Serious Trouble

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showThis week Ken and Josh discuss a D.C. grand jury declining to indict Democrats in Congress, Don Lemon's new high-profile lawyer, and Trump's lawsuit against the IRS.That’s for all subscribers this week. Paying subscribers get more conversation:* A look at a highly consequential ruling from the Fifth Circuit, upholding the Trump Administration’s novel and very aggressive views on what aliens it may detain pending deportation. Most other courts have rejected these theories — including a majority of Trump’s own trial court appointees who have heard relevant cases — and there’s some skepticism that the Supreme Court will go along.* The DOJ seized 2020 election ballots from Fulton County, with a fairly batshit search warrant that Ken is surprised got approval from a magistrate judge. Fulton wants its ballots back; we discuss whether they’ll get them and what might happen if Trump tries to get a warrant for ballots in an election where a count is ongoing rather than complete.* We look at an alleged jewel thief who had the option of going to prison or Ecuador and unsurprisingly chose Ecuador — reflecting a serious failure of coordination between prosecutors and immigration authorities.* And finally, is murder a crime of violence? The answer might surprise you.Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

This week Ken and Josh discuss how the Feds got an arrest warrant for Don Lemon after all. Before prosecutors got the grand jury indictment, they tried through some really irregular channels to get Lemon arrested more quickly. When a magistrate judge rejected an arrest warrant application for Lemon last week, rather than applying again or proceeding to the grand jury, prosecutors asked Judge Patrick Schiltz to overrule the magistrate, then asked an appellate panel to force Schiltz to rule on their motion right away, fearing that if Lemon wasn’t arrested immediately, there would be an epidemic of illegal church invasions. Schiltz took exception to this, and the appeals panel backed him up, though one of the appellate judges remarked that he thought all the arrest warrants were sufficiently supported but the government just didn’t need the weird emergency relief it was seeking.Also this week: we look at federal judges (including Schiltz) who are incensed that ICE isn’t promptly complying with their habeas corpus orders, and how this mess is downstream of rules that prohibit nationwide injunctions and are clogging some courts with individual lawsuits seeking relief from immigration detentions. We have an update on Minnesota’s 10th Amendment case — Judge Kate Menendez appears skeptical that she is in a position to provide the sweeping relief the state wants, though she does want more briefing on the threat letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi to the state. And in another case, an order from Menendez restricting ICE tactics has been stayed.In non-ICE news, it appears likely that Jeffrey Toobin will have to testify at Tom Goldstein’s criminal trial, though he has a good argument for limiting his testimony to fairly boring topics. Candace Owens says Turning Point USA has sent her a letter threatening to enforce a non-disparagement agreement they say she has violated by spreading conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk’s death. And a defendant in Northern California called up a local news station during her trial to protest that she only threw parties where she gave alcohol to minors because of COVID.Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes 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 is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showFed Chair Jerome Powell dropped a bombshell on Sunday: a video disclosing the Fed had been subpoenaed in a criminal investigation related to his congressional testimony about cost overruns in the Fed’s headquarters renovation. Powell said bluntly that the investigation is an effort to use the DOJ to assert control over the Fed and its interest-rate setting apparatus. Did this make Ken scream "shut up!!!!" at Powell's video? Meanwhile, Minnesota and some of its municipalities have sued the federal government, arguing that the ICE surge in the state is illegal and unconstitutional. Those discussions are for all listeners. Paying subscribers also get:* A look at intensifying turnover in US Attorneys’ offices, including the resignation of top prosecutors who had been leading the investigations into welfare fraud in Minnesota that was concentrated in the state’s Somali-American community.* DOJ’s argument for why Lindsey Halligan can keep calling herself a US Attorney after a judge ruled she isn’t one.* Senator Mark Kelly’s many arguments for why Pete Hegseth can’t reduce his rank and pension.* Some “shut up” news: prosecutors want to admit several incriminating statements from defendant Thomas Goldstein’s pre-trial New York Times profile.* And a look at a bizarre situation where Bruce Fein insists he somehow became Nicolas Maduro’s lawyer even though Maduro says he never hired him.Upgrade your subscription now at serioustrouble.show.

Some of the Epstein files have been released, but there's a lot of blacked-out text and pictures. The Justice Department is supposed to redact certain information but of course there’s the ever-present question of whether all redaction “errors” are errors, or whether this administration has its thumb on the scale for the president.Also in this episode: the Pulitzer Board requests President Trump's medical, financial and tax records, an LA man who towed an ICE vehicle around the block during a raid was acquitted of stealing government property, Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan was convicted in federal court of obstructing an effort by federal immigration agents to detain someone she had called to her courtroom. And Caroline Ellison, former partner to Sam Bankman-Fried in multiple senses of the term, has been sprung from Club Fed in Danbury, Connecticut. Speaking of SBF: apparently he’s transformed himself into something of a jailhouse lawyer but he seems to be about as good at jailhouse lawyering as he was at crypto investing. Finally, we look at a maybe-not-so-fearsome terrorism indictment and we discuss the ongoing contempt saga that has caused Ken to feel a surprising emotion regarding Charles C. Johnson: pity. 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: more news in the Letitia James and James Comey cases. DOJ tried to re-indict James, but they got a no-bill, and in the Comey case, the government is a bit held up by a motion from Comey's sometime-lawyer and friend. Meanwhile, Lindsey Halligan is still running around, acting like she’s the U.S. Attorney (even though the fact that she isn’t is why these cases got dismissed), but Alina Habba has thrown in the towel, moving to main Justice to advise Pam Bondi and declaring “you can take the girl out of New Jersey, but you cannot take the New Jersey out of the girl.”Also this week: charges against Brian Cole Jr., who’s accused of the attempted pipe bombings at the RNC and DNC nearly five years ago; shadow docket action that saved Republicans’ Texas remap; super troll Charles C. Johnson’s latest misadventures that have landed him in jail for contempt of court; and why an embarrassing policy report about Rep. Nancy Mace's airport meltdown became public.Find links and a transcript of this episode and sign up for our newsletter 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 is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showNow that Congress has voted overwhelmingly to require the release of the Epstein files, we discuss what’s likely to be in those files, what the administration might do to undermine the intent of the law requiring release, and whether we really ought to learn so much about this case. That conversation is for free subscribers. Paying subscribers get much more this week — a look at the rapidly increasing number of problems with the James Comey indictment, an update on the National Guard cases, and an interesting question from the Supreme Court about the meaning of a law restricting the president’s ability to deploy it over a governor’s objection. We look at a really, really intemperate dissent in the Texas redistricting case, an update on Tina Peters, and we look at two defamation cases, one where Trump has again lost to CNN, and one brought by rapper Megan Thee Stallion against a Twitch streamer who, in the eyes of the state of Florida, does not count as a media outlet.Upgrade your subscription now at serioustrouble.show

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showOn this week's show for everyone: two court decisions direct the Trump administration to continue sending SNAP (food stamp) funds to states and the administration has chosen not to appeal these orders — likely not relishing the politics of withholding SNAP funds — but the legal situation may get more complicated if the shutdown does not end soon. Plus: more motions from James Comey.For paying subscribers: legal wrangling over federal immigration enforcement in Chicago; some AUSAs who were placed on leave for daring to call January 6 a “mob” “riot” in a sentencing memo; a Tennessee man who spent a month in jail on the extremely thin claim that a political meme he posted was a terroristic threat; and the strange scandal of now-former FDA official George Tidmarsh and Aurinia.Upgrade your subscription at serioustrouble.show.