Serious Trouble

Serious Trouble episodes:

• 05.01.2024

  Contempt

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Judge Juan Merchan has found Trump in contempt of court and fined him $9,000 — $1,000 per violation of the terms of his gag order, the maximum...

  
• 04.23.2024

  If You Voir Something, Dire Something

  The trial has begun! Judge Juan Merchan seated 12 jurors and 6 alternates in three days of voir dire. We discuss the pace of jury selection and complicating factors (that strong opinions about this defendant are common and often expressed...

  
• 04.16.2024

  Blasts From the Past

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York has begun, with jury selection underway. Ken and I discuss Trump’s last-ditch efforts to get this trial delayed, and public...

  
• 04.05.2024

  Sam Bankman Unfreed

  Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced. And at his sentencing, we saw a not-too-uncommon pattern for sentencings in major white-collar cases: Judge Lewis Kaplan read him the riot act, ruled against him on all the key issues driving the sentence guideline...

  
• 03.28.2024

  The Low, Low Price of $175 Million

  A panel of New York appellate judges has reduced Donald Trump’s bond in the New York Attorney General’s civil case to $175 million, an amount he can probably afford. Ken and I discuss possible reasons the court took this surprise...

  
• 03.20.2024

  Belatedly Good Judgment

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan was slated to start next week, but it will be delayed due to the late production of a large volume of...

  
• 03.13.2024

  DON'T LIE TO YOUR LAWYER

  It’s a hat trick for Sen. Robert Menendez: his superseding indictment has been superseded once again, this time with charges that he and his wife obstructed justice, including by directing their lawyers to lie to the government about a Mercedes...

  
• 03.06.2024

  9-0, but also 5-4

  The Supreme Court is asserting itself in matters related to Donald Trump. The justices held unanimously that states may not block Donald Trump from their election ballots on the grounds of 14th Amendment disqualification, though the justices did have a...

  
• 02.29.2024

  G.A. Law

  The mess in Georgia continues. As a reminder, this all bears on the question of whether Fani Willis and her office will be disqualified from conducting the RICO prosecution of Donald Trump and his various co-defendants over his efforts to...

  
• 02.23.2024

  Fursona Non Grata

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show George Santos is back, and Ken couldn’t be happier about it. This time, George is on the left side of the v., for once: he’s suing Jimmy...

  
• 02.17.2024

  Big Judgment

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Late Friday, Judge Arthur Engoron issued his long-awaited verdict in the civil fraud lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, and it orders Trump and...

  
• 02.07.2024

  Immune Response

  A little less than a month after hearing oral arguments, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected Donald Trump’s argument that he is immune from being prosecuted for acts within the “outer perimeter” of his presidential duties. That should...

  
• 01.31.2024

  More Than Incremental Damages

  The verdict has come down in the latest E. Jean Carroll defamation case against Donald Trump and the award is enormous: $83.3 million, or more than 16 times the $5 million she was awarded in the first defamation trial. Trump’s...

  
• 01.24.2024

  RICO Is When People Are Mean to Me

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show The centrist political group No Labels sent a letter to the Justice Department last week, and it’s really something. No Labels plans to run a third-party presidential...

  
• 01.16.2024

  Sweetie, Please File This Lawsuit

  Donald Trump wasn’t supposed to give a closing statement at the New York AG’s civil trial, but he gave a brief one anyway — and why not? There’s no jury to influence and, let’s be honest, Judge Engoron seems to...

  
• 01.11.2024

  Estop! or My SEAL Will Shoot

  It’s a big week for Donald Trump being literally, physically in court — on Thursday, he'll be in court for closing arguments in the New York AG's civil case against him, and he attended Tuesday’s appellate hearing over his claim...

  
• 01.04.2024

  The First Amendment Rights of Vegans

  It’s a new year and we’re back with more Serious Trouble. This week: the ongoing appeal in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, where Donald Trump argues he is presidentially immune from trial over his actions that led up to...

  
• 12.21.2023

  Uncivil Procedure

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Thank you for all the questions you sent in this week! On a related note: take our “explicit” content warning extra seriously this week. All subscribers get...

  
• 12.19.2023

  Justice Delayed

  We have two episodes coming for you this week, one right now and one near the end of the week. On the second episode, we’ll be taking your end-of-year questions — if you have a burning question for Ken, please...

  
• 12.07.2023

  Absolute Immunity

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show One of Donald Trump’s favorite arguments is that the presidency shields him from legal proceedings. He’s made that argument in criminal cases and in civil ones, but...

  
• 11.30.2023

  Officers of the United States

  Unfortunately we taped this episode before Elon Musk urged Disney CEO Bob Iger to go fuck himself. If we had waited, we would have been able to discuss how Musk had reinforced one of Ken’s points about Twitter’s lawsuit against...

  
• 11.17.2023

  Incitement

  Donald Trump “re-truthed” a post calling for a “citizens’ arrest” of Judge Arthur Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Normally, when people ask Ken whether a statement is illegal incitement, the answer is a quick “no,” but this...

  
• 11.08.2023

  A Whole Lot Of Finding Out

  Welcome to this week’s episode of Serious Trouble, in which Josh attempts to troll Ken about maximum sentences. Sam Bankman-Fried was speedily convicted by a jury that took only several hours — one of them spent at dinner — to...

  
• 11.01.2023

  Serious Trouble Episode 69

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Donald Trump may be in serious trouble, but Michael Cohen’s testimony isn’t the reason. On this week’s episode, Ken and I talk about the thud with which...

  
• 10.25.2023

  You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry

  It’s been a heated week at Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York. Judge Arthur Engoron was enraged at Trump’s failure to fully comply with an order to take down a web post attacking his law clerk and he...

  
• 10.17.2023

  Donald Trump's Second Gag Order

  When it rains, it pours: Donald Trump is now subject to not one but two gag orders, and the new one is more expansive than the first. Judge Tanya Chutkan's order isn’t as broad as the government requested — Trump...

  
• 10.09.2023

  Donald Trump's First Gag Order

  Donald Trump withdrew his lawsuit against Michael Cohen so he wouldn’t have to sit for a deposition on the holiday, but Columbus Day didn’t stop us from bringing you a new episode of Serious Trouble. This week, we look at...

  
• 09.30.2023

  Bribery Is Still Illegal

  The McDonnell line of Supreme Court cases isn't likely to save Bob Menendez; Hunter Biden sues Rudy Giuliani and Robert Costello, who is suing Rudy Giuliani; Judge Tanya Chutkan isn't going anywhere This is a public episode. If you’d like...

  
• 09.21.2023

  The Lawsuit Matryoshka

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Rudy Giuliani's ex-lawyer is suing him for non-payment; Hunter Biden is suing the IRS for airing his dirty laundry; the FTX bankruptcy estate is suing SBF's parents...

  
• 09.12.2023

  What About All the People I Didn't Indict?

  This episode starts in Georgia and with Mark Meadows, who lost harder than we expected in his efforts to keep his RICO trial in federal court. And we discuss the report of the investigative special grand jury, which recommended charges...

  
• 09.08.2023

  Severance Pays

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Here’s what’s on tap in this week’s episode of Serious Trouble. - The sentences that have been coming down for some of the prime movers behind the...

  
• 08.31.2023

  No! Bad Lawyer! Bad!

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Rudy Giuliani and Michael Avenatti both used to be good lawyers — or, they at least used to seem to be good lawyers — but those days...

  
• 08.23.2023

  Removal

  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...

  
• 08.15.2023

  Unfortunately, This Episode Is RICO

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Okay, 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...

  
• 08.15.2023

  This Episode Is Not RICO

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show The big Georgia indictment came out late Monday night, conveniently released around 11pm eastern, with many counts and many defendants, including Donald Trump. We will soon have...

  
• 08.09.2023

  Penal Colada

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Another 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...

  
• 08.02.2023

  Trump Is Indicted for Trying to Steal the Election

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Donald 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.)...

  
• 07.28.2023

  This Episode Has Been Superseded

  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...

  
• 07.18.2023

  Not-So-Speedy Trials

  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...

  
• 07.03.2023

  Special Episode: How To Be A Smarter Consumer Of Legal News

  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...

  
• 06.29.2023

  I'm a Legitimate Person

  The goat is back. You can thank Rudy Giuliani, who — for some unknown reason — sat for a voluntary interview with federal investigators. This week, we talked about The Tape — the recording of Trump bragging about his possession...

  
• 06.22.2023

  Don't Admit Your Crimes in Televised Interviews or Soul-Baring Autobiographies

  We’re back with another episode of Serious Trouble. And this week, Ken feels compelled to summon the scream of a goat to express his feelings as we add two more items to the list of contexts in which one should...

  
• 06.15.2023

  Luck Of The Draw

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show We got a lot of listener feedback about last week’s episode, especially about Kenny Raincloud’s take on how Judge Aileen Cannon could tank the government’s case against...

  
• 06.10.2023

  Big-Boy Federal Felonies

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show There is no such thing as an emergency podcast. But… this is as close as we get. Serious Trouble is back for a second time this week...

  
• 06.06.2023

  The Legal Brief: Beyond the Machine

  In this eye-opening episode of "The Legal Brief: Beyond the Machine," renowned attorneys Ken White and Josh Barro explore the potential risks and limitations of using AI, specifically ChatGPT, for drafting legal briefs. Joined by esteemed legal professionals and experts,...

  
• 05.24.2023

  Shopping With Rudy

  Is Rudy Giuliani in serious trouble? He’s facing two lawsuits. One is for getting a supermarket employee arrested. The other is… well, it’s for a lot of stuff. Ken and Josh discuss the prospects for ShopRite employee Daniel Gill’s lawsuit...

  
• 05.17.2023

  Preclusion

  Ken and I started this week talking about the CNN town hall with Donald Trump. On CNN’s air, Trump repeated his denials of his assault of E. Jean Carroll — denials for which he was ordered (the day before the...

  
• 05.11.2023

  At Least George Was Working

  This week, Ken and I discussed the verdict — and the $5 million judgment — in the Carroll v. Trump case, and whether Donald Trump erred, in retrospect, by not showing up for trial. We also talked about his prospects...

  
• 05.05.2023

  A Detailed Explanation of the Rule Against Perpetuities

  This episode of Serious Trouble, live and in person with Ken and Sara! This week, Ken and I talked about the Walt Disney Company’s lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, which raises an interesting legal question: When is an otherwise-constitutional...

  
• 04.27.2023

  Tucker Said It

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show *This episode contains un-bleeped profanity, as usual, but the swear jar is used once. Tucker Carlson has been dismissed from Fox News. Media accounts on why he...