Objections: With Adam Klasfeld

Former President Donald Trump likely sexually abused author E. Jean Carroll in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s, then defamed her by denying it, a federal jury found in an historic civil ruling. The panel, composed of six men and three women, reached their verdict in less than three hours and awarded $5 million.

On this week's episode, "Objections" revisits the only testimony at trial that has an audio record: Trump's deposition, annotating key passages with excerpts from Carroll's closing arguments.

During summations, Carroll's lead attorney Roberta Kaplan told jurors: "In a very real sense, Donald Trump here is a witness against himself."

By splicing portions of Trump's deposition next to recitations of her arguments, listeners can hear those passages as they apparently were understood by the jury.

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The arrest of 21-year-old Jack Texeira in connection with the Discord leaks once again raises questions about what the United States is doing to protect its secrets. This time, by all accounts, the suspecting leaker isn’t someone who even has any pretensions of acting in the public interest. 

A young airman in the Massachusetts National Guard, Texeira reportedly wanted to impress a group of teenagers in a chat room for gamers. Experts believe his online boasting could put Ukrainians at risk in their war with Russia.

Tracy Walder, an ex-CIA officer and the author of The Unexpected Spy, discusses why she thinks it'd be wrong to focus on age when it comes to mass leaks, and why she urges folks to set aside politics on the topic of classified disclosures. 

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After Fox's $787.5 million settlement averted a historic defamation trial, pundits across the political spectrum rushed to play down the deal.

For Fox News critics on the left, the payout amounted to less than half of what Dominion Voting Systems demanded, averted an embarrassing six-week trial, and would be dusted off the shoulders by an unrepentant news giant. The Atlantic flatly declared: "Fox News Lost the Lawsuit but Won the War," and a prominent reporter for Mother Jones poo-pooed it as the network's cost of doing business. News outlets on the political right largely whistled past the legal earthquake that had just transpired. Fox News went on with its regular programming, and the pro-Donald Trump outlet The Federalist simply ignored it.

Inside the media bar, attorneys were far less blasé. Three prominent First Amendment lawyers uniformly agreed that Fox's settlement was record-setting, massive, and would be too painful for the network to ignore.

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Fox has been fighting to prevent Dominion Voting Systems from landing a $1.6 billion judgment for conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election that the network aired, as the case heads for jury selection this week.

Even before trial begins, Fox heads into court with stinging defeats. A judge found, in a rare summary judgment ruling, that the broadcasts at issue in the case were false. Dominion only has to prove that Fox acted with actual malice.

In the latest episode, First Amendment scholar Jeff Kosseff explains why that standard, established by the landmark SCOTUS decision New York Times v. Sullivan, remains Fox's "only lifeline" shielding the network from massive liabilities.

Check out episode 79 for more information about what Dominion uncovered during discovery.

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The world was watching the arraignment of former President Donald Trump, but only 60 spectators were allowed in the courtroom. Some 210 others received the next best thing: seats in the overflow courtroom, where the proceedings streamed via closed-circuit TV.

This week's episode of Objections begins with host Adam Klasfeld's brief observations from inside the courtroom.

The episode then turns to an interview with former Manhattan prosecutor Diana Florence, who spent some 25 years inside the New York District Attorney's office and was DA Alvin Bragg's rival. She analyses the indictment through the lens of the office's historic cases.

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Thirteen people were randomly shot across Washington D.C. — in just three weeks — back in October 2002. As each new victim was gunned down, the FBI and local detectives struggled to track down a killer — until a tip helped them piece together the murder mystery. Journalist Tony Holt hosts Law&Crime Network’s 10-part series, Chasing Ghosts: The Hunt for the D.C. Snipers, which takes a magnifying look at one of the most devastating killing sprees in U.S. history.

All 10 episodes are available here!: https://bit.ly/3nGNev3

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Former President Donald Trump predicted he would be arrested a little more than a week ago. He was wrong, but the press has been on high alert for what would be a history-making indictment of a former president.

Still, nobody knows whether Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg will indict him — or with what charges, if he does. That’s up to a grand jury.

If this is about hush money to Stormy Daniels, there's an extensive public record about what happened. In this episode, "Objections" breaks down the forgotten details of those half-decade-old filings.

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Jeffrey Epstein survivors and the Virgin Island government can pursue claims that JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank knowingly benefited from participating in a sex trafficking venture.

The ruling ratchets up pressure on JPMorgan, whose CEO Jamie Dimon was recently served with a subpoena. Some of its former senior executive Jes Staley's roughly 1,200 messages with Epstein have spilled into the public sphere as a result of this lawsuit.

This week, "Objections" rebroadcasts a previous episode of another Law&Crime podcast, "Sidebar," whose host Angenette Levy interviews Adam Klasfeld on the topic.

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Just one month shy of a trial in E. Jean Carroll's rape case, a federal judge revealed, without explanation, that he is considering empaneling an anonymous jury.

A relatively recent phenomenon, anonymous juries became an increasingly relied upon tool to protect those called to serve in high-profile trials, including mafia, terrorism, and sex trafficking cases. In theory, they’re supposed to protect jurors from intimidation and safeguard their privacy from too much media scrutiny. In practice, whether you have one depends on many factors, like jurisdiction.

On the latest episode of Law&Crime's podcast, appellate attorney Christopher Keleher details the fascinating history of anonymous juries, laying out their benefits and drawbacks. Keleher also explains why Trump might not know who's deciding Carroll's lawsuit — but the former president probably will know the identities of any prospective jurors if prosecutors charge him in New York City.

He wrote the 2010 University of San Francisco Law Review article "The Repercussions of Anonymous Juries."

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One of Marilyn Manson’s accusers has recanted her sexual abuse allegations against him, and her sudden reversal has raised a number of questions — including about the shock rocker’s attorney.

Named in court papers by his birth name Brian Warner, Manson has been in the middle of an aggressive counteroffensive against women accusing him of sexual misconduct. The saga started when his ex-girlfriend, actress Evan Rachel Wood, accused him of rape, physical abuse and cult-like behavior. 

Now, another ex-girlfriend, Ashley Smithline, suddenly reversed her claims and asserted Wood "manipulated" her, but a judge ruled that her sworn declaration won't be let into Manson's lawsuit against Wood.

On this week's episode, Hollywood-based lawyer Jonathan Handel hashes out the latest developments — and why he believes that Smithline's voicemail raises questions about Manson's lawyer.

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