Serious Trouble Podcast By Josh Barro and Ken White cover art

Serious Trouble

Serious Trouble

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

www.serioustrouble.showVery Serious Media
Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Triple No Bill
    Sep 2 2025

    This week: Jeanine Pirro has returned to her roots as a prosecutor, but prosecutors in her office have failed to secure felony indictments in at least three cases they brought to grand juries, including the case of “Sandwich Guy” Sean Dunn, who will face only misdemeanor charges for launching a submarine sandwich at a CBP officer.

    Trump lost another appeal related to many of his tariffs (IEEPA!); Trump’s weird lawsuit against federal judges in Maryland was thrown out; Alan Dershowitz lost his appeal of his defamation lawsuit against CNN; Kash Patel’s girlfriend Alexis Williams has filed a Macron-like lawsuit against a conspiracy theorist who says she can’t actually be attracted to him; the Trump administration continues to try to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia; and we take a look at the administration’s new tool for pursuing political enemies: allegations of mortgage fraud.

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    37 mins
  • Godmother of Greenpoint
    Aug 23 2025

    As Eric Adams says, New York is the Zagreb of America. People from all over the world come to New York to make their dreams come true. And sometimes, those dreams are illegal. Today we talk about the second indictment for longtime Adams consigliere Ingrid Lewis-Martin for taking a TV series cameo in exchange for impeding a street safety redesign that would have complicated access to co-defendants Gina and Tony Argento’s Broadway Stages in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Other aides are swept up in that case too. And then there's Winnie Greco, Adams’s longtime liaison to the Chinese-American community, who apparently tried to give approximately $140 to reporter Katie Honan of THE CITY, a sum that was placed in a red envelope stuffed inside an empty bag of potato chips.

    Greatest city in the world.

    In non-Eric Adams news, John Bolton’s home outside Washington D.C. was raided by the FBI early Friday morning, apparently searching for classified documents. Ken and I discuss what showings the DOJ must have made to get the search warrant. Plus: Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s arguments that he is being subjected to selective and vindictive prosecution, an appeals court in New York threw out the nearly half-billion dollar disgorgement penalty against Trump and his businesses, Newsmax will pay $67 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle defamation litigation about the 2020 election, and a judge’s decision that Alina Habba isn’t the US Attorney for New Jersey, and we look at a favorable ruling for the beleaguered Media Matters for America.

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    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
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    44 mins
  • I Threw The Sandwich, But I Did Not Throw the Panini
    Aug 15 2025

    Judge Paul Engelmeyer has refused the Trump administration’s request to release the grand jury transcripts from Ghislaine Maxwell’s prosecution. He notes forcefully that he’s reviewed the grand jury transcripts and there’s no there there — everything of interest disclosed to the grand jury became public at trial. Indeed, the only reason Engelmeyer considered releasing the transcript was that it would serve the public interest of showing the government had been lying about what’s in the transcript. But he said that wasn’t necessary, either, because the government ultimately admitted in subsequent filings that the transcript didn’t contain interesting information. So what, exactly, have we been doing here?

    In other news, some idiot threw a sandwich at a CBP officer sent by Trump to patrol the streets of Washington and the Justice Department is hot to make an example him. Laura Loomer’s defamation suit against Bill Maher continues.

    Plus: tariffs, a look at a couple of favorable rulings for Trump out of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, an update on US Attorney Bill Essayli’s effort to keep former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Trevor Kirk out of prison, and the misfortune of Mohamed Bahi, an aide to Eric Adams who does not seem to enjoy the same protection from federal justice that Adams himself has.

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    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
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    38 mins
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