This week Ken and Josh discuss Anthropic's big win, the injunction on Trump's ballroom construction, and what to make of the block on Trump's executive order defunding PBS and NPR since Congress has rescinded their funding.

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* Covington & Burling warned its client, ActBlue, that some statements ActBlue made in a 2023 letter to congressional leaders may have been misleading, and that ActBlue’s CEO probably needs her own lawyer to deal with her legal exposure around that fact. ActBlue responded by firing Covington & Burling. It’s a big old mess, and Ken describes how this kind of thing can happen when you represent an entity, and the entity’s legal needs don’t always line up with the legal needs of its executives.

* A Colorado appeals court threw out Tina Peters’ nine-year sentence for voting machine tampering, saying the judge raised her sentence in response to her constitutionally-protected speech.

* After his car accident, Tiger Woods issued a statement saying he will step away and “seek treatment.” It’s an implicit admission of DUI, but as Ken notes, he’s very unlikely to beat the rap on DUI anyway, and this is a situation where his PR need to speak up and take responsibility may actually outweigh his legal prerogative to shut up.

* FBI agents are suing Kash Patel for wrongful termination, and taking the opportunity to tell embarrassing stories about Patel that may not be strictly germane to their litigation.

* Some people who went to the Capitol for January 6 have filed a new class action lawsuit, apparently hoping to join in on the Trump settlement gravy train.

* Be careful what buttons you click on LinkedIn.

* And, by popular demand, Ken analyzes Clavicular’s predicaments.

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This week Ken and Josh discuss Judge Lewis Kaplan losing some patience with Sam Bankman-Fried, and not just because Bankman-Fried’s mom tried to communicate with him ex parte. SBF has been making purportedly pro se filings, at least one of which appears to have been dictated to and FedExed by his mother, and he simultaneously has an appeal proceeding in the appeals court with real lawyers. Kaplan says he has to choose — are you pro se or not? And he wants to know — have any lawyers besides mom been helping with these filings he’s supposedly personally responsible for?

Meanwhile, the “Department of War” has been having a rough time in court. The Pentagon’s anti-reporting press policy has been thrown out as a First Amendment violation, so now the Pentagon says no reporters at all can work out of the Pentagon press room. Meanwhile, Anthropic won a preliminary injunction blocking the Pentagon’s declaration that the company is a “Supply Chain Risk.” (The Anthropic order came down after we taped — we’ll have a further update on next week’s show.)

That’s for all subscribers. Paying subscribers will also hear our conversations about:

* DOJ’s admission that it had no evidence of a crime related to Jay Powell’s testimony about Federal Reserve headquarters renovation cost overruns (and the surprisingly low bar for issuing a subpoena that the government nevertheless failed to clear).

* A surprisingly practical choice by DOJ in New Jersey.

* Minnesota’s effort to force the federal government to disclose investigative material related to the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renée Good.

* Mike Lindell in contempt of court.

* Mike Flynn getting a settlement from Trump for his alleged persecution by Trump’s own DOJ.

* No protective order for those DOGE henchman depositions.

* And the Oklahoma Supreme Court telling attorneys to go ahead and use AI, if they dare.

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This week Ken and Josh discuss the Afroman trial and also look at a rough hearing for AUSAs in New Jersey, as the Trump administration decides it will hire candidates straight out of law school to work in US Attorneys’ offices.

That’s for all subscribers. Paying subscribers will also hear our conversations about:

* Judge James Boasberg’s order quashing subpoenas to the Federal Reserve, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s choice to appeal that order, and Boasberg’s other order requiring the disclosure of grand jury no-bills.

* Capitol pipe bomber defendant Brian Cole, who has made his anticipated claim that the president’s pardon of January 6 rioters also applies to him (even though this seems to go against the plain language of the pardon, which applies only to those “convicted” of offenses related to January 6.)

* Sam Bankman-Fried’s mom, who got slapped down for trying to have ex-parte communications with the judge overseeing his case; Judge Lewis Kaplan reminded Prof. Barbara Fried that she might be a lawyer, but she’s not her son’s lawyer, at least not in this case.

* Defendants convicted of terrorism-related offenses in Texas over an anti-ICE action where they set off fireworks and one defendant shot a law enforcement officer in the neck; as Ken notes, despite the rhetoric on both sides, this trial was never really about whether ‘Antifa’ constitutes a terror organization.

* More hot hot administrative procedure action, with Judge Brian Murphy issuing a preliminary injunction against the new, laxer child vaccination guidelines from Robert F. Kennedy Jr’.s Department of Health and Human Services.

* And dog-fashion magazine Dogue, which is being sued by Condé Nast for infringing the Vogue trademark.

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