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Ghislaine Maxwell has sat for a meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who not very long ago was serving as President Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney. The idea seems to be that Maxwell could offer some “help” getting to the bottom of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal in exchange for some sort of leniency. That’s for free subscribers. For paying subscribers this week, there’s much more:

* Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron’s libel suit against Candace Owens

* The machinations that have kept Alina Habba in charge, for now, at the US Attorney’s Office in New Jersey

* Another ruling blocking the administration’s effort to restrict birthright citizenship

* A strange Supreme Court order saying lower courts should do a better job inferring what its decisions on the shadow docket mean, and a concurrence from Justice Kavanaugh that says the lower courts really do need more guidance — guidance that only a more proactive and meddlesome Supreme Court can provide.

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Donald Trump has sued the Wall Street Journal over its story saying he wrote a weird poem to Jeffrey Epstein and drew a caricature of a naked woman with his own signature as her pubic hair as part of a book wishing a happy 50th birthday to the New York financier. Ken and Josh discuss the suit, which looks more like an exclamation point on his claims that he never even liked that Epstein guy! than a serious effort to win damages from (or extort) the Rupert Murdoch empire. Meanwhile, Trump is seeking the release of grand jury testimony from the investigations into Epstein and his henchwoman Ghislaine Maxwell — a release that wouldn’t be likely to include any books of ribald poetry.

Also this week: Trump’s lawsuit against Bob Woodward and Simon & Schuster — claiming that Woodward and S&S violated Trump’s copyright by publishing the audio of interviews Trump thought were only for use in a written book — has been dismissed; Trump is facing difficulty with another novel application of IEEPA — this time, not tariffs, but an effort to sanction the International Criminal Court, there’s a certified class in the birthright citizenship litigation; a federal judge in California says ICE can’t pick people up just because they look Mexican; and some government immigration lawyers have started appearing anonymously in immigration court; an extra-bizarre civil RICO suit against Eric Adams and the NYPD, from Adams’s own ex-interim NYPD commissioner; Douglass Mackey, a.k.a. “Ricky Vaughn,” has won an appeal of his conviction for trying to trick Hillary Clinton voters into “voting” by text.

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This week, we discuss the mostly favorable verdict for Sean Combs, a.k.a. P. Diddy and his upcoming sentencing. In another bizarre sex-related case, two founders of OneTaste, a new-age-female-empowerment-business-slash-sex-cult, have been convicted of coercing their employees into sex acts.

Also this week: an update on D.H.S. vs. D.V.D., a case where the Supreme Court’s orders have been fairly inscrutable and the litigants have now been deported to South Sudan; another shadow docket victory for the administration; the Trump administration’s lawless claim that it can waive the TikTok ban and how there’s probably no way for their action to be remedied in the courts; what can be done when a president extracts bribe-like payments from corporations; and we look at the trouble the administration created for itself by fanning the flames of Epstein conspiracies it now can’t document.

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For all subscribers: a discussion of the Sean Combs jury deliberations and a look at the 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. CASA that says trial courts (generally) can no longer issue nationwide injunctions. As Ken and I discuss, the ruling is sure to greatly change how aggressive executive branch actions get litigated, but the exact nature of the change is not yet clear.

Paying subscribers also get a look at Gavin Newsom’s new defamation suit against Fox News (sigh), Donald Trump’s gambit to get his lawsuit against Iowa pollster Ann Selzer back out of federal court, an update on the cooperating witness against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Trump’s weird lawsuit against all the federal judges in Maryland, and Susman Godfrey’s victory in court over Trump’s executive order seeking to punish the firm.

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More shadow docket news on this week’s show: The Supreme Court’s conservative majority blocked an order from a federal judge in Boston that had imposed due process requirements when the Trump administration tries to deport migrants to countries other than their countries of origin. As is often the case with shadow docket orders, the judges in the majority did not explain their reasoning, leaving the lower courts without clear guidance on what to do next: was the order blocked because the class of affected detainees was too broad, or for some other reason?

Plus: an update on California’s litigation over federalization of the National Guard, a look at the whistleblower allegations against now-federal-judicial-nominee Emil Bove, a look at the bail decision for Kilmar Abrego Garcia (who’s likely to end up in ICE custody regardless), and a discussion of the Trump administration’s decision (and Joe Biden’s decision) not to assert executive privilege as the House Oversight Committee looks into theories about autopen use in Biden’s administration.

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It’s been a big week for some of the dumber litigation we follow around here. It’s not all dumb — we start with an update on California’s litigation over the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles, where the state has gotten relief at the trial court level but faces a tough road in the appeals courts. And we look at a case in Boston where a federal judge has blocked, for now, the cancellation of certain grants the National Institutes of Health have deemed excessively DEI-related.

Then we have updates on Mike Lindell, who says the $2.3 million defamation judgment against him is actually a victory; Michael Avenatti, who appealed his sentence and got it reduced very slightly (rare win!); and various Proud Boys, who made the mistake of hiring a felon to be their lawyer; some weird drama at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where Judge Stephen Menashi is really annoyed his colleagues didn’t want to reopen the E. Jean Carroll litigation. And we look at juror drama at the P. Diddy trial. And — most excitingly — Josh makes Ken talk about the Real Housewives.

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Donald Trump has activated the National Guard in California over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsom, and Newsom has sued, claiming the activation is illegal. Ken and Josh discuss Newsom's chances of prevailing against the president's broad authority to use the military for various purposes. Meanwhile, union leader David Huerta has been charged for his actions of civil disobedience. One of Huerta’s legal problems stems from his choice to yell at the federal agents, “What are you going to do, arrest all of us?”

Also this week: Trump has gotten stays from appeals courts blocking the implementation of unfavorable rulings in cases about the IEEPA tariffs and the disfavoring of the Associated Press at White House events. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in the U.S. to face trial, the Young Thug RICO saga has finally breathed its last whimper, some Proud Boys are seeking their own settlement payout from the Trump administration, and the Trump DOJ is devoting a surprising amount of legal firepower to a civil rights action against a coffee shop owner / Hamas fanboy in Oakland (who, it seems, really did illegally discriminate against Jewish customers).

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In the ongoing defamation trial of Mike Lindell, who accused Dominion Voting Systems employee Eric Coomer of personally conspiring to steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump, Lindell isn't bothering to argue that his claims were true. Instead he's saying he believed them at the time he said them. Is that a good defense?

Plus: a federal appellate decision upholding an injunction against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's efforts to harass the pressure group Media Matters for America over its campaign against Elon Musk, an unsuccessful lawsuit against the University of Pennsylvania claiming the school fostered an anti-semitic environment, the Trump administration's odd dealings with the Harvard Law Review, and a look at a couple of articles about the ongoing fallout from the decisions by major law firms to settle with the Trump administration over its transparently illegal executive orders against them. We also have updates on ongoing litigation over Trump's tariffs, and a look at the seven-year sentence for 87-year-old disgraced lawyer Tom Girardi.

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This week’s show is heavy on economic policy. Yay! We discuss a ruling from the U.S. Court of International Trade that many of Trump’s beloved tariffs are illegal and then, a strange shadow-docket order in U.S. v. Wilcox, a case about the National Labor Relations Board that raises a key economic question: Does that mean the president can fire the entire Federal Reserve Board, too?

For paying subscribers: an update on the administration’s dealings with Big Law, updates about the Mahmoud Khalil and Kseniia Petrova cases, the Francesca Gino saga, and about Trevor Kirk, the LA County Sheriff’s deputy convicted of using excessive force who the Trump administration is trying to keep out of prison.

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

This week, we look at the indictment of Judge Hannah Dugan and the end of Ed Martin's reign at the US Attorney's office for the District of Columbia. For paying subscribers, we have an update on family business at the Sean Combs trial, where James Comey's daughter Maurene is facing off against Mark Geragos's daughter Teny. We have updates about new rulings about the Alien Enemies Act, about Marco Rubio's efforts to personally revoke the visas of students who annoy the administration, and about the frog embryos case. To get the full episode, go to http://www.serioustrouble.show and become a member. Thank you!