Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Serious Trouble
NewsNews CommentaryExplicit

Serious Trouble

Josh Barro and Ken White

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

www.serioustrouble.show
Play
Open in
  • 25 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 25 min
  • English

Episodes 25

NewestOldestLongest
All5Unplayed5In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • May 7 · 23 min

    Don't Use the Public Chatbot Lawyer

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show There's a lot of stupid litigation to cover this week, starting with the lawsuit so many of you asked us about. An ex-banker who has made salacious allegations against a former JP Morgan colleague, but how credible are they? And what can you do if you are a bank or a banker and someone makes preposterous allegations against you in a legal filing, which is privileged against defamation claims? Also this week: Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have settled, with no exchange of funds between the two sides, but that doesn't mean it wasn't expensive. Matt Taibbi lost his dumb lawsuit against Eoin Higgins. A Michigan defendant who made way more threatening-sounding comments than James Comey ever did nonetheless enjoys First Amendment protection (but will have to seek relief in state court if prosecutors go after him again). Does Cole Allen belong on suicide watch? DOJ apologizes to a federal judge for not telling her a detained migrant in her court was wanted for murder (she released the migrant and then DHS attacked her for releasing an accused murderer). The FTC surrenders in its fight against Media Matters. The DOJ seeks to memory-hole the Jerome Powell subpoenas (which would perhaps make it easier to reissue them later). Gavin Newsom is getting further than we expected with a kinda dumb defamation lawsuit against Fox News. And preservationists try to stop Donald Trump from tearing up the East Potomac Park golf course to build a championship-style course. Visit serioustrouble.show to upgrade your subscription and hear full episodes.

  • May 1 · 21 min

    I'm Still Mad He Put Martha Stewart In Prison

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This week Ken and Josh discuss the James Comey indictment, this time, purportedly for threatening the president with seashells. They also discuss the criminal complaint against would-be assassin Cole Tomas Allen and Maurene Comey’s lawsuit over her firing for being James Comey’s daughter. That’s this week’s free show. Paying subscribers also get: * Jeanine Pirro’s screw-up that has resulted in Trump getting less influence at the Federal Reserve than he’d probably have if she’d just played it cool. * A wrench in Trump’s plan to have the IRS pay him a big settlement. * Roy Moore and Diddy have something additional in common — they both are failures at defamation litigation. * A well-deserved spanking for Sam Bankman-Fried. * The SPLC, fighting back. * An apology to Elon Musk from the busybodies at the California Coastal Commission, and * An apology from Sullivan & Cromwell for AI hallucinations in a filing. Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

  • April 24 · 21 min

    This Episode Contains No Administrative Procedure Act Coverage

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This week Ken and Josh discuss several big defamation suits. The Atlantic has reported that Kash Patel is often drunk and derelict in his duties as FBI Director. But Patel says he’s only guilty of working really hard, and he’s suing the Atlantic. He’s got a theory he says is a “slam dunk” — The Atlantic defamed him with actual malice because he denied the accusations against him but they printed him anyway. That theory didn’t work for Trump against The Wall Street Journal and it didn’t work for Patel against Frank Figliuzzi Jr., who accused him of being a nightclub rat on Morning Joe, but maybe it will work this time? (It won’t). Also, his lawyer did something incompetent — shocker. And more formidably, former Capitol Police officer Shauni Kerkhoff is suing The Blaze and two of its “journalists” for accusing her of being the Capitol Hill pipe bomber, on the basis of a shoddy “gait analysis” alleging that her limp matched the way the bomber walked on surveillance video. Proving actual malice is hard — as a police officer, Kerkhoff is treated as a public figure in the coverage of her work — but the journalists’ persistence with their accusations even after Brian Cole was arrested for the bombings strengthens her case. She also has very real defamation lawyers: Clare Locke, the firm that got the huge settlement out of Fox for Dominion Voting Systems. That defamation coverage is for all listeners this week. In the full premium episode, there’s also: * Even more defamation coverage, with Laura Loomer losing at summary judgment in her lawsuit against Bill Maher, and Megan Thee Stallion failing to obtain a court order instructing Milagro Cooper to stop talking about her. * A preliminary injunction telling Apple and Facebook to restore anti-ICE resources they took off the internet at the government’s behest. * The SPLC indictment. * A settlement for Carter Page. * A Sam Bankman-Fried update. * And a court ruling that says it’s legal to be a huge dick in Alabama. Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

  • April 18 · 19 min

    Call the Swalwell Hotline

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This week Ken and Josh discuss Eric Swallwell and how prosecutors in Manhattan and Los Angeles are looking into sexual assault allegations against the now-former congressman. Meanwhile, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro — who oversees local felony prosecutions in the District of Columbia — has set up a hotline for victims who may have been assaulted by Swalwell there. Besides looking into Swalwell, Pirro sent a couple of her henchpersons to the under-construction Federal Reserve headquarters looking for … something. An “I personally ordered the cost overruns” note from Jay Powell? We’re not sure, and probably neither were they — going to the crime scene is not something AUSAs do, as Ken notes from his own rueful experience of being denied an all-expenses paid trip to the Inland Empire, and the stunt seems only to have strengthened the resolve of Sen. Thom Tillis to block any confirmations of Trump Fed nominees. That’s on this week’s show plus, for paying subscribers: * Trump moves to vacate convictions of Oath Keeper and Proud Boy January 6 defendants whose convictions he’d previously chosen not to pardon; * A panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals again frustrates James Boasberg’s investigation into non-compliance with his orders about deportations; * Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal is dismissed for failure to plead actual malice; * The Pentagon continues to try to avoid complying with an order to reinstate reporters’ access; * Bill Essayli loses yet another case against immigration protesters; and * A lesson on aesthetic standing (and how not to use AI!) from the Tiger King. Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

  • April 12 · 21 min

    Welcome Home, Michael

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This week Ken and Josh discuss updates on three of their favorite characters: Michael Avenatti, Pam Bondi, and Ed Martin. That's for all subscribers. Paying subscribers will also hear their conversations about: * Trump’s emergency motion to lift the stay on construction of the “desperately needed” White House ballroom, and a discussion of why the plaintiffs’ claims to standing are stronger than we gave them credit for last week. * A Clavicular-alligator update. * If you’re going to talk about how you want to do terrorism, don’t do it in front of your dash cam. * Long-suffering federal judge Lewis Liman’s 152-page order dismissing most, but not all, of Blake Lively’s claims against the producers of It Ends With Us (and their publicists), and Ken’s discussion of why you shouldn’t sexually harass your independent contractors, even if it might technically not be illegal. * Elon Musk’s antitrust loss. Upgrade your subscription to receive all of our episodes at serioustrouble.show.

Showing 21–25 of 25 episodes