PODCAST

Serious Trouble

Josh Barro and Ken White

An irreverent podcast about the law from Josh Barro and Ken White. www.serioustrouble.show

news news commentary

All Episodes

33:41

RICO Freak-Off (feat. Sean 'Puffy' Combs)

Serious Trouble ·

2024/09/20

We were kind of expecting Sean Combs to get indicted sooner or later, but we weren’t expecting the indictment to be for RICO. Federal prosecutors allege that Combs, as the leader of the “Combs Enterprise,” led a criminal organization for purposes including coercing female victims to have sex with male prostitutes at drug-fueled orgies known as “freak-offs.” Is that really RICO?Plus: just gun charges (for now) for the man caught laying in wait for Donald Trump at his Florida golf course with a rifle,

23:49

Reversible Error

Serious Trouble ·

2024/09/13

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showJosh and Ken discuss developments in the Data Colada-Francesca Gino-Harvard case, Sarah Palin's defamation case against the New York Times (for free subscribers), and (for paying subscribers) the different philosophies the judges have about how the presidential election should affect the scheduling of the Trump criminal cases they preside over.Plus: Hunter Biden's Alford plea, the Tenet Media FARA case and whether

41:34

One Weird Trick

Serious Trouble ·

2024/09/06

You probably saw the moronic TikTok trend in which check fraud became trendy and was rebranded as a “glitch” that allowed you to get large amounts of money out of any Chase ATM, even if you had little cash in your account. It’s federally illegal, it’s illegal in every state, and “I saw it on TikTok” isn’t a defense. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean every one of these cases will be interesting to prosecutors.Speaking of stupid criminals: Jacob Wohl and his sidekick Jack Burkman are back in the

25:20

Take Two

Serious Trouble ·

2024/08/30

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showJack Smith is attempting to salvage his two federal prosecutions of Donald Trump with a superseding indictment that removes evidence about Trump’s presidential acts from the document backing his charges over Trump’s effort to steal the 2020 election. The new indictment removes the allegations that are closest to the core of presidential powers — for example, Trump’s efforts to get the Department of Justice to open a

41:06

Oh, You!

Serious Trouble ·

2024/08/22

George Santos has pleaded guilty and will likely be sentenced next February to several years in federal prison. Santos also lost his copyright claim against Disney over his Cameo videos that were broadcast on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Disney had less luck trying to argue that a customer whose wife died of an allergic reaction would have to arbitrate any wrongful death claim because of an obscure clause in the service contract for Disney+. Several associates of Matthew Perry were indicted for their roles in

47:12

Hacks

Serious Trouble ·

2024/08/15

Elon Musk has produced some new legal issues for us this week. He has sued a coalition of advertisers for colluding to boycott the Twitter platform, saying this is an antitrust violation, and Musk is also the subject, along with Donald Trump, of a labor law complaint before the National Labor Relations Board, filed by the United Auto Workers.Plus: Trump may sue the federal government over the Mar-a-Lago raid, Missouri will not get the Supreme Court to consider whether its voters were harmed by the

47:27

Hot Hot Scheduling Action

Serious Trouble ·

2024/08/08

As we’ve discussed, the Supreme Court threw a major wrench into the various prosecutions of Donald Trump with their ruling on presidential immunity. The RICO prosecution in Atlanta was already so hopelessly fucked that they probably won’t need to think about it for a couple of years, and the documents case in Florida is, for now, dismissed. But in New York, Judge Juan Merchan is proceeding toward sentencing, notwithstanding immunity being one of Trump’s several issues for appeal, and in Washington,

36:02

Defamation Claims

Serious Trouble ·

2024/07/29

On this week's episode, Josh and Ken delve into two defamation cases where Trump has survived motions to dismiss, and the close legal questions that allowed those cases to proceed. They also look at a civil lawsuit where Hunter Biden is making headway, and at Hunter's effort to rely on Aileen Cannon's favorable ruling toward Donald Trump to fight his own criminal cases. They discuss settlements for Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, and they look at the latest headache facing New York judge Arthur Engoron

31:45

Bad Week for Prosecutors

Serious Trouble ·

2024/07/17

Well, it’s been a more eventful week than usual. President Trump was shot in the ear at a rally — a shocking security failure by the Secret Service, and now the subject of an FBI investigation; there is much to look at even though there is no shooter to pursue. Ken and Josh discuss why “stochastic terrorism” isn't a useful concept when talking about law or policy, and how admonishments that people should be careful about what they say lest they inspire violence are now being thrown back at

31:23

He'll Be An Old Thug By The Time This Trial Is Over

Serious Trouble ·

2024/07/11

We’ve had some time to digest the Supreme Court decision on immunity, so this week Ken and I talked through the various criminal proceedings involving Donald Trump to discuss how they’ll be impacted. The short answer is: a lot.Also in this episode: Missouri has sued New York, saying the Manhattan DA’s prosecution and associated gag order have deprived Missouri voters of their First Amendment right to hear from political candidates. Alec Baldwin’s trial is starting in New Mexico; the Young Thug case

20:52

Donald Trump Wins The Immunity Idol

Serious Trouble ·

2024/07/02

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showRemember when most people thought that the Supreme Court would find a way to help Donald Trump without making crazy new law? Well. About that. Ken explains why the Supreme Court’s decision on Donald Trump's appeal in the January 6 prosecution is the worst of all possible worlds. Josh and Ken discuss how this snarls all of the criminal cases against Trump. Plus: more SCOTUS opinions that involve serious trouble,

32:03

This Is Going to Ruin the Tour

Serious Trouble ·

2024/06/27

We have a real parade of idiots on tap for you this week. Jacob Wohl, Alex Jones, Robert Menendez, Nathan Wade, Justin Timberlake…oh, and Donald Trump too. Strap in, because they’re all doing shit that’s pretty stupid. Visit serioustrouble.show to sign up for our newsletter and find a transcript of this episode. 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

29:18

Nathan Wade Speaks (Please Stop Speaking, Nathan Wade)

Serious Trouble ·

2024/06/21

Nathan Wade went on CNN, and had to be stopped by his handlers mid-interview because he was about to answer a question about when he and DA Fani Willis started having sex. Then, he went on The Daily Show and said he wasn’t sleeping with his boss because Willis was never his boss, but was more like his client. Shut up, Nathan Wade! Why does he do this?This week, besides that debacle: the Supreme Court’s 8-1 decision in U.S. v. Rahimi, which doesn't bode well for Hunter Biden; Steve Bannon reports to

40:50

YSLRICO

Serious Trouble ·

2024/06/13

Hunter Biden has been convicted on three federal felony gun charges. In this case, Hunter has the same misfortune as Donald Trump in the Manhattan DA’s case: were he less famous, he’d likely never have ended up in court over these charges.Plus: updates on Trump's probation interview, an update from FLorida and election-related charges in Wisconsin, and then there's Georgia.In Georgia, Fani Willis’s RICO case against Trump and company remains on hold indefinitely while an appeals court considers

17:35

The Verdict

Serious Trouble ·

2024/06/01

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showThe verdict is in! Ken and Josh discuss the jury's relatively quick decision, the path to sentencing, whether Trump is likely to face a custodial sentence or community service or what, and (for paying subscribers) the arguments Trump will raise on appeal, which courts he can raise them in, and what prospects he has for getting his conviction overturned.Visit serioustrouble.show to upgrade your membership for the

40:30

G.L.O.A.T.

Serious Trouble ·

2024/05/29

It’s Wednesday, and the jury in Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial has had his case for about half a day. On Wednesday morning, Judge Juan Merchan instructed the jury on the law — a long and boring process that Ken says jurors often basically ignore — and sent them out to deliberate. And now we wait.Ken and Josh discuss closing arguments in which prosecutors dryly laid out the facts of the case they had presented, while Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche employed the “cockroach in the spaghetti”

21:09

Rudy Got Served!

Serious Trouble ·

2024/05/21

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showHappy Birthday to America’s Mayor, now 80 years old! Rudy had a big bash to celebrate his 80th birthday last Friday, down in Palm Beach. He posted a photo from the party on social media, taunting Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes for her failure to serve a summons on him for his indictment for trying to steal that state’s presidential election. And then, around 11pm, agents from Mayes’s office approached him to

33:53

Is Michael Cohen a Good Witness?

Serious Trouble ·

2024/05/14

New York prosecutors have been using Michael Cohen not just as a vehicle to introduce documents, but to offer his own recollections and assessments of Donald Trump’s state of mind, including why he chose to pay for Stormy Daniels’ silence. Meanwhile, Trump has had friends visiting him at court — Republican politicians, some of them vice presidential hopefuls, who have made statements to the press that Trump himself is gagged from making. Indicted Rep. Henry Cuellar looks to be in even more serious

37:51

Yo Momma So Dumb She Thought These Trials Were...

Serious Trouble ·

2024/05/09

Josh thoughtfully attempted to wreck Ken right out of the gate by using the terms “missionary position” and “Donald Trump” in the same sentence of the cold open, live, in person, in Ken's office. He’s referring, of course, to Stormy Daniels’ frankly disturbing testimony about a sexual encounter with Trump, an encounter that sounded not particularly consensual. The rest of the proceedings were more substantive than salacious, with the prosecution steadily building a case through notes, Michael

22:20

Contempt

Serious Trouble ·

2024/05/01

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.showJudge 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 authorized by New York law. He also noted those fines might not be large enough to influence Trump's behavior, and he threatened to jail him if he violates the order again. Is that threat credible? Ken says so.Plus: witness testimony in Merchan's courtroom, another New York

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