that any Georgia RICO prosecution will drag on for years, with Trump's own trial very possibly moved into Federal court. Not great.

Discussion on ongoing investigation into Trump's interference in the 2020 election, RICO and witness tampering in Georgia law, judge's handling of protective order, Sandbackman-Fried's bail revocation, uncertainty in Hunter Biden's case, Theodore Wine Trobb's negative encounter with the Mark Hotel, and host corrections and sneak peek into the next episode.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showAnother serious week on Serious Trouble! In Washington DC, Trump's attorneys are fighting with prosecutors about what Trump can say in public about his case and what's obtained in discovery. It's not a gag order, and Ken says what Trump's already saying about Mike Pence and others on social media aren't true threats either. Speaking of dumb things to post online, Ken’s been writing/complaining about bad, misleading coverage of the Trump cases: clickbait-y stories about potential sentences and whether or not Jack Smith’s charges in D.C. violate established law. That's the episode for free subscribers. Paying subscribers get our discussion of Judge Aileen Cannon's first sort of spicy order in the Trump documents case, and also, by request, a discussion of an academic scandal at Harvard with a litigation angle. It's an accusation of research dishonesty in a study about honesty — and now the professor is suing both Harvard Business School and the authors of a research integrity blog that pointed the issues out to Harvard. Juicy.Subscribe for $6/month or $60/year to get all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showDonald Trump got indicted again. (And this time, we hadn’t started recording the week’s episode. So we set about doing so, on an urgent but non-emergency basis.) This new federal indictment, issued in Washington DC, is for trying to steal the 2020 election. This was a grave abuse of his office, for which he was impeached though not convicted. Special prosecutor Jack Smith says it was also a crime — actually, several crimes. On this week’s episode, Ken and I discuss Trump’s likely defenses. Free subscribers will hear all of that. Paying subscribers get a lot more, including: a discussion of Trump’s six alleged co-conspirators, some of whom are likely to be indicted later; the indirect role of the January 6 riot in the government’s case, what we know about Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is likely to preside, when we can expect this trial to start (and how long it will take), and what sort of sentence Trump might face if he’s ultimately convicted.If you are a paying subscriber to Serious Trouble, we appreciate you and we’re glad for your support, which makes this show possible. If you’re not a paying subscriber and you’d like to hear all the topics I list above, join our community and unlock this full length episode (and all of our future episodes) for $6/month or $60/year at serioustrouble.show.

When Sara, Ken and I discussed when to record this week’s episode, we were concerned about when a new federal indictment of Donald Trump might drop. Naturally, one dropped literally minutes after we finished our recording session — but not the one we’d been preparing for. A federal grand jury in south Florida has issued a superseding indictment in the documents case, which adds new charges, some new amusing color about security cameras, and a new defendant.So, we re-started the recording to produce a superseding opening segment to this week’s podcast (while preserving our original episode opening, for transparency and for your amusement). Meanwhile, in indictments that didn’t happen: Trump hasn’t been indicted in the January 6-related case for which he received a target letter over the weekend, but an imminent indictment is likely, quite possibly next week. And Hunter Biden didn’t get indicted on Wednesday even though he wanted to be, because his attorneys and the government didn’t agree on the meaning of the convoluted plea and diversion agreements they had negotiated. Oh! And Sam Bankman-Fried. He’s in trouble again. Would a gag order from the judge be more effective than a de facto gag order from....his parents? Support our show and find a transcript of this episode at 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

This week, we talk about the arguments before Judge Aileen Cannon about when she should schedule the federal criminal trial of Donald Trump. The Trump team has made arguments for a long delay, some of them very splashy and aggressive — most prominently, their insistence that he should not be tried until he is no longer a prominent political candidate. But there are lots of other reasons a trial like this would take a long time to start and it seems likely that Trump’s side will succeed, one way or another, at pushing back the trial’s start well into next year or beyond.We talk about Rudy Giuliani and Lin Wood — the former may lose his law license because of his 2020 election-related shenanigans, and the latter has given his license up so he can stop going to so many hearings. We talk about E. Jean Carroll, who is still trying to sue Donald Trump for statements he made while in office — and who no longer faces opposition from the Department of Justice in her effort to do so. And we talk about Elon Musk, who is suing Wachtell Lipton, the law firm that represented Twitter in its successful effort to force Musk to close the acquisition deal he’d agreed to. Visit serioustrouble.show to sign up for our newsletter, find a transcript of this episode and support the podcast. 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

Happy Fourth of July Week! Josh and Sara and I will be back to breaking news next week. For now, enjoy this deep dive special episode about how to be a critical consumer of legal news, and hear a useful explainer of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines — helpful for anyone who has ever read the words "they face a maximum of __ years in prison."Visit serioustrouble.show to see notes about this epsiode, including a transcript, and we welcome you to support our podcast for $6/month or $60/year there. 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