James Comey has been arraigned and has a trial date of January 5. Both his lawyer and the judge appear set on moving rapidly to trial, and the government is rushing to be ready. We discuss the motions it sounds like Comey's legal team will file, which likely will be helped by the message from the president demanding Comey’s prosecution that does really appear to have been intended as a private message for Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Plus: we discuss Sean Combs' sentence and how to lobby for a lenient sentence when your client is very fortunate and prominent, without sounding like you’re saying the rich and famous deserve to get off easy.

Paying subscribers get that and much more (upgrade your subscription at serioustrouble.show):

* A look at an unexpected criminal complaint about the highly destructive Palisades Fire, in which federal prosecutors allege that an Uber driver set a smaller fire that begat the major fire.

* Temporary restraining orders in the case over Trump’s effort to deploy national guard troops to Portland, and what appeals courts are likely to do with them.

* What to make of Supreme Court’s choice to finally take on the Lisa Cook case, and the procedural split it is likely to emphasize among the court’s conservative justices as they ponder what to do with the special, unique, quasi-private institution in a long historical tradition that is the Federal Reserve.

* A lengthy and forceful appeals court ruling upholding birthright citizenship.

* Another vindictive prosecution claim that has legs, this time from Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

* And a Kardashian-Jenner-Ray-J RICO-defamation case. Wow!

We know more this week about indictment of James Comey. Maybe the grand jury vote was weak, but an indictment is an indictment, right? Maybe not. We discuss how Comey’s attorneys are likely to seek dismissal of the indictments. Meanwhile, we have some more detail on how the FBI came to be conducting a public corruption investigation into Tom Homan when he wasn’t even a public official. That — plus a discussion of Jeanine Pirro’s unusual use of a local grand jury to obtain a federal indictment in Washington D.C. — is this week’s free show. For paid subscribers, we also discuss:

* The Trump administration’s novel use of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act to sue pro-Palestinian activists who ended up in a brawl outside a New Jersey synagogue;

* Judge William Young’s righteously angry ruling holding that the Trump administration has violated immigrants’ First Amendment rights by revoking their visas over their protest activity;

* Google’s high-dollar settlement of a case about YouTube that Donald Trump already lost, which will be used to finance the grand new ballroom at the White House;

* Smartmatic’s partial summary judgment win against Mike Lindell over his stolen election claims; and

* Harvard’s countersuit against former Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino, whom they de-tenured over research fraud, most famously including a fraudulent paper about dishonesty.

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James Comey has been indicted, charged with making a false statement and obstruction of justice. Now, the government will try to prove he lied to Congress when he said he never “authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports” about the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails, even though he had, in fact, authorized “Person 3” to do this. But — who will prosecutors say Comey did authorize?

That’s our conversation for free listeners. Paying subscribers also get our conversation about:

* The Trump administration’s motion for the Supreme Court to issue a stay letting them kick Lisa Cook off the Federal Reserve Board for now, and the ways the court may try to avoid having to weigh in on the exact special, unique historical nature that makes the Federal Reserve special, unique, and not subject to the decision it’s surely about to issue overturning Humphrey’s Executor;

* The guilty verdict against Ryan Routh and a judge’s admonishment of prosecutors in the case against Luigi Mangione;

* What legal exposure Tom Homan could have faced if he really accepted $50,000 cash in a Cava bag; and

* Updates on Trump’s try-hard defamation litigation against the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.