Shows / Serious Trouble
Serious Trouble
An irreverent podcast about the law from Josh Barro and Ken White.
www.serioustrouble.show
Episodes
Serious TroubleBlasts 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…
Serious TroubleSam 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…
Serious TroubleThe 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…
Serious TroubleBelatedly 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…
Serious TroubleDON'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 Robert Menendez: his superseding indictment has been superseded once again, this time with charges that he and his wife obstructed…
Serious Trouble9-0, 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…
Serious TroubleG.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…
Serious TroubleFursona 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…
Serious TroubleBig 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…
Serious TroubleImmune 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…
Serious TroubleMore 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…
Serious TroubleRICO 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…
Serious TroubleSweetie, 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…
Serious TroubleEstop! 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…
Serious TroubleThe 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…
Serious TroubleUncivil 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…
Serious TroubleJustice 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…
Serious TroubleAbsolute 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…
Serious TroubleOfficers 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…
Serious TroubleIncitement
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…
Serious TroubleA 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…
Serious TroubleSerious 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…
Serious TroubleYou 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…
Serious TroubleDonald 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…
Serious TroubleDonald 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…
Serious TroubleBribery 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…
Serious TroubleThe 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…
Serious TroubleWhat 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…
Serious TroubleSeverance 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…
Serious TroubleNo! 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…
Serious TroubleRemoval
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…
Serious TroubleUnfortunately, 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…
Serious TroubleThis 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…
Serious TroublePenal 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…
Serious TroubleTrump 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…
Serious TroubleThis 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…
Serious TroubleNot-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…
Serious TroubleSpecial 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…
Serious TroubleI'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…
Serious TroubleDon'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…
Serious TroubleLuck 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…
Serious TroubleBig-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…
Serious TroubleThe 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…
Serious TroubleShopping 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…
Serious TroublePreclusion
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 —…
Serious TroubleAt 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…
Serious TroubleA 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…
Serious TroubleTucker 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…
Serious TroubleWow, That's a Lot of Cash
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Well, holy crap. As you’ve likely heard, Dominion v. Fox will not be…
Serious TroubleGoat's Dominion
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This week, Ken and Josh discuss major developments in Dominion Voting…
Serious TroubleThe Indictment
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Well, this one’s a doozy. There’s a reason this week’s episode for paid…
Serious TroubleBecause I Got Sued
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Ken is back from his vacation, and there were no Trump indictments while…
Serious TroubleThe Week Of Unintended Consequences
It appears that E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump might actually go to trial pretty soon — the court is behaving like it does when a…
Serious TroubleThe Anti-Privilege of Being Donald Trump's Attorney
First: Yet another of SBF's top lieutenants has pleaded guilty to crimes including wire fraud and commodities fraud, and in the plea documents we learned more…
Serious TroubleBad News for Fox News
Defamation litigation tends to be unavailing. Many offending statements don’t meet the definition of defamation — they may be opinions, or insults, or false…
Serious TroubleA Jury So Special and Grand
Dear listeners, We’re back with more serious trouble! On this week’s show, we take a look at the (partial) report of a Georgia special grand jury that had been…
Serious TroubleElon, Being Elon, Gets A Win
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Elon Musk got a big win in the civil trial over whether his “funding…
Serious TroubleSTFU SBF
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show This week, we talk about how not to stay out on bail (yes, once again…
Serious Trouble10 Ways To Incriminate Yourself If You Really Need To
This week, Ken and I talked about a substantial sanctions order — nearly $1 million — that Donald Trump and his attorney Alina Habba must pay for the frivolous…
Serious TroubleShut Up Shut Up Shut Up
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.serioustrouble.show Ken is utterly dismayed that Sam Bankman-Fried has started a Substack…